Dean Meadowcroft was a copywriter in a tiny marketing department up until recently.
He had to write press releases, social media updates, and other content for his business.
But then his company unveiled an artificial intelligence (AI) system in the latter part of last year.
The intention, he explains, "at the time, was for it to work alongside human lead copywriters to help speed up the process, really streamline things a little bit more.
With regard to the AI's work, Mr. Meadowcroft was not particularly impressed.
"It just kind of made everybody sound like they were on the fence, in the middle, and exactly the same, so nobody really stands out," the author said. ".
To ensure that the content was original and had not been plagiarized, it also needed to be reviewed by human staff.
However, the AI was quick. The AI could write a piece of copy that might take a human copywriter between 60 and 90 minutes to write in just 10 minutes or less.
The four-person team led by Mr. Meadowcroft was let go about four months after the AI was implemented.
Even though Mr. Meadowcroft is unsure, he is fairly certain that the AI took their place.
"Until it did, I did laugh off the idea of AI replacing writers, or affecting my job," he said.
When OpenAI introduced ChatGPT toward the end of 2017, the most recent AI wave began.
With the support of Microsoft, ChatGPT can produce essays, speeches, and even recipes in a matter of minutes. It can also respond to questions in a human-like manner.
Google launched Bard in March, and other tech behemoths are rushing to launch their own systems.
While imperfect, these systems are trained on the vast amount of internet-accessible data that is beyond the comprehension of any single human team.
Thus, many people now wonder which jobs may be in jeopardy.
Business technology has become more sophisticated.
In a report released earlier this year, Goldman Sachs estimated that 300 million full-time jobs could be replaced by AI.
Any job losses would not be distributed equally throughout the economy. The report states that while 6 percent and 4 percent of tasks in construction and maintenance, respectively, could be automated, administrative tasks could be automated to the extent of 46% and legal tasks to the extent of 44%.
The report also highlights how the introduction of AI could increase productivity and growth as well as possibly lead to the creation of new jobs.
Already, there is some proof to support that.
IKEA announced this month that since 2021, 8,500 employees who worked in its call centers have been retrained as design consultants.
The large furniture company claims that Billie, an AI, now answers 47% of customer calls.
Although IKEA does not anticipate any job losses as a result of its use of AI, such developments are causing concern among many.
A recent Boston Consulting Group (BGC) survey of 12,000 workers from around the world revealed that one-third of respondents were concerned that AI would replace them at their current jobs, with frontline employees being more concerned than managers.
The fear of the unknown, according to Jessica Apotheker from BGC, is a contributing factor.
"When you look at managers and leaders, we have more than 80% of them using AI at least weekly. Frontline employees make up only 20% of the workforce, so their lack of familiarity with the technology increases their anxiety and worries about how their actions will affect others. ".
However, there might be valid cause for concern.
Alejandro Graue performed voiceover work for a well-known YouTube channel for three months in the previous year.
A whole YouTube channel in English had to be voiced over in Spanish, so it seemed like a promising field of work.
Late last year, Mr. Graue left for vacation, sure there would be work waiting for him.
I have two daughters, so I need the money, so I was expecting to have that money to live with," he claims.
He had not worked on the new Spanish-language YouTube video that had been posted before he went back to work, which caught him off guard.
"When I clicked on it, an AI-generated voice that was terribly out of sync with the text was what I heard, not my voice. It wasn't good. And I was thinking, "What is this? Is this like going to be my new partner in crime like the channel? Or is this like going to replace me? ", the actor recalls.
The worst was confirmed when he phoned the studio he worked for. Because AI was quicker and cheaper, the client wanted to experiment with it.
The outcome of that experiment was negative. After complaints from viewers about the voiceover's caliber, the channel eventually removed the videos that used the AI voice.
But Mr. Graue did not find that to be all that reassuring. He believes that technology will only advance, and he is concerned about what that will mean for voice actors like himself.
"What should I do? Should I buy a farm? I don't know. If this starts to happen in every job I have. It's very complicated," he says, "and I don't know what other job I could look for that isn't going to be replaced as well in the future.
You might have to start working with AI in some capacity if it doesn't take your job already.
Former copywriter Dean Meadowcroft changed his career path after a few months of freelancing.
He currently works for an organization that offers staff members wellbeing and mental health guidance. His job now includes working with AI.
Instead of completely eliminating the human element, he believes that providing quick access to human-led content is where AI will go in the future.
