People are worried about artificial intelligence (AI) taking away jobs in some fields, but perhaps the rise of AI is just a new cycle of a loop.
Workers who can "shake hands" with machines are the first to overcome the current AI "storm" - Photo: AFP
Human civilization has witnessed many cycles: new generations of production tools are born, causing many old jobs to be forgotten and new jobs to appear.
Double concern for workers
Recently, a series of businesses, even many local governments, have announced plans to cut staff to save costs. On February 26, the official in charge of finance of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (China) Paul Chan announced the reduction of 10,000 civil servant positions by April 2027. This is part of Hong Kong's efforts to cut public spending after a period of economic gloom.
Not long before, on February 24, DBS - the largest bank in Southeast Asia by assets - also announced to cut up to 4,000 seasonal jobs in the next three years. The main reason given was that these jobs could soon be taken over by AI.
What both cases have in common is that the job cuts were announced alongside future investments in AI. Chan’s February 26 speech showed that despite the cuts in public spending, Hong Kong has set aside HK$1 billion ($129 million) to build an AI research and development institute.
The special administrative region also set up a technology innovation and development fund of up to HK$10 billion (US$1.29 billion) to invest in "industries of future strategic importance".
Meanwhile, DBS CEO Piyush Gupta also said the bank will open 1,000 AI-related jobs.
The wave of cuts comes as the global economy has yet to fully recover from the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. Hong Kong’s budget deficit is expected to hit HK$87.2 billion ($11.2 billion) in fiscal year 2024-25, marking the third consecutive year the city has spent more than it has earned. Now, AI is emerging with the promise of replacing some of its workforce with lower costs and greater efficiency.
The wave is so strong that even highly educated people are not safe. On March 3, the National Statistics Office of Korea announced surprising data: up to 29.6% of PhDs in this country are... unemployed. This shows that quality, high-paying jobs are rare in the gloomy economic context.
More alarmingly, a report by the Bank of Korea also suggested that highly educated people are more threatened by AI because AI can perform their analytical or thinking tasks better. The agency warned: "High-income workers with high education are more vulnerable to AI and are at higher risk of being replaced."
Don't worry too much.
It’s still too early to predict exactly how AI will impact the labor market. A recent report from Goldman Sachs suggested that the technology could automate the equivalent of 300 million full-time workers globally, making many white-collar jobs such as supervisors and middle managers obsolete.
However, the Bank of Korea emphasized that in addition to replacing some job positions, AI can also create many other career opportunities, typically AI development engineers. This issue is no longer new and has become a rule when new labor tools eliminate old jobs and create new jobs.
In fact, according to the Economist, up to 60% of jobs in the US today did not exist in the 1940s. The first looms made it difficult for many traditional weavers to compete, but a significant number became factory workers.
As personal computers became more popular, manual bookkeeping or typewriter work was no longer a place, but countless new jobs were created. The key to "survival" in such transitional moments is always to promptly update your personal skill set.
The strength of AI in particular and machines in general is to detect rules and come up with corresponding solutions, which means they are good at applying one solution to many similar problems. Understanding this characteristic, people who are flexible, have good judgment and skillfully solve many complex problems will be difficult to replace by AI.
MIT economist David Autor gives the example of people who used to work in an office job being able to flexibly transition into “AI supervisors,” focusing on evaluating and editing AI output. In some cases, they also act as “gatekeepers,” weeding out information fabricated by AI.
Meanwhile, Rajeev Rajan, CTO of Atlassian Software, believes that AI will help differentiate between quality workers and the rest. AI tools can give software engineers weeks to invest in creative work, something that AI cannot really do.
Some new lawyers will have less to worry about and more time to talk to clients. AI opens up a lot of possibilities, and the top factor that determines whether a job is successful or not is the individual's initiative.
“The biggest beneficiaries will be really smart people who are bored with repetitive analytical work. The skill that will be most rewarded in the short term is the ability to innovate new ways to use AI,” the head of a major investment firm told the Economist.
AI Helps Separate the Good From the Rest
Through a long-term survey, the Economist magazine asserted that AI can open up a future where talented people will be more respected. The evaluation of AI results requires professional experience and good judgment, making those who are already capable "like tigers with wings".
“AI amplifies and complicates social problems associated with labor, but it is not a reset button or a magic bullet to solve problems. While technology can change work, it cannot erase the complex emotions people feel about work,” said Emma Goldberg, a reporter for the New York Times.
Source: https://tuoitre.vn/sinh-ton-trong-ky-nguyen-ai-troi-sinh-voi-at-se-sinh-co-20250304095912629.htm
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