Shulou(Shulou.com)11/24 Report--

This article comes from the official account of Wechat: SF Chinese (ID:kexuejiaodian), author: SF

With the explosion of ChatGPT, many people worry that artificial intelligence will replace human jobs and that we will lose our jobs on a large scale. Is that really the case? In fact, the problem is not artificial intelligence, what needs to be changed is the socio-economic system.

By Kate Darling / tr. by Phil Newell)

Editor | Liu Jiayu

In early 2023, shortly after the launch of ChatGPT, a writer named Jason Colavito posted on social media that his work was being replaced by artificial intelligence (AI), which can write content and articles for free. But Coraveto was eventually hired back because AI's content was not up to publishing standards, and he was asked to re-edit AI's articles, but was paid a fraction of his previous contributions.

This is not the first time technology has cut income rather than replaced jobs. The real problem is not artificial intelligence, but a culture that devalues the value of human labor.

With the release of new artificial intelligence applications, discussions about future work are in full swing. Will robots replace all human work? A recent study surveyed jobs in the United States and predicted that 19% of people would soon hand over 50% of their jobs to artificial intelligence. But the experience of the past automation revolution shows that this is much more complicated than simply replacing manual work with technology.

With the introduction of technology, pay will fall in 2019, and Data & Society, an independent research institute in the United States, has studied how automation can be integrated into farm management and grocery stores. Researchers Alexandra Mateescu (Alexandra Mateescu) and Madeleine Claire Iles (Madeleine Clare Elish) found that the introduction of new equipment was mainly a change in the nature of work, contrary to the widely held belief that technology is reducing the need for manpower.

For example, automatic checkout machines make cashiers busier because now they have to help customers who can't use them, troubleshoot machines and take on other tasks to ensure that automatic checkout machines work properly in the store.

Most importantly, Mateescu and Iles found that new tasks that help adapt and implement "automation" technologies are often underestimated or even ignored.

Writer and filmmaker Astra Taylor calls this phenomenon "artificial automation". In her article "Automation Puzzle", she points out that although people still work around machines, with the introduction of technology, jobs will be reduced and salaries will be reduced.

Whether customers scan purchases during self-help checkout, or employees rescue robots stuck in the parking lot, new jobs are often unskilled, resulting in reduced or even zero income.

It is still a long way from completely liberating the labor force. When robots work for us, we are far from completely liberating the labor force. In fact, the opposite is even true. In her early history of technology, historian Ruth Cowan wrote that with the introduction of "labor-saving" devices such as dishwashers and vacuum cleaners, housework became more invisible and less valued. They imperceptibly raise cleanliness standards.

Similarly, as the degree of automation increases, people's workload may become greater. For example, Ian Bogost, a media professor at the University of Washington, predicts that artificial intelligence technologies such as ChatGPT will eventually create more burden rather than really save energy. For example, in the past few years, warehouse workers followed the schedule set by the algorithm and were punished for going to the toilet; drivers are squeezed like lemons in the "gig economy" (time periods, flexible forms of work) supported by artificial intelligence applications.

Commenting on the current state of freelance writing by writer Coraveto, Meredith Whittaker, co-founder and president of Signal of AI Now at New York University, summed up the good and bad news about future work and predicted: "artificial intelligence will not replace human beings." but the cost of artificial intelligence has been reduced to half of what it used to be, and the job content is not only the same as before, but now you have to be a babysitter for artificial intelligence. " This is the true face of man-made automation.

Labor is not a commodity. Technical critics are sometimes called Luddites. Luddites refer to the skilled workers who lost their jobs because machines replaced manpower during the British Industrial Revolution in the 19th century. Now refers to people who hold the views of anti-mechanization and anti-automation.

In fact, the Luddites are not anti-machine at all. They are protesting against manufacturers who ignore the labour force under the pretext of new technology.

What is important is that the current de-skilled and devalued labor force is not due to the birth of robots, but to cultural issues. It is a mistake for society to regard human workers as alternative commodities.

With jobs disrupted and livelihoods threatened, most people point the finger at technological progress. But the real culprits may be an economy in which profits are above all else, and a social culture that despises human labour. This is the real "robot-work" conversation we need to have.

Https://www.sciencefocus.com/news/ai-job-change/

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