Big tech is racing for AI profits with no regard for impact on humans: UN
Business
Artificial intelligence threatens the global workforce
(Web Desk) - Big Tech is racing to extract money from AI without considering the consequences, UN Secretary-General António Guterres charged yesterday at the World Economic Forum in Davos.
“Some powerful tech companies are already pursuing profits with a clear disregard for human rights, personal privacy and social impact,” he said. “This is no secret.”
Guterres said action is needed now to ensure people, not just companies, gain something from this new technology.
“[W]e need a systematic effort to increase access to AI so that developing economies can benefit from its enormous potential,” Guterres said. “We need to bridge the digital divide instead of deepening it.”
AI and its impact on the economy is one of the main topics of discussion for the business and political leaders gathered in Davos.
The IMF put out a study on Monday that said AI could affect 60 percent of jobs in advanced economies. Another study by PwC found that a quarter of global chief executives expect generative AI to lead to layoffs this year.
Some of those layoffs are already here. Over the past two weeks, Google has let go hundreds of workers—with more layoffs coming—as it tries to focus on AI.
Other companies like Duolingo, Salesforce and Klarna have also recently announced job cuts or hiring freezes as they evaluate how AI might transform their operations and business models.
Not everyone at Davos agrees that AI is a threat to jobs, including Erik Brynjolfsson, a director of the Stanford Stanford professor and director of the university’s Digital Economy Lab.
Speaking on a panel about jobs on Wednesday, Brynjolfsson said not every career would be taken over by AI, according to Business Insider.
"We're not going to have a place where everything gets automated,” he said.
“We're far from that kind of a world. Instead we're seeing a world where some tasks are automated, some are augmented and humans are still important.
So there's a new set of combinations that are needed. The companies that do that effectively are going to harvest the greatest productivity gains.”
