Martin Howard
Artificial Intelligence or AI has been the rave lately. Whether it’s RPA, ChatGPT, or a slew of other forms of AI.
Are you certain that your job is secure? Or will you be replaced by AI too?
I recently read the article Massive Layoffs Coming In 2024 As AI To Replace Workers. As someone who works at a software company, I’ve had to ask myself if I felt my job was at risk.
If you haven’t heard of Robotic Process Automation (RPA) or Chat Generative Pre-trained Transformer (ChatGPT), I’ll give you a brief overview of them. But there’s a lot more to them than what I’ll be able to cover in this article.
These AI software programs should concern you, especially if your job is reliant on a computer. And if you’re thinking to yourself, I won’t work on a computer so I’m safe. Think again.
Why? Because AI is software. And software tells hardware (including robots) what to do.
As I mentioned before, RPA and ChatGPT are far from the only AI programs that are currently working to replace human intervention. But since they’re rather common, we’ll focus on them.
What are they and what do they do?
RPA is a software bot that’s programmed to complete menial tasks on a computer.
In layman’s terms, it’s the process of creating software “bots” to replace tasks (not necessarily repetitive) that humans currently perform. It requires an RPA engineer to program it and then give it instructions on what to do. After that, it can function autonomously in the background.
It’s quite helpful because it makes life a bit easier for the user. The proponents of it will state that it’s about reducing/removing remedial tasks. That also means that a human is no longer required to perform those tasks. Job elimination or “redesignation.”
On the other hand, ChatGPT is an AI program that can research and create content (videos, pictures, articles, etc.) on its own. Some content creators (to their ignorance in my mind) sing the praises of this software.
If your job includes any of the following tasks, it’s probably at risk of a hostile takeover by AI.
Write/Create
As a writer myself, it’s troubling. I love using Grammarly as an AI tool to help in my writing. But I don’t want any AI to write something for me.
Do you remember the strike by the Hollywood writers last year (2023)? For five months, members of the Writers Guild of America (WGA) were in protest. And it was for more than just money.
One of their demands included ensuring that AI will only be used as a tool and not a replacement.
According to its maker (OpenAI), ChatGPT is “a language model trained to produce text. ChatGPT was optimized for dialogue by using Reinforcement Learning with Human Feedback (RLHF) – a method that uses human demonstrations and preference comparisons to guide the model toward desired behavior.”
In other words, it creates (produces) text on its own.
The Hollywood writers could see the writing on the wall. To protect their livelihood, they made sure to get it in writing that (at least for now) AI would not be allowed to replace them.
History has shown us that, for many of us, it’s only a matter of time before we’re replaced by a piece of equipment (via AI).
As I mentioned above, ChatGPT can do a lot more than that. Recently, I received an email that contained an offering of ChatGPT for Project Management.
Copy and Paste
Even though we are nearly a quarter of the way through the 21st century, many companies still have computer systems that don’t communicate with each other.
I say it that way because, with the speed at which technology has advanced, one would think this would no longer be an issue. But it is. And that’s not a bad thing.
For the time being, human intervention is required to transmit data between the various systems. And that’s one of the things that companies are utilizing AI to circumvent.
RPA is a tool that can take information from one system and put it into another. It’s the go-between without requiring developers to create patches between the systems.
Using RPAs will also help with pulling data from within the same program to fill in other fields. Gone will be the days when a human will need to copy information from one table and paste it into another.
Repetitive/Data Entry
Any repetitive task where no strategic thinking is required can easily be automated. Assembly lines are a great example of this. Where once men and women stood side by side assembling products, now robots perform those same remedial tasks.
Just as it’s no longer required for an individual to enter data from a piece of paper into a software program. Many scanning software will automatically enter the data for you.
Human intervention was required to set it up. To tell the software what field goes where. After that, a human would simply be required for any updates to the document.
Can teach a robot to do the job
If someone can teach a computer/robot to do a job, they will. How many people do you see operating an elevator? You don’t.
How many cashiers do you see at the big chain grocery stores? Not many. Most have been replaced with self-checkout lanes.
Did you know that McDonald’s now has franchises that are fully automated? At least the part where you purchase your meal and pick it up. There are humans still making the food. For now, that is.
No more human interaction at those McDonald’s restaurants. They replaced humans with robots. And it’s only a matter of time before the robots start making your food too.
They even changed the restaurant layout to be take-out only. Which eliminates the need for a human to clean the place. Then again, the Jetsons had Rosey. Their robot maid. Maybe McDonald’s will incorporate a Rosey of their own.
How long do you think your job will be secure from an AI takeover? Now’s the time to learn more about the horrifying truth about AI.
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