AI is being unleashed on the world. Is it the beginning or the end?
“The rise of AI is truly remarkable,” says Richard Branson in a recent LinkedIn Newsletter. “It is transforming the way we work, live and interact with each other and with so many other touch points of our lives.” On the flip-side, Elon Musk refers to ChatGPT as, “One of the biggest risks to the future of civilization,” when he spoke at the World Government Summit in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. Even the creators have concerns. Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, urges lawmakers to regulate artificial intelligence due to his concerns that it could be used in ways that can cause significant harm to the world. So which argument is correct? Is ChatGPT a shield or a sword? Will it revolutionize how we work or destroy the fabric of humanity?
Another ‘Wild, Wild West’ Of Technology?
Moving too fast and in the wrong direction, could AI surpass regulation and cause significant harm to the world? Since AI has no moral compass, there are concerns about how organizations might use it in their human resource management practices to treat employees—as an asset or a liability? A cautionary statement from the Center for AI Safety, while needed, arouses chilling images of the potential extinction of the human race: “Mitigating the risk of extinction from AI should be a global priority alongside other societal-scale risks such as pandemics and nuclear war.” A sample of a nationwide scare happened recently when fake images of an explosion sparked AI concerns and rattled the stock market, causing it to dip significantly. According to Katrina vanden Heuvel, writing for The Nation, “The people who understand it best are frightened by how quickly the technology has accelerated.” She suggests the scenario gets worse, citing a survey of AI experts in which almost half said the chance that AI would lead to human extinction was 10% or more.
Without government oversight, a major worry is that AI learns and increases it own capability. According to George Musser, writing in Scientific American, AI knows things no one told it, and researchers are still struggling to understand how AI models trained to parrot Internet text can perform advanced tasks such as running code, playing games and trying to break up a marriage. “Some of these systems’ abilities go far beyond what they were trained to do—and even their inventors are baffled as to why,” he warns. “A growing number of tests suggest these AI systems develop internal models of the real world, much as our own brain does, though the machines’ technique is different.”
How Can ChatGPT Benefit Business?
While some doomsday purveyors sound the alarm around AI and focus on job elimination, Sara Gutierrez, chief science officer, psychometrics at SHL, believes the role of hiring manager is still essential and AI technology should be used as one piece of an ever-expanding puzzle. “An assessment score or single score derived from any selection tool should not be the sole source to inform a hiring/employment decision,” she asserts. “Hiring processes should have checkpoints for human intervention to ensure AI/algorithms are sense checked and not blindly entrusted for all decisions.”
Matt Higgins recurring guest shark on Shark Tank and member of Harvard Business school faculty, predicts AI will be "the great equalizer, enabling anyone with a new idea to pursue the American Dream. Lack of skills, education or pedigree will no longer block budding entrepreneurs— especially from underrepresented communities—from launching their own business."
Atropos Health expects AI to unburden the fast-paced medical world and physicians faced with heavy workloads, long hours and high patient volumes. Atropos is aiding in alleviating physicians' workload with faster and easier research, personalized evidence for complex patient management and the effortless green-button Q&A feature on the platform that yields actionable clinical insights and generates evidence-based answers for groups of underrepresented individuals in existing clinical literature.
An Auterion report on Mobile Robotics in U.S. workplaces found that half believe robotics could increase production (56%), efficiency (54%), and safety (51%). Another half forecast increased automation, bringing better quality (42%), security (39%) and sustainability (29%) to the workforce. One third (34%) report specifically working with drones in the workplace for tasks like photo/videography, inspection, surveillance, delivery, defense and/or exploration.
Leena AI has developed an intelligent work assistant that produces human-like responses, understands and executes complex work tasks, manages conversations and provides real-time information. The technology claims to improve productivity, efficiency and work satisfaction.Their survey of 700 business owners found that AI tools help businesses save an annual average of $4,053. And 28% of the respondents believe ChatGPT might help keep their business running in a recession.
According to Erudit’s co-founder and CEO, Alejandro Martínez Agenjo, there are at least three reasons HR shouldn’t fear AI.
- “AI can be used to improve employee well-being. Here are a few reasons why HR teams need to be implementing AI tools as soon as possible: $100 billion is spent on burnout annually. Using AI tools that track employee well-being metrics makes it possible to act before it’s too late.”
- “AI can help combat bias. AI tools can make it easy to get real-time anonymous insights, rather than trying to collect data through other means that may be open to bias.”
- “AI makes it easy to make data-driven decisions. Data is important when it comes to making informed, impactful decisions. AI tools can help quantify things such as sentiment, providing easy-to-understand insights.”
Will ChatGPT Deepen Or Destroy Humanity?
Perhaps the best answer to this question is to consider whether water is good or bad? We must have it to live, but too much can kill us. So it can be both with AI, depending on how it’s used. It’s important to remember the whole point of ChatGPT is for deepening, not destroying humanity. And according to Dr. Tim Munyon of the University of Tennessee, that requires employers to treat employees like assets. “When we treat employees like assets, we view the employment relationship as an investment,” he told me by email. “We're willing to accept short-term losses due to life or work interruptions if we foresee long-term gains. We also work to maintain and enhance the productive value of the asset. Although executives worry that training and development investments can lead employees to seek alternative job roles, the research actually suggests that most employees stay longer than they would devoid of these investments.”
Viewing the workforce as an asset enables organizations to practice behavioral integrity, Munyon concludes. “Although many companies say employees are the ‘most important asset,’ few actually practice that slogan, and this can destroy a firm's reputation in the eyes of employees.” So if integrity goes by the wayside, coupled with AI’s lack of moral compass, where does that leave humanity?
Arianna Huffington, founder and CEO of Thrive Global addresses this threat. “In the growing debate around AI, there’s one possibility that’s not getting a lot of oxygen: the very big question of how we can use AI not just to perform things for humans, but connect more fully with what it means to be human. AI is ultimately a tool, and its impact will depend on how humanity uses it,” she points out. “The more we can use this moment to bring together a critical mass of people working in good faith and with empathy, the more likely it is that humanity will use AI to flourish.”
