“That part of our work capacity that used to be humanity’s comparative advantage is no longer.
John Friedman, corporate vice president of design and research at Microsoft, is optimistic.
“At every point in the history of technology, things that were thought to replace human jobs have created more human jobs,” he says.
A Microsoft rep emphasized that the company strongly wants to “extend” what AI can do, rather than completely replace it. But even in its current state, AI’s potential to destroy jobs is hard to ignore.
Despite the advances made by tech companies, the question is whether AI is good enough to do the job at all.
During a Copilot trial on GitHub, one software developer complained that the AI sometimes “suggests things that are simply wrong.” Another said using the product was like “having to deal with an apprentice programmer who knows how to search on Google” and wasn’t an enthusiastic endorsement.
ChatGPT has a well-documented tendency to “hallucinate”. Generate compelling answers to questions that are actually wrong. Plagiarism is also an issue when creating new material such as code or PowerPoint presentations.
Rashik Parmar, chief executive of the British Computer Society, says AI programs such as ChatGPT are “just as good as the data sources” used for training.
He warns:
“We are all very excited about what we can do without thinking too much about the potential risks.”
Hundreds of tech leaders, including Tesla CEO Elon Musk, wrote a recent letter calling for a moratorium on AI development until the risks are properly understood. Meanwhile, Geoffrey Hinton, the “godfather of AI,” recently left Google after warning that AI was on the verge of becoming dangerously powerful.
Ciaran Martin, former director of the National Cybersecurity Center, said technology “risks undermining the fabric of our society” by making it so easy to spread compelling fake news. I warned you.
At Microsoft, creating PowerPoint presentations seems far from apocalyptic.
