On Labor Day, let's talk about whose jobs is AI replaceing?

Text | Brain polar body

Happy May Day holiday, everyone. As fellow workers, it is natural to eat, drink and play well on our festivals. But in the interval between enjoying a good holiday, I don't know if there is a moment when such a thought will flash through your mind: If AI wants to replace me in the future, won't I even have to spend Labor Day?

In fact, after every explosion of AI technology, the most discussed issue at the public level is whether AI will rob human jobs. This is especially true after ChatGPT brought about the AIGC boom. ChatGPT wants to grab the job of copywriter and programmer, Suno wants to grab the job of a musician, Midjourney wants to grab the job of an artist, and Sora wants to grab the job of film and television post-production. Good guys, you guys still have a clear division of labor and a lot of stakes?

At this time, there are generally two voices on social media. One is anxious and the other is mentally retarded. Anxietyists say, "We're going to run out of jobs soon, and AI is terrible." The mentally retarded faction came out and said, "The measured AI is all mentally retarded, and it is better to worry about AI than to worry about meteorites falling down."

Then the two factions of supporters quarreled violently. What's even more annoying is that these two schools of thought also appear in turn, today I watched a mentally retarded video, I feel that AI is all waste, and I can work with confidence, and tomorrow another anxious person will come out to refute it with reasonable evidence. Pulling like this every day, the mood is extremely irritable. Looking back and thinking about it, these videos that make people have a mentality are still pushed by AI, and the badness is off the charts again.

So, has AI replaced human jobs?

If so, whose jobs is AI replaceing?

What do I need to do if I don't want to be replaced, and where exactly is the safe water level?

Those who are overly festive are not in order. We don't talk about theoretical, conceptual alternative work. Let's start from the current real situation, let's talk about the matter between AI and the workplace.

I wish us to work happily and spend every Labor Day happily.

Handyman substitution vs newcomers to the workplace

I don't know if you remember such a news. In 2023, a Japanese girl tried to commit suicide and was rescued, and her reason for suicide was that she wanted to find a job as an artist after graduation, only to find that various companies were using AIGC to generate basic image materials. For a newcomer like her, who has no experience and can't handle complex work, it is difficult to find a job opportunity for a while.

One phenomenon is becoming more and more common around the world: AIGC is doing chores that should be done by interns and novices.

The concept of handyman work is actually very important in the workplace, because it is the first job that can be given to a newcomer, although it is simple, but it is the basis for entry and learning. This kind of chores often include making tables, writing basic copy, doing basic art design, etc. And then very unfortunately, this kind of work also happens to be the specialty of AIGC.

We often say that AIGC is not very effective and not professional enough. At this time, it is often overlooked that interns and newcomers are often not professional. They also need simple work as a starting point, and even need to learn and grow quickly in criticism such as "it is so simple and you can't do anything".

However, after the emergence and maturity of the AIGC platform, more and more elderly people in the workplace found that it was better to use AI than to use newcomers, which at least made it more efficient and had lower communication costs. From the perspective of the boss and the management, the benefits brought by the so-called training of new people are often not comparable to the labor costs saved.

In this case, AI does not directly replace jobs, but it makes the threshold for job search higher and higher. Invisibly, the learning requirements for posts and jobs are put in front of the campus stage.

Scale-down vs. marginal roles in the team

After the development of AIGC, many companies will share how much of their code is generated by AI, how much utilization has been achieved, and how many enterprise materials are made by AI, and how much cost will be saved.

So the question is, the automatically generated code and intelligently produced materials are good, but where have the people who originally made them gone?

Of course, there can be many answers to this question, for example, maybe those employees have become easier to work, and without having to write code or make materials, they have developed a new business of shooting short dramas and short videos for the company.

If you believe this, then congratulations, you don't know much about the workplace yet.

According to a survey released by McCarthy, 42% of enterprises and organizations said that they have successfully reduced costs by deploying AI technology in the past year, the most important of which is labor costs. This means that more and more companies are looking to downsize their teams by using capabilities such as AIGC.

Although AI cannot afford the core work, when a team is large enough, there are often marginal roles and auxiliary roles that only do specific simple work. This kind of job can easily become a victim of enterprises using intelligent technology to reduce costs.

Friends who have played Cyberpunk 2077 will remember that the AI control of the Drumman Taxi Company started with the elimination of marginal employees. Hopefully, none of us will be victims of science fiction being reflected in reality.

Copyright dumping vs individual creators

Not long ago, I swiped a video on the Internet, and it felt very beautiful. But when I clicked on the comment area, I saw a lot of scolding.

A closer look revealed that many artists were accusing the producers of the video of using AIGC content. Among them, some artists proposed that they were originally the outsourced artists of the video producer, but Party A has now terminated the cooperation. There are also many people who believe that the content of AIGC is very similar to the original artist's work, and it is obvious that AIGC infringes the copyright of the original author.

Similar problems are becoming more and more prominent.

Many clients originally outsourced to work with individuals and small teams of creators. However, with the popularization of AIGC, Party A often finds that it can use the results of previous cooperation to train AI, and then continuously obtain new works with similar styles but different contents.

This kind of phenomenon has obviously triggered the boundary of copyright protection, but the attention and supervision it has received are far from following up. At the same time, the copyright issues of AIGC are objectively very complex, for example, whether AI can learn through public materials, and whether it can imitate a certain creative style in a fixed manner. A number of related technical, business ethics, and legal and regulatory issues need to be improved.

At least for now, it is still difficult for individual creators to properly protect their copyrights in front of AIGC, and it is better to cultivate a solid partnership and build personal capabilities that can surpass the AIGC platform.

Become strong and learn "magic" at the same time

In these phenomena, it is not difficult to see that AI really cannot really replace a workplace master, or play an irreplaceable role in the team. In short, AI is far less magical. But the problem is that many jobs don't require a master, and even a lot of simple and repetitive work. What AI really has the potential to replace is precisely this part of the more marginal, but at the same time very common work.

So, how exactly do we combat this?

First of all, if you have the ability to multi-thread problems, do creative and leadership work, or be good at communication and solving complex problems, then you don't have to pay attention to AI. If you let AI develop for many more years, it won't be able to replace you. At the same time, AI can also replace the non-core work in your work, but it is boring, boring, and time-consuming.

You'll be able to use your core skills better and get more time off. AI is good for humans who are strong enough.

But if that's not the case, and you're doing simple and repetitive work, then beware of AI. While making yourself stronger, you might as well consider learning the application of the AIGC platform and learning the logic and skills of AI. Turn the use of AI into one of your irreplaceable abilities.

The most undesirable solution is to scold the AI every day, or wait for the AI to be disabled one day. Technology is like a river, it will only roll forward.

Instead of fearing magic, learn to defeat magic with it.

After learning it, it is not a beautiful thing to let the AI work and we celebrate the holidays.