Comment on this storyCommentMany staff who’re most uncovered to AI don’t feel that the expertise presents a threat to their jobs, in accordance to contemporary knowledge from Pew Research Center, a discovering that contrasts with specialists’ warnings that huge office upheaval is coming.More than 30 % of staff in info and expertise mentioned AI will assist greater than damage them personally within the subsequent 20 years, in accordance to the survey, printed Wednesday by Pew. In distinction, 11 % of those staff mentioned AI will damage them greater than it helps. But staff in numerous industries “had notably completely different views on this query,” the report discovered.The findings echo a Washington Post-Ipsos ballot within the spring that discovered 78 % of staff say it is unlikely their job will likely be eradicated within the subsequent 20 years by new expertise, automation, robots or synthetic intelligence.The Pew research, which takes a broad have a look at employee attitudes round AI throughout industries, is the newest knowledge shedding gentle on how U.S. staff are perceiving the threat of expertise someday taking their jobs. Pew’s findings arrive at a second of booming curiosity in AI within the office, with generative AI instruments equivalent to ChatGPT making waves in white-collar industries. Some staff are excited concerning the expertise’s potential to automate tedious duties and spark artistic options to issues. But the expertise additionally poses authorized and safety questions for corporations and has brought on some staff to fret about its potential to exchange them.The analysis from Pew assessed the quantity of “publicity” staff’ jobs have to synthetic intelligence. If the expertise can carry out staff’ “most essential actions fully or assist with them,” their jobs had been thought of “extra uncovered” to AI. Roughly a fifth of U.S. staff have jobs with excessive publicity, together with paralegals, tax preparers, net builders, laptop {hardware} engineers and credit score analysts.Nearly a quarter of U.S. staff (23 %) work in roles which might be the “least uncovered” to AI, in accordance to Pew, together with firefighters, nursing assistants, janitors, dishwashers and child-care staff.ChatGPT took their jobs. Now they stroll canine and repair air-conditioners.“People who’re much less uncovered to AI in the intervening time, they feel extra uncertainty,” mentioned Rakesh Kochhar, a senior researcher at Pew who wrote the report. “People in sectors the place AI could already be working to assist them in their jobs, they’re seeing extra helpful results in the intervening time.”It’s an inversion on how the adoption of recent office expertise has traditionally unfolded, Kochhar mentioned. Over the previous century and a half, many applied sciences have eased the burden of handbook labor, from harvesting crops to hauling items. AI is one of many first applied sciences that intention to imitate what people do with their brains slightly than their arms.“AI is designed to mimic cognitive capabilities,” Kochhar mentioned. “These are capabilities you see carried out extra in white-collar jobs in workplace settings as opposed to manufacturing facility flooring.”Among staff in hospitality, companies and the humanities, 4 in 10 staff are usually not positive about AI’s potential impression on them, which is among the many greater shares throughout industries, the report discovered. Fourteen % mentioned that they assume AI will assist greater than damage them personally.More than a quarter of staff in skilled, scientific and technical companies mentioned they predict AI will assist them greater than it hurts; 23 % of staff in authorities, public administration and the navy mentioned the identical.Pew’s findings align with what Melissa Valentine, affiliate professor of administration science and engineering at Stanford University, has seen in her analysis on how corporations and staff adapt to new expertise. A scholar with the Academy of Management, Valentine has just lately been interviewing executives about their attitudes towards generative AI instruments equivalent to ChatGPT.“The ones who had truly began implementation had been way more optimistic and a little much less afraid,” Valentine mentioned. “You begin to be taught what it might do and also you additionally feel much less threatened since you be taught its limitations.”Pew surveyed greater than 11,000 U.S. adults in December 2022 on their attitudes about AI within the office. In the survey, 16 % of individuals mentioned they assume AI will assist greater than damage them personally over the following 20 years, whereas 15 % mentioned they thought AI would damage greater than assist.Jobs with the best stage of publicity to AI are sometimes in higher-paying fields, which have a tendency to require a better diploma of training, Pew’s analysis discovered. Workers with a bachelor’s diploma or extra superior levels (27 %) are greater than twice as possible as these with a highschool diploma (12 %) to see essentially the most publicity.Skills equivalent to essential pondering, writing, science and arithmetic are key in roles which have better publicity to AI, the report discovered. Mechanical expertise, equivalent to sustaining tools, are extra essential in roles with much less publicity.In 2022, staff in essentially the most uncovered jobs earned $33 per hour, on common, in contrast with $20 in jobs with the least quantity of publicity, in accordance to Pew’s report.“The most uncovered staff earn greater than the least uncovered staff regardless of their demographic attribute,” the report states.Because ladies have a tendency to have jobs which might be much less centered on bodily labor, they’re extra possible to have greater publicity to AI, Pew’s report discovered, with 21 % of girls in roles with essentially the most publicity to AI in contrast with 17 % of males.It’s a related conclusion to one other report launched Wednesday, from the McKinsey Global Institute, which discovered that extra ladies than males stand to lose their jobs by the tip of the last decade due to the rise of synthetic intelligence and automation. The report mentioned almost one-third of hours labored within the United States might be automated by 2030.There’s additionally a racial cut up, Pew’s report discovered, with Asian and White staff experiencing extra publicity to AI than Black and Hispanic staff.Matt Beane, an assistant professor of expertise administration on the University of California at Santa Barbara and a scholar with the Academy of Management, mentioned that many organizations and people are “working laborious to form a constructive view” of synthetic intelligence. Concerns being voiced have a tendency to deal with harms “we’re already experiencing,” Beane mentioned, together with misinformation, bias, political manipulation, and the way the expertise may compound focus of wealth, standing and privilege. Down the road, staff may push again.“Higher-paid staff have a tendency to have extra energy and standing,” Beane mentioned. “I’ve proof in my very own analysis on robotic surgical procedure that they’ll use this to sluggish or block adoption of recent applied sciences when a sooner shift would undermine their pursuits.”Gift this textGift Article
https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2023/07/26/ai-worker-attitudes-pew-research-survey/
Workers don’t feel AI is a threat to their jobs yet, Pew survey finds
