A new computer app called ChatGPT is revolutionizing education, but also raising questions about ethics and job displacement. Imagine a student typing a question into the app, playing on their Xbox all evening, and then handing in the computer’s answer to their teacher, receiving high praise for an exceptional effort. Similarly, an accountant in the 1980s used a digital spreadsheet program to finish a task in a few hours, taking credit for many hours of work.
Despite the potential for displacement, not all transformative technologies destroy jobs. The digital spreadsheet, for example, increased productivity and created more jobs for creative accountants. Additionally, some technologies enhance the productivity of less expert workers, instead of just the elites, offering hope for marginalised populations.
A study conducted by economists examined the effects of rolling out an AI-based conversational assistant for customer service agents. Results showed that while the agent experience no benefit from the chatbot, the least experienced and skilled workers resolved 35% more queries per hour and improved more quickly than those without the chatbot. Another study gave writing tasks to people, half with access to ChatGPT and half without. The least skilled people who used ChatGPT enjoyed the biggest benefits.
While there is still concern regarding the damage new AI systems might do to the information ecosystem and knowledge work, there is hope that technologies such as ChatGPT might make the working lives of long-marginalized people better.
