On Labor Day, let’s talk about whose jobs AI is replacing?

At the beginning, our purpose of developing AI was to replace the things we don’t want to do or that are difficult to do. As a result, ChatGPT is trying to take the jobs of copywriters and programmers, Suno is trying to take the jobs of musicians, Midjourney is trying to take the jobs of artists, and Sora is trying to take the jobs of film and television post-production. So what other jobs can humans do?

Happy Labor Day, everyone. As workers, it is only natural for us to eat, drink and have fun during our holiday. But while enjoying the wonderful holiday, have you ever had such a thought flash through your mind: If AI replaces my labor in the future, won’t I even have Labor Day?

In fact, every time AI technology becomes popular, the most discussed topic among the public is whether AI will take away human jobs. This is especially true after ChatGPT brought about the AIGC craze.

ChatGPT is trying to steal jobs from copywriters and programmers, Suno is trying to steal jobs from musicians, Midjourney is trying to steal jobs from artists, and Sora is trying to steal jobs from film and television post-production. My goodness, you AIs are still trying to define the division of labor and grab the land?

At this time, two voices generally appear on social media.

One is the anxious group, and the other is the mentally retarded group.

The anxious group says, "We will be out of work soon, AI is so scary."

The idiots came out and said, "Actual tests show that all AI are idiots. Worrying about AI is worse than worrying about meteorites falling."

Then the two groups of supporters started arguing fiercely.

What’s even more annoying is that these two viewpoints keep appearing in turns. Today, I watched a video by a retard who thought AI was useless and could work without any worries. The next day, an anxious person came out and refuted the view with good reasoning. I feel extremely annoyed by the arguments every day.

When I think back and think about it calmly, these psychologically disturbing videos are all pushed by AI, which makes them extremely annoying.

So, has AI really replaced human jobs?

Whose jobs, if any, is AI replacing?

If I don’t want to be replaced, what do I need to do and where is the safe level?

Let's not talk about theoretical or conceptual alternative jobs. Let's talk about the relationship between AI and work based on the current reality.

I hope we can work happily and have a happy Labor Day every time.

1. Odd-job replacement vs. newcomers to the workplace

I don't know if you remember this news: In 2023, a Japanese girl attempted suicide and was rescued. Her reason for suicide was that she wanted to find a job in art after graduation, but she found that all companies used AIGC to generate basic image materials. For a newcomer like her who had no experience and could not handle complex work, it was difficult to find a job opportunity for a while.

A phenomenon is becoming increasingly common around the world: AIGCs are taking on the chores that should have been done by interns and newbies in the workplace.

The concept of odd jobs is actually very important in the workplace, because it is the first job that can be given to new employees. Although it is simple, it is the basis for entry and learning. This kind of odd jobs often include making tables, writing basic copywriting, doing basic art design, etc. And unfortunately, this kind of work also happens to be AIGC's specialty.

We often say that AIGC is not very effective and not professional enough. At this time, we often overlook the fact that interns and newcomers often do not do their jobs professionally. They also need simple tasks to get started, and even need to learn and grow quickly in the face of criticism such as "how can you not do something so simple?"

However, after the emergence and maturity of the AIGC platform, more veterans in the workplace found that it is better to use AI than newcomers, which is at least more efficient and has lower communication costs. From the perspective of bosses and investors, the benefits of training newcomers are often not as good as the saved labor costs.

In this case, AI has not directly replaced jobs, but it has made the job-seeking threshold higher and higher. Invisibly, the learning requirements for positions and jobs have been moved forward to the campus stage.

2. Downsizing vs. Marginal Roles in the Team

After the development of AIGC, many companies will share what percentage of their codes are generated by AI and what the utilization rate is; how many corporate materials are produced by AI, and how much cost is saved.

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

Of course, there can be many answers to this question. For example, the work of those employees may have become easier. Without having to write code or make materials, they can develop new businesses such as shooting short dramas and short videos for the company.

If you believe this, then congratulations, you don’t understand the workplace very well.

According to a survey released by McCarthy, 42% of companies and organizations said that they successfully reduced costs by deploying AI technology in the past year, the most important of which was labor costs. This means that more and more companies have found ways to reduce team size by using capabilities such as AIGC.

Although AI cannot afford core work, when a team is large enough, there will often be marginal roles and auxiliary roles that only do specific simple work. Such positions can easily become victims of companies using intelligent technology to reduce costs.

Friends who have played Cyberpunk 2077 will remember that the AI-controlled Delaman Taxi Company started by eliminating marginal employees. I hope that none of us will become victims of science fiction reflected in reality.

3. Copyright Squeeze vs Individual Creators

Not long ago, I saw a video online that I thought was very beautiful. But when I clicked on the comments section, I saw a lot of criticism.

After a closer look, I found that many artists were accusing the video producer of using AIGC content. One artist said that he was originally an outsourced artist for the video producer, but the party A has terminated the cooperation. Many people also believed that the AIGC content was very similar to the original artist's work, and it was obvious that AIGC had infringed the original author's copyright.

Similar problems are becoming increasingly prominent.

Many clients originally worked with individuals or small teams of creators through outsourcing. However, with the popularity of AIGC, clients often find that they can use the results of previous collaborations to train AI, thereby continuously obtaining new works with similar styles but different contents.

This phenomenon has obviously triggered the boundaries of copyright protection, but the attention and supervision it has received are far from being followed up. At the same time, AIGC's copyright issues are objectively very complicated. For example, whether AI can learn from public materials and whether it can imitate a certain creative style. A series 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. A better way is to cultivate a stable cooperative relationship and build personal capabilities that can surpass the AIGC platform.

4. While becoming stronger, you might as well learn some "magic"

It is not difficult to see from these phenomena that AI cannot really replace a workplace expert or play an irreplaceable role in a team. In short, AI is far from being magical. But the problem is that many jobs do not require experts, and are even filled with a lot of simple repetitive labor. The jobs that AI can really replace are precisely these relatively marginal but very common jobs.

So, how exactly can we combat this situation?

First of all, there is no need to worry. If you have the ability to handle problems in multiple threads, are doing creative and leadership work, or are good at communication and solving complex problems, then you don't have to worry about AI. Even if AI is allowed to develop for many years, it will not be able to replace you. At the same time, AI can also replace those non-core but uninteresting, boring and time-consuming tasks in your work.

You can better exert your core abilities and get more time to rest. AI has all the benefits and no harm to humans who are strong enough.

But if this is not the case, and you are doing simple and repetitive work, then you should be wary of AI. While making yourself stronger, you might consider learning the application of the AIGC platform and learning the logic and skills of AI. Make the ability to use AI one of your irreplaceable qualities.

The worst option is to curse AI every day, or wait for the day when AI is banned. Technology is like a river, it will only flow forward.

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

After learning it, it may not be a bad thing to let AI work while we celebrate the festival.