Anyone who reads texts these days has to be careful. It’s almost impossible to say for sure whether an article, a comment or a LinkedIn post was actually written by a human being or not by an artificial intelligence (AI).
ChatGPT also moves those who like to call themselves “knowledge workers”, which is actually just another word for desk workers. And what is happening right now must come as a shock to many who are sitting at their desks. Because it turns their decades-old understanding of progress on its head.
The progress story about AI was a fallacy
The narrative about artificial intelligence has been going like this for years: first ever more intelligent robots would take over jobs in factories, then make cashiers superfluous and then truck drivers, because the 40-ton trucks will travel autonomously between the world’s metropolises. And after that, at some point and just maybe, it’s the turn of the knowledge workers. Because an AI can’t actually be creative.
But this often-repeated story of progress was a mistake, as we know today. ChatGPT and similar bots write essays, formulate legal opinions, lodge complaints with authorities and deliver advertising slogans and even poems at the push of a button – in perfect English, of course, but long since also in German, as our large weekend report shows. Amazon, on the other hand, still employs hundreds of thousands of workers in logistics centers because robots cannot yet completely and cheaply replace them.
Chinese companies are expanding the AI industry – partly with investments from the USA.
(Photo: dpa)
How did this false forecast come about? Maybe it’s because most of the predictions were made by the knowledge workers themselves. By journalists, scientists and other experts. If, on the other hand, ten years ago truck drivers had been asked which professions would soon become superfluous, the forecasts might have looked very different. Because a truck driver knows exactly how complex it is to circle a semitrailer through the city center.
So now the debate is on again as to which jobs will be automated next. And for that it is interesting to see what AI can already do today. ChatGPT is able to take over standard tasks in law firms. For example, the AI can draft GmbH articles of association, which is what lawyers usually do today.
LinkedIn shows just how uncreative the supposedly creative desk workers can be.
It can help medical professionals to evaluate and summarize scientific studies. And ChatGPT even has good chances of an MBA title: The bot has already passed the degree in the core subject business management at the Wharton School of the US University of Pennsylvania.
A workplace hazard?
No wonder that, according to a recent Civey survey, 24 percent of Germans assume that AI will pose a threat to their job. In fact, she will probably first take on all the jobs for which it is becoming increasingly difficult to find people.
But is an AI really capable of being creative? In any case, it is certain that she has long been able to paint pictures and write romance novels. An opera co-written by KI was recently premiered at the Semperoper in Dresden.
What an AI will certainly not be able to do for a few years is to bring something really new into the world, to research information that is not yet public, to ask questions that have never been asked and, yes, also to create works of art, which have never been created in this form before.
However, not all knowledge workers can do this. LinkedIn shows just how uncreative the supposedly creative desk workers can be. Where actually clever minds clear up thousands upon thousands of likes with generic mental nonsense and flat management wisdom. It is becoming increasingly clear: AI can already do such contributions better today. And the liking anyway.
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