Artificial Intelligence (AI) has been the talk of the town recently. From OpenAI’s ChatGPT to Galaxy AI in the newest Samsung Galaxy S24 series, it’s hard not to think about or avoid AI in today’s world.
One common fear with AI is that it will eventually take some of, if not most, of our jobs away one day.
However, MIT researchers suggest AI might not take away all our jobs just yet. In a recent study from MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL), researchers looked at how practical it was for AI to perform certain visual roles in the workplace. They also explored how likely businesses currently are to replace workers with AI.
According to TechCrunch, MIT researchers found that many jobs previously considered at risk due to AI aren’t. And that it’s presently not “economically beneficial” to automate some of these jobs.
The study focused on jobs that require “visual analysis,” such as a manufacturing job that requires inspecting products for quality assurance at the end of an assembly line. These jobs could potentially be impacted by AI “Computer Vision.”
“While 36% of jobs in U.S. non-farm businesses have at least one task that is exposed to computer vision, only 8% (23% of them) have at least one task that is economically attractive for their firm to automate,” MIT researchers state on page 12 of its report.
TechCrunch also notes that MIT researchers didn’t look at the impact that image-generating models, like ChatGPT, might have on workers’ jobs and the economy. It also didn’t look at how AI can augment jobs rather than replace them.
MIT found that “AI job displacement will be substantial, but also gradual – and therefore there is room for policy and retraining to mitigate unemployment impacts,” the study stated.
When it comes to AI, there are a lot of factors for researchers to consider. MIT focused on jobs that AI Computer Vision could impact. I’m sure there will be many different views and studies on AI in the coming weeks, months, and years that will try to assess and determine its effect on jobs and the global economy. But for now, MIT researchers think the change will be gradual and that not too many jobs are at risk — at least not yet.
Image credit: Tesla
Sources: MIT CSAIL Via: TechCrunch
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