ChatGPT: Your new colleague, artificial intelligence. Can she take over your work?

Directory

• Do we need artificial intelligence?
• How did artificial intelligence come into being?
• Artificial intelligence in companies - employee of the month forever?
• What tasks can artificial intelligence take on? Using AI for work.
• Friendly colleague or secret terminator?
• Is the AI already sawing at your chair?
• Do we need an AI etiquette guide?
• Conclusion: Is AI helpful for work or a threat?
• Sources

Do we need artificial intelligence?

When you think of AI, you may initially think of super-intelligent computers and robots from science fiction films. 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 office or hospital, making purchases from an online mail-order company, controlling our apartment lighting with voice commands, or winding down the 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 they weren't made much easier for us through the use of artificial intelligence.

It has crept into our work and private lives through the back door. It's hard to imagine our lives without artificial intelligence - even though we hadn't even realized that it had long since become an integral part of them. In its diversity and application, it is already so closely interwoven with our everyday lives that we hardly ever consciously notice it. Will that change soon?

How did artificial intelligence come into being?

*According to information from "A Very Short History Of Artificial Intelligence (AI)." From Forbes, 2016.

Artificial intelligence in companies - employee of the month forever?

Artificial Intelligence (AI for short) is taking away a large chunk of the very tasks we find tedious or time-consuming in our spare time. In a world that is increasingly digital and in which the volumes of data produced are growing exponentially, AI is essentially intended to support us as a constant companion, like our personal, invisible assistant, in making our everyday working lives as efficient as possible.

Do you know the relieving feeling at the end of a long working day, à la "Finally closing time! Man, I got a lot done again. That was a good, productive day." Probably no one wants to do 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 is bursting at the seams with 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 health-related absenteeism have an immense impact on the entire national and even global economy.

This is where our helper, the AI, comes into play, because it can reduce your work stress and high workload and reduce the feeling of general overload and constant overwork.

What tasks can artificial intelligence take on? Using AI for work.

But can it really be that simple? Less work, more satisfaction and still get more done? We want to make our working day 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 should you play a robot when the AI is already waiting in the wings to take these tasks off your hands?

In its applications, AI is able to relieve us of our routine tasks, which we find particularly annoying, to an almost unlimited extent. And the best thing about it is that it never gets tired, won't complain to you afterwards, and completes its tasks reliably and with precise care. In short, you'll do the same as before, but with less time.

Automated workflowssupported by artificial intelligence can also prevent human errors caused by overtiredness and lack of concentration. This is noticeable not only in the increase in productivity, but also in the quality of our work and products.

Friendly colleague or secret terminator?

Increase your productivity and satisfaction. It sounds almost too good to be true. But you can already guess that there must be a catch. Is the AI better suited for your job than you are? No, not at all.

AI does not live up to its bad reputation. When we think of AI in Hollywood films, we rarely think of little Wall-E, who clears the planet of garbage and makes it habitable again. Opposite him are HAL 9000 from "2001: Odyssé in Space", the Terminator and treacherous androids from the Alien franchise. In films, AI often serves as a spectre and shapes our ideas of robot hordes gone wild, using alien technologies to raze civilization to the ground or turning our knowledge against ourselves via the Internet in order to seize world domination.

Should we fear or long for the use of AI? The real danger, if it exists at all, lies in its misuse by other people. An algorithm for an artificial intelligence, be it in the form of a voice assistant, chatbot or a collaborative robot in production (cobot), is written by humans. AI is particularly dependent on how its algorithms are written and what it is allowed to learn (also known as Machine Learning and deep learning), do and decide. This is why it is important to ensure a high degree of transparency and diligence when working on such highly complex systems.

Is the AI already sawing at your chair?

AI takes a lot of work off your hands, but can it replace you completely?

Whether you're a programmer, an Uber driver, a factory worker, or any other profession, we don't need much imagination to think that sooner or later machines will take over our jobs. The website Will Robots Take My Job is looking into this very topic and has calculated the automation potential for many professions. 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 in equal parts. 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. This will give rise to the "Jobs of the future"which hold new, complex tasks in store.

Do we need an AI etiquette guide?

To really become a dream team and work together optimally with your new artificial colleague, you need to overcome reservations and prejudices. 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, and to demonstrate the added value in terms of productivity, revision and their harmlessness. This is the foundation for everyone to benefit from the use of AI and for a digital corporate culture. Further training can ensure that all employees get to know AI in a playful way - and learn to work with it.

Conclusion: Is AI helpful for work or a threat?

"AI can be our friend." Bill Gates (2018).

Whether you already work with AI such as ChatGPT or it is currently still accompanying you through your private everyday life, it makes your life easier. Although it is still a young technology, we will benefit more and more in the future from the fact that it is continuously learning and opening up more and more areas of application. In the process, the value of human work will increase just as much as the support that AI can provide for 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]