The trend: The debut of generative AI made attendees at the World Economic Forum in Davos nervous about the future of white-collar jobs and the rise of misinformation.
Tech recession as harbinger: The tech industry is turning to AI as its flagship product while the layoff bloodbath continues.
The overall US job market is strong for now, but if a recession hits, the fear faced by blue-collar workers for decades—that machines will replace them—will be more acutely shared by their white-collar counterparts.
The main takeaways: ChatGPT is sending shockwaves around the world, but in its current state, it’s only suitable for augmenting human creativity, not replacing it.
- In the short term, human creativity will continue to be essential to the economy.
- AI is trained using intellectual assets created by people, so in theory, if people stop creating, AI will run out of fresh source data.
- People’s need to connect with other people and express themselves is in itself an economic driver and is what fuels a lot of the branding behind digital content that AI can’t easily substitute.
ChatGPT is a stepping stone to artificial general intelligence (AGI) for tech companies making rapid progress in the field.
- AGI could be capable of working independently and creating fresh data sources.
- It might also develop personalities that people will want to connect with in lieu of human relationships.
- The timeline for this becoming reality is unknown, but it could happen at a pace faster than society can adapt to, fueling existential risk.