Do we need artificial intelligence?
ChatGPT has not only been taking the headlines by storm since the beginning of 2023. The programme is also stirring up many occupational groups in the working world. When you think of AI, you might first think of super-intelligent computers and robots from science fiction movies. But the truth is that artificial intelligence has long since conquered our everyday lives.
Whether we’re sitting in the car on the way to work, getting medical treatment at the doctor’s or hospital, making purchases from an online mail-order company, controlling our apartment lighting through voice commands, or winding down after a long day with a new series in front of our smart TV – how much more difficult and time-consuming our daily and weekly routine tasks would be if it weren’t for the use of artificial intelligence.
It has crept into our work and personal lives through the back door. It’s hard to imagine our lives without artificial intelligence – and that’s despite the fact that we hadn’t even noticed that it had long since become an integral part of them. In its diversity and application, it is already so finely woven into our everyday lives that we hardly ever consciously notice it. Will that change soon?
Artificial intelligence in business – employee of the month forever?
Artificial intelligence (AI for short) is taking a big chunk out of the very tasks we find tedious or time-consuming in our spare time. In a world that is increasingly digital and where the amount of data produced is growing exponentially, AI is essentially meant to help us as a constant companion, like our personal invisible assistant, to make our everyday work as efficient as possible.
You know that relieving feeling at the end of a long workday, along the lines of “finally, closing time! Wow, I got a lot done again. That was a good, productive day.” Probably no one wants to go without that in the future. After all, most people wish to be self-actualized in their jobs as well. But no one wants a job that just involves boring, repetitive tasks.
Stress and a high workload have had a lasting impact on the health of employees in companies in recent years. This has by no means gone unnoticed. The economic consequences of work absences due to health issues have an immense impact on the entire national and even global economy.
This is where our helper AI comes in, because it can reduce your work stress and high workloads, and relieve the feeling of being overwhelmed and constant overwork. ChatGPT shows how quickly this can change and how quickly we then have to react to keep up.
*According to information from “A Very Short History Of Artificial Intelligence (AI)” by Forbes, 2016.
What tasks can artificial intelligence take on?
But can it really be that simple? Less work, more satisfaction and still get more done? We want to make our workday as productive as possible and realize ourselves through our choice of tasks. Hours of repetitive and monotonous activities that rob us of our physical and spiritual energy, and often our last nerve in the process, would prevent us from doing just that. So why would you work like a robot when AI is already waiting in the wings to take those tasks off your hands?
In its applications, AI is capable of relieving us of our routine tasks, which we find particularly annoying, to an almost unlimited extent. And the best thing about it: it never gets tired, it won’t complain to you afterwards, and it performs its tasks reliably and with precise diligence. In short, you get the same work done as before, but in less time.
Automated workflows supported by artificial intelligence can also prevent human errors caused by fatigue and lack of concentration. In addition to increasing productivity, this is also noticeable in the quality of our work and products. If we stay with the current example of ChatGPT, the programme can do good preparatory work by prescribing code to programmers or suggesting good outlines to authors.
Friendly colleague or secret terminator?
Increasing your productivity and satisfaction. It sounds almost too good to be true. But you’re probably already wondering what the catch is. Is AI better suited for your job than you are? No, not at all.
AI doesn’t live up to its bad reputation. When we think of AI in Hollywood movies, we rarely think of little Wall-E, who cleans the planet of garbage and makes it habitable again. Instead we think of HAL 9000 from 2001 A Space Odyssey, the Terminator, and treacherous androids from the Alien franchise. In movies, AI often serves as a specter and shapes our ideas of robot hordes gone wild, using alien technologies to raze civilization to the ground or using the Internet to turn our knowledge against ourselves in order to seize world domination.
Should we now fear or long for the use of AI? The real danger, if it exists at all, lies in its misuse by other humans. Artificial intelligence algorithms, whether in the form of a voice assistant, chatbot, or collaborative robot in manufacturing (cobot) are written by humans. AI is particularly dependent on how its algorithms are written and what it’s allowed to learn (also called machine learning and deep learning), do, and decide. That’s why it’s important to ensure a high level of transparency and care when working on highly complex systems such as these.
Is ChatGPT already undermining your job position?
The AI takes a lot of work off your hands, but can it replace you completely? A look at ChatGPT’s possibilities shows that this will not be the case any time soon. But it’s worth learning to understand AI better and getting into the habit of working with it.
Whether you’re a programmer, an Uber driver, a factory worker, or have a completely different job, it doesn’t take much imagination to see machines taking over our jobs sooner or later. The Will Robots Take My Job website deals with this very topic and has calculated for a lot of professions how great their automation potential is. For example, the probability that a robot will take over the work of a lawyer is five percent, but that of an accountant is 50 percent.
So not every profession can be automated to the same extent. Most people are “knowledge workers” in areas such as marketing, programming or science. These professions will account for an ever larger share in the future. To the same extent that tasks are taken over by AI, new tasks will also arise that will have to be performed by a human being. This will create the “jobs of the future” that involve new, complex tasks.
Do we need an AI etiquette manual?
To really become a dream team and work optimally with your new artificial colleague, you need to get reservations and prejudices out of the way. The sooner you learn to understand how it works and how it can be used, the sooner and better AI can help you in your everyday life. The best way to do this is for companies to educate their employees about the potential uses of new technologies, such as artificial intelligence, in an understandable way and to demonstrate the added value in terms of productivity, revision and their harmlessness. This is the cornerstone for everyone to benefit from the use of AI and for a digital corporate culture. In this regard, training can ensure that all employees get to know AI in a fun way – and learn to work with it.
Conclusion: The only thing that can take away your job is your fear.
“AI can be our friend” Bill Gates (2018).
Whether you are already working with AI like ChatGPT or it is currently accompanying you privately through your everyday life, it makes your life easier. Although it’ s still a young technology, we will benefit more and more in the future from the fact that it is continuously learning and developing more and more areas of application. In the process, the value of human work will increase, as will the support AI can provide in this work.
Sources:
WILL ROBOTS TAKE MY JOB? [20.09.2021]
Harvard Business Review (2021): “Why Robots Won’t Steal Your Job” [20.09.2021]
CNBC (2018): “Bill Gates: ‘A.I. can be our friend’” [20.09.2021]
Forbes (2016): “A Very Short History Of Artificial Intelligence (AI)” [20.09.2021]
