Humans still provide some compelling benefits over artificial intelligence-powered robots, and that will just help keep them in jobs for a while yet.
The fear of AI robots taking up people’s jobs has been a recurring theme in lots of industries, and with the recent advancements within the technology since last 12 months, much of that anxiety has resurfaced. But most of us don’t should be too concerned just yet, for it seems that the majority jobs still currently cost far an excessive amount of to automate with AI.
No less than, that was the takeaway from a recent study authored by five Massachusetts Institute of Technology researchers titled Beyond AI Exposure. The study took a deep dive into the practicalities of implementing AI systems to interchange human labor in various industries, with a give attention to tasks that require computer vision skills, similar to those performed by property appraisers, teachers and bakers.
The report’s surprising finding was that just 23% of staff’ wages for such jobs could possibly be cost-effectively replaced by AI systems. “Even with a 50% annual cost decrease, it’s going to take until 2026 before half of the vision tasks have a machine economic advantage,” researchers wrote. “By 2042 there’ll still exist tasks which can be exposed to computer vision, but where human labor has the advantage.”
Based on the researchers, even when the associated fee of AI systems falls by 20% per 12 months, it might still take a long time for computer vision tasks to change into more economically advantageous for many firms.
The study notably was financed by the MIT-IBM Watson AI Lab, and used online surveys to assemble detailed details about 1,000 visually assisted tasks that span 800 different occupations. Based on the study, just 3% of those tasks might be automated now in an economic way. Nonetheless, this number could rise to 40% by 2026, assuming the associated fee of information is reduced over time, while its accuracy concurrently rises.
The researchers offer some compelling reasons as to why AI probably won’t be stealing most individuals’s jobs anytime soon. Although AI systems are excellent at analyzing images and recognizing patterns inside them, the technology behind such systems has hefty installation and maintenance costs.
So in lots of use cases, it’s going to likely be more cost-effective to proceed counting on human skills and intuition, the authors wrote. AI also has an issue with power consumption, and likewise creates significant implementation challenges.
One in all the difficulties is that, unlike humans who’ve each conscious and subconscious thought processes, AI is constrained to using statistical and symbolic reasoning. It may possibly still struggle to perform tasks that require implicit knowledge, in addition to some type of intuition or gut instinct, which frequently informs critical considering and emotional intelligence in humans. AI shall be unable to copy such skills anytime soon, as they are going to remain irreplaceable in lots of industries.
That’s to not say AI won’t affect some jobs. The banking, marketing, healthcare, legal, retail and transportation industries have all been earmarked as prime candidates for increased automation, as many tasks related to them are repetitive. In consequence, the humans doing them might be cost-effectively replaced by machines.
For example, a 2023 report by Goldman Sachs estimated that generative AI could affect as much as 300 million jobs, or 18% of labor globally. The MIT study also acknowledges that improvements in AI across the accuracy and efficiency of information could significantly increase the potential of automation. But for now, at the very least, the fear that AI will steal many roles appears to be exaggerated.
Image: WangXiNa/Freepik
Your vote of support is vital to us and it helps us keep the content FREE.
One click below supports our mission to supply free, deep, and relevant content.
Join our community on YouTube
Join the community that features greater than 15,000 #CubeAlumni experts, including Amazon.com CEO Andy Jassy, Dell Technologies founder and CEO Michael Dell, Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger, and lots of more luminaries and experts.
THANK YOU
