- [Narrator] The idea of robots taking human jobs
might bring to mind a scene like this.
But it's not hardware
that has white collar workers concerned.
It's rapidly advancing software,
since artificial intelligence is doing a lot more
than finishing emails.
- Perhaps the biggest nightmare
is the looming new industrial revolution.
- The erosion of the middle class.
Already one of America's most serious problems,
could get much worse with AI if we ignore it.
- [Narrator] Here's how AI is already taking over tasks
at white collar jobs, and why employees and companies
are both excited and concerned for the future of work.
Generative AI can auto complete your sentences,
write feature length films,
or organize your calendar.
And tools using it like ChatGPT
are taking on an increasing role in white collar work.
They can create first drafts of documents,
presentations, images, video, and product designs.
Currently, 25% of work tasks could be automated
by AI in the US according to Goldman Sachs research.
Generative AI helped make this ad, and this one too.
The company advertised here said creating the image
for this AI generated ad cost about 10 times less
than traditional methods.
- This works much in the same way as other kinds of AI,
which are using statistical methods
on large amounts of data,
processing that through computational power,
and then generating out a computer vision system
that says this image looks a lot like these other cats
that I've been trained on.
Generative AI is functionally very similar.
- [Narrator] It goes beyond creating images.
Alphabet is now using AI to run
anti-money laundering surveillance programs
at banks like HSBC, and says it's cutting out human error.
- [Presenter] And when the transactional data
and illicit behaviors change, as they do,
so does the AML AI engine.
- [Narrator] For some tech companies,
AI is contributing to job cuts.
A May report said nearly 4,000 tech workers
lost their jobs to AI.
Artificial Intelligence is also
eliminating future positions.
Take IBM as an example.
Its CEO said the company could replace workers with AI.
- I do believe that AI is going to replace a lot
of what I'm calling white collar clerical jobs.
So the ones that are much more repetitive,
the ones that people do the same task
again and again and again,
I think a good 30% of those roles
could go away over five years.
- Companies are making evaluations about future hiring
on the basis of what they project AI to be capable of doing.
That's a much more tenuous area.
- [Narrator] An IBM spokesman said the company
was still hiring for thousands of positions.
- I think that what we've seen in past deployments of AI
is that it's frequently used as a justification for layoffs,
but it doesn't necessarily mean
that it is effectively replacing
what human workers are capable of,
or that it's increasing workers' productivity.
- [Narrator] Dropbox laid off 16% of its workforce in April,
but not to replace workers.
Like IBM, it said it wanted to invest more in AI,
which meant cutting elsewhere.
- So we see demand growing for these products a lot faster
than we could have anticipated,
and I think you could have seen the technology coming
but just the way that the interest went vertical
is something that's way ahead of schedule
from our expectations.
- [Narrator] At OpenAI, execs say there may be more work.
- I think that like the kind of sum total
of what is going to be needed to make use of the technology
as a maximally productive technology,
and kind of inflect that productivity curve
up in the world will actually require
more man hours on top than you think.
- But across industries, workers and executives
are cautiously looking ahead.
AI's role in television and film production
is a key point of negotiations
between the Writers Guild of America and the studios.
(protesters chanting)
Speaking to the "Wall Street Journal" about the strike,
the co-showrunner for the "Handmaid's Tale"
laid out the writers union's concerns.
- You know, we could tell from the negotiations
that the studios wanted, to had a plan,
and we could deduce that that plan was probably
one writer in a room with one or two machines
creating an entire show.
- [Narrator] Studios have said they're committed
to discussing the use of AI with the WGA.
- The WGA strike I think is a really important moment
to be paying attention to because it's a place where workers
have taken the forefront in putting AI
at the front and center of their negotiations
about their working conditions.
- If it's coming for us, the creators of imaginary worlds,
it is literally going to come for everyone.
- [Narrator] But there may still be time to figure out
how to best integrate AI into the workplace.
- So I think it's really important
that in the present moment, we preserve space
for a public conversation around the deployment
of AI systems that ensures that they're working
in the public interest, in workers' interest,
and as well as in employers' interest.
(upbeat bright music)