Technology & innovation
Just how many jobs will AI eliminate? It's a question many business leaders have tried to dodge for months.
In recent days, CEOs have begun "saying the quiet part out loud," according to The Wall Street Journal.
Jim Farley, CEO of Ford Motor Company, recently said AI is “going to replace literally half of all white-collar workers in the U.S.”
AI will leave a lot of white-collar people behind.”
JPMorgan Chase CEO Marianne Lake recently "told investors …. she could see its operations head count falling by 10% in the coming years as the company uses new AI tools."
Amazon CEO Andy Jassy recently told employees he expects Amazon's “overall corporate workforce to be smaller in the coming years because of the “once-in-a-lifetime” AI technology.” (Jassy also told CNBC's Jim Kramer that while "there will be fewer people doing some of the jobs" that AI automates, "there’s going to be other jobs.”)
Other tech and business leaders believe “fears are overblown.” OpenAI COO Brad Lightcap told The New York Times that “he doesn’t believe the impact to entry-level workers will be as swift and sweeping as some predict.”
Read more via The Wall Street Journal, CNBC, Tom's Hardware
A new ResumeBuilder.com survey suggests managers are increasingly relying on AI when it comes to making decisions on "who gets promoted and fired."
Highlights from ResumeBuilder.com's survey of more than 1,300 U.S. managers:
65% of managers said they "use AI tools at work," and 94% of those managers say they "use them to make decisions about the people who report to them."
Of managers who say they use AI to make decisions about those who report to them, 78% say they "use AI to determine raises," while 77% use AI for decisions around promotions, 66% use AI to make decisions around layoffs and 64% use AI when making decisions on terminations.
Over 20% of managers who use AI to make decisions about direct reports say they "allow AI to make decisions without human input either all the time (5%) or often (16%)."
Only a third (32%) of managers who say they are using AI to manage direct reports say they have "received any formal AI training" on " ethically using AI in managing people." (43% say they have received only "informal guidance," while 24% say they have "received no training at all.")
Almost half of managers say they have been “tasked with assessing if AI can replace their reports.”
Read more via ResumeBuilder.com
Amazon will soon be "using more robots than humans in its warehouses." According to The Wall Street Journal, Amazon "now counts more than one million" robots across its facilities. Robots are "plucking items from shelves" while "wheeled droids … motor around the floors ferrying the goods for packaging" and "automated systems help sort the items." 75% of Amazon deliveries around the world are "assisted in some way by robotics." (The Wall Street Journal)
A Long Island, New York construction site has deployed a $100,000 robodog named Spot. The "mechanical mutt" (made by Boston Dynamics) spends his days walking around job sites to make sure workers are getting the job done efficiently and safely. Suffolk Construction told the New York Post that Spot is being used at their South Shore Hospital construction site where a new wing is being built. Spot “primarily conducts walkthroughs on the property that would conventionally be delegated to someone like a project manager, to create a “Google Street”-esque map that owners can refer to upon the job’s completion.” (New York Post)
With farm hands in short supply, farmers have become increasingly reliant on chemical weed killers. Startup Aigen now wants robots to replace chemical weed killers. Aigen's solar-powered autonomous robots are roaming California cotton fields, using artificial intelligence to tackle weeds. Aigen hopes its Element robotic solution can "save farmers money, help the environment and keep harmful chemicals out of food." Aigen's founder says the robotic system "mimics how humans work." As for whether Element will take away jobs from humans, Aigen says its vision is for "workers who once toiled in the heat to be "upskilled" to monitor and troubleshoot robots." (Techxplore)
