VOA科学技术2024--The Debate: Will AI Take Away Many Human Jobs?

ChatGPT and other generative AI tools have raised concerns that chatbots will replace many kinds of workers. Writers, editors, and customer service representatives are among the jobs that could be affected².

But some people are suggesting that AI might not reduce jobs as many people fear. Instead, the technology might turn out to be more like the technological³ developments of the past, such as the steam engine, electricity or the internet.

Supporters reason that AI might destroy some jobs while creating others. They also say that the technology will probably make workers more productive⁵, benefiting themselves, their employers and the economy.

Looking for lessons from history

Nick Bunker is an economist⁶ at the Indeed Hiring Lab, part of a job search website. He said he thinks AI "will affect many, many jobs - maybe every job indirectly⁷" to some degree.

Bunker added that he does not believe the technology is going to lead to a lot of unemployment. "We have seen other big technological events in our history, and those didn't lead to a large rise in unemployment. Technology destroys but also creates. There will be new jobs that come about," he said.

Artificial intelligence gives machines the ability to perform tasks once thought to require human intelligence. The basic technology has existed in early versions for many years.

Some reports say it began with a problem-solving computer program called Logic⁴ Theorist. The program was developed in the 1950s at what is now Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. More recent examples include voice assistants like Apple's Siri, Amazon's Alexa, or IBM's chess-playing computer, Deep Blue, which defeated then-world champion Garry Kasparov in 1997.

Predictions and current evidence

Sam Altman is the chief of OpenAI, the creator of ChatGPT. Altman said in a discussion at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in May that he believes, "AI is going to eliminate a lot of current jobs, and this is going to change the way that a lot of current jobs function.''

Some people say that AI chatbots are not replacing human workers in a widespread way. Challenger, Gray & Christmas, a company that tracks job cuts, said it has yet to see much evidence of job losses caused by AI.

However, the fear that AI is a threat to some kinds of jobs has a basis in reality.

Suumit Shah is an Indian business owner who announced last year that he had replaced 90 percent of his customer support workers with a chatbot named Lina. Shah's company, Dukaan, helps customers set up e-commerce sites to sell goods online. Shah said the average amount of time it took to answer a customer's question shrank from 1 minute, 44 seconds to "instant." The chatbot also cut the time needed to resolve problems from more than two hours to just over three minutes.

A 2023 study by researchers at Princeton University, the University of Pennsylvania and New York University identified jobs most exposed to AI models. The jobs included telemarketers and teachers of English and foreign languages. But being affected by AI does not necessarily mean losing your job to it. AI can free people to do more creative jobs.

The Swedish company IKEA introduced a customer-service chatbot in 2021 to deal with simple questions. Instead of cutting jobs, IKEA kept 8,500 customer-service workers to advise buyers on interior⁸ design and to deal with complex customer calls.

Chatbots can also make workers more efficient. Erik Brynjolfsson of Stanford University, Danielle Li and Lindsey Raymond of MIT studied 5,200 customer-support agents at a large company. The agents used a generative AI-based assistant. The AI tool provided valuable suggestions. It also supplied links to useful company documents.

The researchers found that those who used the chatbot were 14 percent more productive than workers who did not use the chatbot. The workers who used AI took more calls and completed them faster. The biggest productivity⁹ gains - 34 percent - came from the least-experienced, least-skilled workers.

Alorica is a company in Irvine, California, that runs customer-service centers around the world. The company has introduced an artificial intelligence translation tool that lets its representatives communicate with customers who speak any of 200 different languages and 75 dialects.

The Real-time Voice Language Translation tool also lets customers and Alorica agents speak and hear each other in their own languages.

"It allows (Alorica reps) to handle every call they get," said Rene Paiz, a vice¹ president of customer service. Paiz added, "I don't have to hire externally' just to find someone who speaks a specific language.

Alorica said it is not cutting jobs. It continues to seek new employees who are comfortable with new technology.

"We are still actively¹⁰ hiring,'' Paiz says. "We have a lot that needs to be done out there.''

Words in This Story

generative AI - n. artificial intelligence that is capable of generating¹¹ new material (such as images or writing)

chatbot - n. a program that is designed to carry out a discussion with human beings

editor -n. a person who prepares writing, so it is ready for publication

customer -n. a person or group that pays for goods or services

benefit - v. to produce good or helpful results or effects

1 vice   

n.坏事；恶习；[pl.]台钳，老虎钳；adj.副的

参考例句：

• He guarded himself against vice.他避免染上坏习惯。
• They are sunk in the depth of vice.他们堕入了罪恶的深渊。

2 affected   

adj.不自然的，假装的

参考例句：

• She showed an affected interest in our subject.她假装对我们的课题感到兴趣。
• His manners are affected.他的态度不自然。

3 technological   

adj.技术的；工艺的

参考例句：

• A successful company must keep up with the pace of technological change.一家成功的公司必须得跟上技术变革的步伐。
• Today,the pace of life is increasing with technological advancements.当今， 随着科技进步，生活节奏不断增快。

4 logic   

n.逻辑(学)；逻辑性

参考例句：

• What sort of logic is that?这是什么逻辑？
• I don't follow the logic of your argument.我不明白你的论点逻辑性何在。

5 productive   

adj.能生产的，有生产价值的，多产的

参考例句：

• We had a productive meeting that solved some problems.我们开了一个富有成效的会议，解决了一些问题。
• Science and technology are part of the productive forces.科学技术是生产力。

6 economist   

n.经济学家，经济专家，节俭的人

参考例句：

• He cast a professional economist's eyes on the problem.他以经济学行家的眼光审视这个问题。
• He's an economist who thinks he knows all the answers.他是个经济学家，自以为什么都懂。

7 indirectly   

adv.间接地，不直接了当地

参考例句：

• I heard the news indirectly.这消息我是间接听来的。
• They were approached indirectly through an intermediary.通过一位中间人，他们进行了间接接触。

8 interior   

adj.在内的，内部的，内地的，国内的；n.内部

参考例句：

• There is water in the interior of the cave.在山洞的内部有水。
• They went into the interior room.他们进了内室。

9 productivity   

n.生产力，生产率，多产

参考例句：

• Farmers are introducing in novations which increase the productivity.农民们正引进提高生产力的新方法。
• The workers try to put up productivity.工人设法提高生产率。

10 actively   

adv.积极地，勤奋地

参考例句：

• During this period all the students were actively participating.在这节课中所有的学生都积极参加。
• We are actively intervening to settle a quarrel.我们正在积极调解争执。

11 generating   

n.发生，产生v.生（儿、女）( generate的现在分词 )；（通过物理或化学过程）发生；生成；引起

参考例句：

• There are many ways of generating a two-dimensional representation of an object. 有很多制作物体二维图的方法。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Generating functions are an ideal tool for studying sequences defined by recurrence. 母函数是研究用递推关系来确定的函数的最理想工具。 来自辞典例句