One feature of the ongoing debates around Generative AI is that almost everything seems to be contested. While the big tech companies are ever bullish about the prospects for their new applications, controversy continues about the wider societal impact of these tools, including on education and employment.
Despite the initial concerns of the impact of Generative AI on employment, it seemed that fears were overblown although this may now be changing. Even so replacement of staff by AI may depend not just on sectors and occupations but all on the organisation and size of companies. Of course the motivation of companies to invest in AI is to increase profits. And it may be that the scale of organisational and work flow change required to introduce more AI has led to smaller companies holding back, was indeed with the ongoing doubts about the reliability of Generative AI applications. However there are signs of increasing use of AI in the software industry, albeit for boosting the speed to developing code, leading to higher productivity, and with more aggressive companies like Meta’s CEO Zuckerberg saying AI will replace mid-level engineers at Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp by 2025. Zuckerberg recently said that Meta and other tech companies are working on developing AI systems that are able to do complex coding with minimum human interactions. There is little doubt that creative jobs in the media film and advertising industries are coming under pressure with the increasing adoption of AI. The World Economic Forum (WEF) recently released its Future of Jobs Report 2025, including the finding that 40 percent of companies plan workforce reductions due to AI automation. But the report also finds that AI could create 170 million new jobs globally while eliminating 92 million positions, resulting in a net increase of 78 million jobs by 2030. Of course the key word here is “could”.
There are two ned developments which are worrying for future jobs. The first is AI agents which are the latest products from the big tech industry. These are designed to split up work tasks and undertake the tasks semi autonomously. But for all the hype t remains to be seen how effective such agents might be. And the second is the increasingly use of AI for training robots. Robots have previously been difficult and expensive to train. AI may substantially reduce the cost of training leading to a new wave of automation in many industries.
But all this is speculations and finding reliable research remains a challenge. From an education and training perspective it seems to point to the importance of AI literacy *as an extension of digital literacy) and the need to ramp up continuing training for employees whose work is changing as a result of AI. Interestingly the WEF report found that 77 percent of surveyed firms will launch retraining programs to help current workers collaborate with AI systems between 2025 and 2030.
About the Image
'Web of Influence I' is part of the artist's series, 'The Bigger Picture': exploring themes of digital doubles, surveillance, omnipresence, ubiquity, and interconnectedness. Adobe FireFly was used in the production of this image, using consented original material as input for elements of the images. Elise draws on a wide range of her own artwork from the past 20 years as references for style and composition and uses Firefly to experiment with intensity, colour/tone, lighting, camera angle, effects, and layering.
