ChatGPT and artificial intelligence tools can replace workers in these jobs
Chatbots and artificial intelligence tools like ChatGPT that can almost instantly produce increasingly sophisticated written content are already being used to perform a variety of tasks, from writing high school assignments to generating legal documents and even authoring legislation.
As in all great cycles of technological innovation, some workers will be displaced, with artificial intelligence is taking over their roles. At the same time, completely new activities – and potential opportunities for employment – will appear.
Read on to find out what experts say are the types of workplace tasks most vulnerable to being taken over by ChatGPT and other AI tools in the short term.
Computer programming
ChatGPT can write computer code to program applications and software. It can check the language of the human codes for errors and convert ideas from plain English to programming language.
“In terms of jobs, I think it̵[ads1]7;s primarily an improvement rather than a full replacement of jobs,” Columbia Business School professor Oded Netzer told CBS MoneyWatch. “Coding and programming is a good example of that. It can actually write code quite well.”
That might mean doing basic programming work currently done by humans.
“If you’re writing code where really all you’re doing is converting an idea into code, the machine can do that. To the extent that we need fewer programmers, it could take away jobs. But it would also help the programmers find bugs in codes and write code more efficiently,” Netzer said.
Basic email
Writing simple administrative or scheduling emails for things like setting up or canceling appointments can also be easily outsourced to a tool like ChatGPT, according to Netzer.
“There’s hardly any creativity involved, so why would we write the whole thing instead of telling the machine, ‘I need to schedule a meeting on this date,'” he said.
Intermediate level writing
David Autor, an MIT economist who specializes in labor, pointed to some mid-level white-collar jobs as functions that could be handled by AI, including work such as writing staff letters, producing advertising copy and drafting press releases.
“Bots will be much more in the realm of people doing a mix of intuitive and mundane tasks such as writing basic advertising copy, first drafts of legal documents. These are expert skills and there is no doubt that software will make them cheaper and therefore devalue human labor,” said author.
Media planning and buying
Creative industries are also likely to be affected. Renowned advertising executive Sir Martin Sorrell, founder of WPP, the world’s largest advertising and PR group, told a recent panel that he expects the way companies buy advertising space to be automated “in a very efficient way” within five years.
“So you won’t be dependent as a client on a 25-year-old media planner or buyer, who has limited experience, but you’ll be able to aggregate the data. That’s the big change,” he said.
Legal functions
ChatGPT’s capabilities translate well to the legal profession, according to AI experts as well as legal professionals. Actually ChatGPT’s bot recently passed law exam and received a passing grade after writing essays on topics ranging from constitutional law to taxation and torts.
“The dynamic that’s happening with lawyers now is that there’s way too much work to possibly get done, so they make an artificial distinction between what they want to work on and what will be left to the wayside,” said Jason Boehmig, co-founder and CEO of Ironclad, a legitimate software company.
Common legal forms and documents, including leases, wills and non-disclosure agreements, are fairly standard and can be prepared by an advanced bot.
“There are parts of a legal document that people need to adapt to a particular situation, but 90% of the document is copy-pasted,” said Netzer of Columbia Business School. “There’s no reason why we wouldn’t let the machine write such legal documents. You might have to explain the parameters in English first, then the machine should be able to write it very well. The less creative you need to be, the more it should be replaced.”
“There aren’t enough lawyers to do all the legal work the companies have,” Boehmig added. “The way lawyers work will be dramatically different. If I had to put a bet on jobs that won’t be there, I think it’s lawyers who won’t adapt to new ways of working in the next decade. It seems to be dividing lines around people who don’t want to change and people who realize they have to.”
