Author | Not empty
AIGC has evolved from an arms race between big factories to a "head count" that affects the "life and death" of every ordinary migrant worker.
BlueFocus, a leading domestic public relations and advertising service provider, fired the first shot of using scientific and technological forces to optimize staffing, and used AIGC technology to stop creative content outsourcing. The substitution crisis brought about by AI has even spread to e-commerce clothing models. Fashion clothing brand Levi's announced that it will try AI models in e-commerce channels this year.
In this technological change, migrant workers are always at the center of the whirlpool.
On the one hand, AI learning becomes a top-down directive with rapid leadership response to drive the adoption of AI tools in workflows. An An, who does content operations in large factories, revealed that the department's weekly meeting has added a new session to share AIGC tools. Daifuku, a small and medium-sized design firm that works in visual design, also said that the company purchased an annual membership of Midjourney, requiring designers to use AI tools into workflows.
On the other hand, boiling vents are the most likely to breed anxiety, and the feverish AI learning boom is confirming this conclusion. Xiaojin, an employee of a large factory, believes that although colleagues around him claim that they are not interested in AI, AIGC's offline salon is extremely popular.
At the same time, the chopping owner also found that although there has been a "hundred model war" in China, large manufacturers are competing to launch self-developed large language models. However, employees are more inclined to choose tools such as ChatGPT and Midjourney in practice.
AIGC technology is sinking from productivity iteration to production relations reform, and workers are also facing a turning crisis.
"Elevating AIGC as a Corporate Strategy"
"AIGC is the word that appears most frequently at department meetings in the past month or so, and every leader is very enthusiastic about AIGC from how to transform to implementation."
After entering 2023, the domestic AIGC field has ushered in a period of rapid iteration of normal development. Following Baidu, Ali, Kunlun Wanwei, SenseTime and other practical schools also launched self-developed large language models in April, moving towards the golden age of AGI. At the same time, the previous generation of Internet entrepreneurs represented by Wang Xiaochuan and Wang Huiwen also personally led the troops, stepped into the game, and recreated the "second spring" of the business with an all-out attitude.
Source: Wen Xin Yiyan official website
What is certain is that this technological change led by AIGC is bound to open a new competition in the Internet field, and the pressure of this battle will also fall on every worker.
Under the torrent of technology, migrant workers can only join in either actively or passively. An An said that when ChatGPT was hot in China, the direct leaders of the department had "suggested that everyone actively try ChatGPT and other big language models and explore ways to combine with their own work." Since then, the department has added a weekly meeting process, that is, after the completion of various work reports, department personnel need to take turns to share their experience and experience in using AI tools.
When AIGC becomes a work indicator, AI anxiety also finds a path to rapid conduction. "Colleagues who did not have AI anxiety began to have anxiety under the infection of the departmental atmosphere, worried that their positions would be optimized by AI one day."
Combined with his own experience, An An believes that the large model tools represented by ChatGPT can indeed improve work efficiency, and "the time spent on basic work such as information collection and finding inspiration is greatly compressed." "On top of that, the incredible iteration speed of large models also contains endless possibilities for disruption.
However, in An An's view, the other side of improving efficiency is bound to the word cost reduction. "After improving efficiency, it is necessary to cut basic positions, which is the real purpose of introducing AI into the workflow." It can be seen that the introduction of AIGC is also a redistribution of jobs.
"In the future, basic positions should be replaced by AI. However, those who can stay under the impact of AI not only have outstanding work capabilities, but also need to flexibly use AI tools to empower their workflows. ”
In addition to large factories, employees of small and medium-sized factories are also walking on thin ice in this AIGC technology impact.
Daifuku, who works as a visual designer at a small to medium-sized design firm, revealed, "The boss directly raises AIGC to the height of the company's strategy when he has a meeting. At the same time, the company purchased an annual membership of Midjourney, requiring everyone to use AI tools like Midjourney to do things like storyboards. ”
Source: Midjourney's official website
The change in the company's strategy has naturally also played a role in reducing costs and increasing efficiency. Daifuku said that AI tools can indeed improve early efficiency. However, since last year, the company has been cutting staff to reduce costs, and so far, the number of employees has been reduced by 40%.
Daifuku also found that hiring for design jobs has decreased significantly, and average salary levels have also declined. "In the past, large factories had high requirements for visual design and had a lot of demand, but now the overall number of design positions in the market has been greatly reduced. At the same time, since most companies generally believe that design positions are highly fungible, salary levels have naturally declined. ”
The integration of design positions and technology is also reflected in market demand, and some companies have begun to adjust design positions to AIGC product designers, and the recruitment requirements also clearly stipulate the need to have AIGC material production capacity building.
"In short, the market will definitely get more and more volatile." Daifuku concluded. A foreseeable shock has quietly begun a chapter of great change.
"Everybody says they're not interested in AI.
But the ticket grab was very positive"
While executives of large factories are convinced of AIGC's bright future and are fanatical about ALL IN, the fungibility potential of AI technology is forcing every worker to work hard for their hard-won workplace.
The best choice is naturally to conduct systematic AI learning and practical exercises. It is worth noting that under the boom of AI learning, AI courses have also become a hot spot in the field of knowledge payment in the near future.
Take knowledge blogger Caoz as an example, on April 11, he released a learning course called "ChatGPT & AI Empowering Business" at Knowledge Planet, which cost 799 yuan, and in just one night, the course attracted nearly 4,500 members to subscribe. In addition to Caoz's own influence, it is naturally inseparable from the enthusiasm for AI learning at the public level.
April 12 Caoz Knowledge Planet page
@Zhang ShitongShangdao, which also exploded in the Douyin live broadcast room, directly hit the pain points of workers with content such as creating copywriting and optimizing PPT, attracting the attention of many users.
In addition to the self-driven learning boom, some companies, especially technology manufacturers, have recommended and arranged a series of AI courses for employees to learn independently.
Xiaojin, who works in a large domestic factory, introduced that the work software used by her company will push learning content every day, and after the advent of AIGC, the content pushed daily is mainly AIGC, and its content covers a wide range. "There are not only the basic knowledge related to big language models, such as technical optimization, case sharing, etc., but also the internal sharing and experience of executives and experts."
At the same time, the learning classroom set up by the company has also launched a large number of AIGC live courses, from the introduction of AIGC related tools to the practice can provide employees with full guidance, the courses are not only universal, but also targeted, and the actual work oriented to establish employees' awareness of AI tools.
In addition to online courses, Xiaojin said that the company also organized offline salons with AIGC-related content to allow employees to communicate freely offline. The theme of the offline salon is more practical, such as using AI to optimize copywriting, AI painting tools to quickly generate posters and other more practical content.
At night, this picture is an AI map, creative by entertainment capital
However, since it is an offline event, it is inevitable that it will be affected by many factors such as the venue, so the event has a limited number of people, and internal staff are required to make online reservations, and reserve seats and tickets in advance. However, according to Xiaojin, such offline salons are widely popular with employees, and it is difficult to grab places for each event.
"Everyone said they weren't interested, but every time they grabbed tickets, they were very positive." Xiaojin's words just point out the eagerness of the current migrant workers in this technological change, and the migrant workers who have been immersed in the theory of "winning at the starting line" since childhood naturally do not want to be left behind in this wave of science and technology.
In order to encourage employees' enthusiasm and enthusiasm for using AI tools, AnAn also held a series of AIGC competitions, such as AI painting, AI-generated animation videos and other competitions. "Basically every once in a while, the company will launch this kind of all-staff activity, and the winners will not only display their works within the company, but also set up bonuses and additional gifts, which is quite strong."
This top-down AI education led by the company level has further strengthened the determination and motivation of migrant workers to learn AI tools, and successfully reshaped the public's perception of AI, becoming the foundation for the successful transformation of Internet technology companies.
Hard requirements VS resistance, beating workers face "big tests"
When AIGC has become a definite direction, then following the trend and guiding by snobbery has become the survival rule of workers.
Instead of passive anxiety, learn actively. Maximizing the tool attributes of AI, improving their own work efficiency, and optimizing work distribution is the most important opportunity to grasp at present.
In fact, AIGC's unlimited stretch of technology has opened up multiple creative content production paths.
In terms of graphic content production, auxiliary tools represented by ChatGPT can be optimized in terms of information integration, inspiration prompts and other preliminary workflows.
Implemented in the preliminary preparation of the scheme design, An An explained it based on the application cases of the festival content planning scheme. "This kind of planning plan often only has a general direction before operation, but there is no clear theme. For example, Arbor Day content planning is only a general direction, while protecting vegetation and caring for the earth can be identified as specific themes. ”
Before determining the theme, An An will use AI tools to search for information with keywords as the core, "so that it can grasp more information in the shortest time and provide ideas and background information for plan writing." From the perspective of work efficiency, An An believes that with the help of AI tools, it can help her compress at least 70% of her preparation.
Source: Tongyi Qianwen official website
At the same time, in the scheme design stage, An An will also find inspiration in a strong logical way such as asking questions and hypotheses. "AI tools have a strong learning ability, but the premise is that we need to help the AI understand the meaning, which means that we need to interpret the background information to the AI."
In terms of visual design, Daifuku affirmed the performance ability of AI tools in generating materials and assisting shooting.
In the actual design work, especially the pictures and posters with communication attributes such as product atmosphere maps and brand design drawings, often require a large number of matching material maps, which is one of the common sense in the design industry. "Not only do you need ancillary elements that fit the product, but you may also involve some background images such as empty scenes."
Daifuku further explains, "For designers, this is actually a very time-consuming step in the workflow. If you rely entirely on labor, these material drawings not only need to be designed, built, and shot, but also the time and cost are not small for commercial design. ”
AI tools can be accurately designed according to the prompt keywords, which can save time and cost and improve production efficiency. "Optimizing these steps means I have more time to devote to refined design."
However, on the other side of AIGC tools reshaping workflow, the development and popularization of AIGC has inevitably impacted the value and significance of human existence, and there has been a scenario where AI technology and social development promote each other but oppose each other.
Source: Midjourney's official website
For example, AI painting is indeed in a vigorous development stage, reshaping the vitality of industrial development. However, on the other hand, the resistance of designers and original artists to AI painting has never weakened, and narrative discourses such as "stitching monsters" and "corpse splicing" also hide human beings' defense of their own irreplaceable value. Daifuku admits that until now, she still firmly believes that AI painting tools have copyright problems.
However, AIGC technology has been preemptive in the workflow and has become an irreversible wind. Confused migrant workers struggle several times between resistance and hard demands, and how to resolve this split is a "big test" of the workers' ability to adapt.