AI's Controversial Impact on the Future of Jobs
✍️ In This Issue ✍️
This Week in AI: SORA Leaked, Stylish Claude, Publishing Disruption and Scientists for AI
AI Company Updates: Perplexity's AI Gadget, xAI to Launch Chatbot, Uber's AI Jobs and Neurolink with Robotic Arm
Deep Dive: AI's Controversial Impact on the Future of Jobs
AI Tools We Love: Runway - Expand Feature 🛠️
Culture Corner: AI Detection Tools
AI Art: Remembering the First AI Album
Prompting Like a Pro: Vacation Request
Quote for You: Stephen Polyak💡
This Week in AI
🕵️ North Korean hackers have stolen billions in crypto: North Korean hackers have stolen billions in cryptocurrency by impersonating venture capitalists and IT workers to infiltrate multinational companies, leveraging false identities and remote work setups to fund the regime's nuclear program while evading international sanctions. Experts expect increasing volume of similar attacks using AI technologies in the future.
🎥 SORA leaked: OpenAI's text-to-video model, Sora, was briefly leaked on HuggingFace by beta testers protesting for compensation and creative freedom. For three hours, users generated 10-second, 1080p videos with its Turbo variant, sparking widespread praise for its performance, deemed far superior to current alternatives.
💬 Be Stylish with Claude: Claude now lets users personalize responses to fit their unique preferences, making interactions more tailored and engaging. Whether you favor a formal tone or concise replies, there’s a style for everyone.
📖 Publishing Disruption: New publisher Spines aims to 'disrupt' industry by using AI to publish 8,000 books in 2025 alone.
🌐 Scientists Urge Trust in AI to Advance Mankind: Scientists are advocating for the use of artificial intelligence (AI) in areas like disease treatment and disaster prediction to enhance public trust and mitigate fears surrounding its adoption, emphasizing the importance of the scientific method in harnessing AI's transformative potential.
AI Company Updates
💬 xAI to Launch New Chatbot: Elon Musk's xAI will launch a new chatbot, a direct competitor to ChatGPT in December. He is ready to take on the mighty Silicon Valley tech giants with this product.
💻 Perplexity Teases $50 AI Gadget: Aravind Srinivas, Perplexity CEO polled X followers about a voice-based AI device and, after 7,000+ likes, vowed to build it. Perplexity joins others like OpenAI and Midjourney in the race for next-gen AI gadgets. I don't really think, that people would want another device beyond their phones (or glasses contact lenses, earbuds later on?), but let's see.
🚕 Uber Creates AI Jobs: Uber is building a fleet of gig workers to label data for AI models.
🎬 IMAX to AI for translations: In a bid to expand its global reach, entertainment empire IMAX announced it’ll use AI to translate its original documentaries across multiple languages.
🦾 Neuralink Turns Us into Cyborgs: Elon Musk’s company will soon begin testing a brain interface that would let users control a mechanical arm with their minds.
🧠 Alibaba Reasons for Free: Alibaba has launched the QwQ-32B-Preview, a new open-source AI reasoning model that outperforms OpenAI's o1 models in specific benchmarks, while also facing limitations such as unexpected language switches and regulatory constraints on sensitive topics.
Deep Dive
The Transformative Impact of AI on the Labor Market
As the integration of artificial intelligence (AI) into business processes accelerates, its influence on the labor market is becoming increasingly evident. Drawing from "The Impact of AI on the Labour Market" by Sam Sharps et al., EY's "The Uneven Future of Work: GenAI and Labor Market", and "AI Won't Just Assist People—It Will Replace Them" by Jacco J. van der Kooij, this article explores key themes shaping the future of work.
1. AI and the Labor Market
AI's potential to revolutionize the workforce has been compared to previous technological shifts, from the Industrial Revolution to the internet age. Sam Sharps et al. note that AI could save up to 23% of private-sector workforce time, primarily through automation of routine cognitive tasks. These changes will initially lead to job displacement, with up to 1-3 million roles affected in the UK alone. However, history suggests that new roles will emerge as industries adapt to AI, fostering job creation in unforeseen areas.
Jacco J. van der Kooij emphasizes a more disruptive scenario, predicting that AI will replace 70% of go-to-market (GTM) efforts in sectors like SaaS, flipping the buyer-seller dynamic. Buyers, empowered with AI-driven insights, will control the decision-making process, rendering traditional roles in sales and marketing obsolete.
EY highlights how AI exposure varies significantly by region and profession. For example, high-skilled roles in Western Europe and the U.S. are more likely to experience AI-driven transformation than manual jobs in Sub-Saharan Africa. This uneven distribution underscores the need for tailored approaches to AI integration.
2. Key Impacts, Statistics, and Predictions
AI's impact on the labor market includes:
Automation vs. Augmentation: Generative AI (GenAI) will transform professions requiring pattern detection, judgment, and optimization, while manual roles and human-centric jobs face lower exposure.
Productivity and Economic Growth: AI could boost UK GDP by 11% by 2050, provided adoption is widespread. The benefits include better education and healthcare enabled by AI, improving labor quality and longevity.
Regional Disparities: Wage levels are a critical factor in AI implementation. For instance, while AI can automate 5% of tasks profitably in the U.S. and Western Europe, this figure drops to 0.5% in Sub-Saharan Africa due to economic constraints.
Future Predictions: Van der Kooij projects that companies leveraging AI for exponential growth will dominate markets by 2026, creating a significant gap between early adopters and laggards.
3. Takeaways for Managers: Preparing Your Organization
As AI reshapes industries, managers must adopt proactive strategies to navigate this transformation:
To prepare for the AI-driven future, organizations should prioritize workforce development, ensuring employees are equipped to adapt to AI-driven roles through upskilling initiatives. Leveraging AI in education and training will further enhance their capabilities and prepare them for emerging challenges and opportunities.
Adopting tailored AI strategies is essential to maximize AI's potential. Businesses should focus on using AI to augment human efforts in high-impact roles while aligning AI deployment with regional and industry-specific needs to address diverse challenges effectively.
To achieve sustainable growth, organizations must focus on enhancing organizational agility. Building scalable AI systems will replace traditional, labor-intensive processes, while optimizing workflows and decision-making ensures the company remains competitive in rapidly evolving markets.
Finally, organizations must prioritize ethical and social impacts. This includes implementing safeguards to prevent AI-induced biases and ensuring inclusivity in operations. Maintaining human oversight in high-stakes scenarios is critical to mitigate risks and uphold trust in AI-driven systems.
Conclusion
The convergence of AI and the labor market presents both opportunities and challenges. By understanding the nuanced impacts across regions and industries, managers can position their organizations to thrive in an AI-driven future. Early adoption, strategic planning, and workforce empowerment are critical to ensuring that AI enhances, rather than disrupts, the world of work.
AI Tools We love
Runway
Runway, the well-known AI video platform recently released its Expand feature that allows you to generate beyond the edges of a frame and turn horizontal videos into vertical videos, and vice versa - without compromising details or framing. Check out some artificially expanded videos here:
Here’s a step-by-step guide:
Visit the RunwayML website and log in.
Choose Generative Video and select the Gen-3 Alpha Turbo model.
Upload a video or pick one from the existing options, then click Expand in the left panel.
Enter a prompt if desired, or proceed without one to expand the video as-is.
Select your preferred video size and click Generate.
Wait a few moments for the video to expand seamlessly.
Once it's ready, download and share your video.
Even with the free plan, you can explore features; however, note that video length and quality are limited.
Culture Corner
Writing is a creative human job. Isn't it? Well, AI tools can write amazingly good nowadays. So good, that it's almost impossible to tell if a text was written by a human or generated by AI. Advanced tools help us to detect AI written content, and help us to spot plagiarism. But are they any good?
This article tests nine AI content detectors to evaluate their effectiveness in identifying AI-generated text.
The overall results are quite disappointing: only two—GPTZero and Originality.ai—consistently achieved high accuracy, while others displayed significant inconsistencies and lower performance in detecting both human and AI-written content.
Let there be no misunderstanding: there’s absolutely nothing wrong with using AI tools to create things. In business, we all rely on such tools daily—they speed up our work, often make it more accurate, or even enable us to achieve things that were previously out of reach. For example, I could never draw as beautifully as I can now in the age of AI, and as a non-native English speaker, I find AI extremely helpful for translations. However, there are situations where it’s necessary to indicate that the content was AI-generated, and failing to do so is not only improper but, in many cases, also against the rules.
AI Art
Taryn Southern's Album "I AM AI" was the first completely AI generated album, released 6 years ago, long before the current generative AI hype.
This album is notable for being entirely composed and produced with AI assistance, featuring tracks like "Break Free" and "Darkest Hour".
Quite enjoyable, indeed.
Prompting Like a Pro
Extraordinary Vacation Request
I am lazy. I don't like writing formal emails, so I asked ChatGPT to write me an email, in which I ask for an extra leave. But I didn't wanted to create the whole prompt for that by myself, so I asked it:
Prompt: Create for me a very good structured prompt, which you would need in case I would want you to write an email for my boss, asking for an extraordinary vacation, knowing, that many regular holidays are already used up. Give me the prompt as the result.
ChatGPT came up with this precise prompt for itself:
I need you to draft a formal yet empathetic email for my boss requesting an extraordinary vacation. Here are the details for the request:
Context: My boss is generally understanding but values clear reasoning and proactive planning. I’ve already used most of my regular vacation days this year. I need additional time off for a personal family matter (e.g., attending a relative's significant life event or addressing a family emergency).
Proposed Duration: The vacation is for an additional 5 working days, from [exact dates], beyond my allocated vacation days.
Compensation for Time Off: I am willing to make up for the time by working additional hours, adjusting future vacation allocations, or considering the days as unpaid leave.
Work Responsibility Management: I will ensure all my current projects are up to date before leaving and will prepare a clear handover for any tasks that may arise during my absence.
Tone and Style: The email should be professional, expressing gratitude for previous support and understanding while emphasizing my commitment to the organization. It should balance humility and confidence, clearly explaining why this extraordinary vacation is important while showing that I value the team’s priorities.
Call-to-Action: Request for a reply to confirm approval or suggest a meeting to discuss further if needed.
Please include a polite opening, a detailed yet concise body explaining the situation, and a positive closing that reinforces my dedication to the company.
This comprehensive prompt ensures a well-structured and persuasive email tailored to the situation. Would you like me to draft the actual email based on this prompt?
I, of course, wanted ChatGPT to write the email, too, so I answered: 'Yes.". And then, I got the final result:
Subject: Request for Extraordinary Vacation Approval
Dear [Boss's Name],
I hope this email finds you well. I’m reaching out with a special request regarding my leave plans. As you know, I have already used most of my regular vacation days this year, but I’m in a situation where I would need an additional five working days off from [specific dates], to address a significant personal family matter.
I want to assure you that I’m committed to minimizing any impact this might have on the team or ongoing projects. To this end, I will:
Ensure all my current tasks and responsibilities are up to date before my leave.
Prepare a detailed handover document for any issues that may arise during my absence.
Remain reachable for urgent matters, if necessary.
To compensate for the additional days, I am open to flexible arrangements, such as adjusting future vacation allocations, working extra hours before or after the leave, or considering this as unpaid time off.
I understand that such a request places additional considerations on scheduling and team workload, and I truly appreciate your understanding and support. If needed, I am happy to discuss this further at your convenience to address any concerns.
Thank you for considering my request. I value your guidance and support and am grateful for the opportunity to contribute to our team’s success.
Looking forward to your reply.
Warm regards, [Your Full Name] [Your Position]
The whole email took under 1 minute to create. That's what I call efficiency:)
Quote for You
“Before we work on artificial intelligence why don’t we do something about natural stupidity?” — Stephen Polyak
Stephen Polyak was an American neuroanatomist and neurologist considered to be one of the most prominent neuroanatomists of the 20th century.
I hope, you liked this piece.
Thanks for reading!
✌️Until next time!
Zoltan
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