What if we had exaggerated the alarms regarding artificial intelligence? If we had done it to indulge our nature which sometimes makes us unconsciously wishing to trigger the end of the world just to see the effect it has (what nature am I talking about? Just read certain newspapers that have been hoping for a nice world war with Putin’s Russia for months)? In short, to get back down to earth, if it weren’t true that generative artificial intelligence will lead to the end of work for everyone and of all jobs, as he once said Elon Musk? Or, if you really want to imagine keeping a job in the future, then it’s better to focus on the profession of plumber, because at least ChatGPT will never be able to do that, as the father of neural networks said, Geoff Hinton?
A modicum of optimism, of authoritative optimism, comes from a great American economist, David Autor, who has spent a lifetime studying the effects of new technologies on work and wages with a view never complicit with the progress triggered by digital technology which, if it has not caused a contraction in jobs (which in fact there has not been ), but it has depressed the wages of the majority of people. Yet this time, says in research relaunched by the New York Times, with artificial intelligence it will be different. This time there could be “the redemption of the middle class”. Generative AI, which makes it very easy to generate texts, images and videos, instead of accelerating automation and the replacement of humans with software, could increase the skills of workers and therefore put them back at center stage and with higher salaries. Certain tasks, which today are reserved for the best, could be extended to everyone or almost everyone, because everyone or almost everyone, by using artificial intelligence tools well, can become better at it. And more paid.
In short artificial intelligence could prove to be a tool for inclusion social and not to increase the gap as has happened so far with the Web and social media. If such a vision came from the usual techno-optimist it would have little value, but Professor Autor is not that type. Of course, a successful outcome is not a given: it will depend on us, on all of us. But in the meantime let’s try to stop waiting for the end of the world.