Artificial intelligence (AI) is a concept that has become increasingly more relevant over the past few years. The current conversation around AI revolves around just how far it will be able to go. As it begins to creep up into Google searches, correspondence and even summarizing messages, plenty of people are becoming concerned about the stability of the jobs they wish to have. The idea of “you can be anything when you grow up” may be true, but the ability to survive while being that “anything” is in limbo.
The original dream of AI is to replace the dangerous, tedious, or laborious tasks humanity must complete to allow humans to focus on things that bring joy. It seems, however, that it has gone in a different direction entirely, specifically with generative AI. The ability to use a program to generate any graphic or text in under a few minutes for free creates a conflict between creatives and companies that have monetary interests at heart.
The possibility of AI encroaching on creative jobs is more than a threat — it’s becoming a reality. There is a constant excitement in the media surrounding new AI advancements, and every week seems to bring a new area in which the technology is entering. It starts with a student’s essay, then creeps into published works and then takes over the creative sphere. From songs, books and movie scripts being written using AI, writers face a shaky future with a lack of security and assurance for them as AI advances.
AI is quickly getting better at taking over creative enterprises. Even the physical creative work isn’t safe. Acting often requires a body. However, we are already faced with “Tilly Norwood,” an AI actress. Whether this is simply a media storm over a passing trend or a warning of what’s to come remains unclear.
While it can be argued that media created by AI lacks a “soul” and that we will always tell, it advances at an astonishing pace. Just a year ago, fingers were the primary way of telling if the content you viewed was human-made or not. Now, every new image or video made by AI is becoming increasingly difficult to differentiate. The number of people fooled into believing artificial videos and photos are real continues to rise, and as a result, numerous jobs are being taken by this technology.
Growing up used to mean being pushed to learn to type, code, write grammatically and do math. Now, each of these is being done with increasing success by AI. Rather than a closet that picks out the perfect outfit, as in Clueless, or a machine that does chores, as in The Jetsons, the physical, tedious and dangerous jobs are the only ones left exclusively for humans to complete.
It is no longer just self-checkouts or quick Google search summaries. AI is now part of everyday life. Every new release from an artist will face the question of whether their work was developed using AI. Every company faces the question of how many people will be laid off because AI is cheaper. AI is an undeniable part of today, and an even more undeniable part of the future job market.
