Fear and doubt about AI’s role in the workplace
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With wild advances in artificial intelligence coming at us fast, WIRED's resident AI expert takes a look at worker’s views on the technology.
Are you concerned about AI’s potential impacts? Have your say in the comments section.
Workers are worried about their bosses embracing AI
The Pew Research Center , a nonpartisan think tank that tracks public opinion, released a report on how workers feel about AI.
The technology has become an increasingly common workplace fixture over the past few years. And its role is likely to grow as AI becomes more capable, thanks to advances such as the large language models, like GPT-4, that gave us ChatGPT and a growing number of other tools.
While there’s no shortage of reports about people’s attitudes toward AI, Pew’s data is sizable and relatively fresh, drawing from 11,004 US adults who were consulted between December 12 and 18 of last year—just as ChatGPT mania was taking hold after its release at the end of November.
The report suggests that most workers expect AI to transform hiring, firing, and evaluations. Many people report feeling uncertain about what those changes might look like, and concerned about AI’s potential impacts.
Some 68 percent of those polled said they expect AI to have a major impact on jobholders over the next 20 years. Curiously though, only 28 percent said they thought AI would affect them personally, while 38 percent were unsure what the outcome might be for their own work.
Those responses reflect the fact that nobody really knows how AI will change jobs and work in the coming years. The technology is evolving quickly, and its impact often differs greatly between industries and even roles.
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