AN AI expert has revealed which jobs could face the axe in the next five years.
Professor Carl Frey, of the Oxford Internet Institute, is a leading academic on the subject of artificial intelligence – and has revealed which jobs will cease to exist in the future.
With the chatbot ChatGPT able to write like a human, experts have previously warned white-collar jobs will be the first to face the axe.
The mind-blowing app can write, read and solve complex puzzles – while other similar AI programmes create incredibly realistic images, videos and even voices.
Jobs which involve analysing documents and telemarketers are likely to be under threat, according to the expert.
Companies may turn to technology to cut costs for tasks they do not need to hire people for.
Professor Frey added: “I think that jobs which will be lost in the next five years will be freelance roles which usually focus on one specific task.
“This could include translating documents which do not need to be certified, telemarketers, cashiers, repetitive customer service roles and basic copy-editing.”
Professor Frey also believes autonomous vehicles may be on the horizon at some point and this will lead to driving jobs being lost.
He added: “When autonomous vehicles arrive, they’re not going to augment a taxi driver, they’re going to replace those drivers.”
And even if workers manage to hang on to their jobs, he says the influx of new competition for their roles could result in lower wages.
However, the AI expert said that jobs which require creativity and complex social interactions are less likely to be under threat.
He says that virtual communication such as help chat-bots have come a long way in the past decade.
But he believes that this has only “increased the value of in-person communication”.
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Professor Frey said: “If AI writes your love letters and everybody elses, it only makes dates more important as you can’t distinguish yourself on the basis of text communication.
“I still think in-person communication is still going to be very important for the future.”
In the same way, Google Translate can do a great job of translating what you input into it.
It means basic translators are not necessary but human translators will still be very much needed at the highest level.
The AI expert adds that this is also true for jobs in sales or lawyers as the emails you write are not the distinguishing feature of your pitch or argument.
He adds: “Jobs with in person communication skills are going to be relatively safe from artificial intelligence.”
Professor Frey also gave the argument of how AI writing-tools lack “true creativity” as they write based on existing data.
For example, an AI can write in the style of William Shakespeare only because the famed playwright has already existed and his works can be studied.
“True creativity is not yet at that stage with AI, as it is still mimicking rather than actually creating it,” says the AI whizz.
Doctors, nurses and sports coaches are unlikely to be replaced anytime soon because of the human aspect of the roles.
However, Professor Frey stressed that it is very hard to look at timescales because these things don’t just depend on technology.
“It also depends on legal issues, consumer preferences and how society responds to AI in the future. A different world may await us.” he added.
