One of the looming worries about artificial intelligence is that it will automate away jobs. A report from researchers at Google released Thursday says that, so far, the technology is mainly being used as an aid to workers.
The stakes are high for Google parent Alphabet. (REUTERS)
It is a finding that, if it holds true as AI continues to develop, could point to a future where the demand for highly skilled workers is accentuated rather than diminished.
“Just because you’re using AI doesn’t mean it’s going to automate your job,” said Google economist Scott Strand, one of the researchers.
The stakes are high for Google parent Alphabet. Google operates Gemini, one of the world’s most popular AI platforms. Public backlash to AI is intensifying, with stark fears about job loss and anger over the build-out of data centers across the country.
Some large corporations that have laid off employees in the past year have said they are able to downsize because of AI. Yet the U.S. unemployment rate overall remains relatively low, and economists remain split on whether the technology will ultimately eliminate jobs or simply make workers more productive.
Amid mounting criticism, some AI companies have recently reworked their messaging, moving away from the job-loss narrative.
Thursday’s is the first report based on research assembled using millions of de-identified interactions people around the world made with Google AI tools. Within the U.S., they found that AI is being used across a large number of occupations.
The report also says that skilled, blue-collar workers are using AI, which stands in contrast to some other research showing adoption is concentrated in white-collar work. AI is additionally being used in the home in ways that, while unlikely to show up in measures such as gross domestic product, is helping people be more efficient. The researchers point out that the use of AI doesn’t necessarily mean workers accomplished what they set out to do, or saved time or money.
The researchers characterized the use of AI as “shallow”—in most occupations, workers are only using AI for a relatively small slice of the tasks they do.
Other well-publicized studies have measured how exposed different jobs are to AI, based on measures of what tasks AI can do. Some have offered dire warnings about the potential long-term effect of AI on workforces.
In contrast, the Google study focuses on how people currently interact with AI on the job.
When they do use AI at work, people generally aren’t using it to wholly take over a task but as a collaborative tool, according to the study. This is particularly true of “non-routine cognitive tasks” where a worker has to exercise judgment and a cookie-cutter approach won’t deliver results. A photographer, for example, might work with AI to enhance an image, but can’t set it on repeat because every picture is different.
In essence, that could mean AI is less like a self-checkout machine, which automates away the need for cashiers, and more like a laser level that helps a surveyor make accurate measurements. It is a distinction that matters: Automation can put people out of work, but collaborative technologies leverage workers’ expertise, making them even more valuable.
How AI is used in the workplace could also shift as the technology develops, leading it to automate away more work as opposed to enhancing it. There are also questions that the study doesn’t address, such as whether seasoned workers getting more done with AI could cut into entry-level hiring.
“It’s the start of a whole research pipeline from us,” said Google chief economist Fabien Curto Millet.
The research says that while workers in higher-paid occupations tend to use AI more, its use isn’t limited to jobs typically held by college-educated workers. People in manual and technical trades, such as electricians and auto mechanics, are using AI significantly as a hands-on collaborator, and are uploading images and videos to solve problems far more frequently than their white-collar counterparts.
The research also finds that people are turning to AI to help speed up drudge work at home, such as dealing with government paperwork, building household budgets or helping with home repairs. The gains people are getting from AI use at home are unlikely to show up in standard economic statistics.
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