A comprehensive look at Generative AI Economy. There are a lot of articles and videos about Generative AI but most of them do not weigh the economic impact it will have on the economic horizon.
Yes, People are talking about losing their jobs to AI which is a great loss for anyone. But, Will it create enough jobs and opportunities for people living now and also for future generations, this is the question we should be curious about, And most people are.
Generative AI is a rapidly moving supercar that is running on the track of Artificial Intelligence that has the capacity to destroy and revolutionize people’s lives realistically, we have to admit both sides of the picture (We will talk about both).
Talking about revolutionizing, it can create content in an instant (Not as efficiently as humans as of right now), write code(Github Copilot), generate images(Midjourney, DALL E2 and 3), and edit videos (Adobe has done some amazing work).
Let’s dive in:
Positive Side of Generative AI with real-world examples
Despite different challenges in formulating and regulating AI, it has been a great ride for all of us (It’s the truth).
Accelerating Innovation
AI can be used to generate ideas and content at a really fast speed, we all have seen it. It can also be used to accelerate the innovation process, yes it can be a useful tool or colleague to researchers for the benefit of humanity.
Jeez(Scary huh but exciting at the same time)
How can it be useful for innovation, you can already have an idea but let’s take an example.
Currently, In the healthcare industry, generative AI is being used to develop new drugs, treatments and medical diagnoses. A company called **Deepmind has developed a generative AI system** that can predict the structure of proteins in humans, which in turn could be used for the predictive treatment of different diseases.
Let’s talk about efficiency improvement. Shall we?
Improving Efficiency
Generative AI can be used to automate a lot of tasks and jobs (we will talk about it later), like customer support jobs. It can automate a handful of tasks in the marketing and product development industry. Since we are on the positive side now, it can free the human workforce to work on better, artistically creative and more complex(work, work, work never ends) strategic tasks.
In the finance industry, scams are common and we have been a victim of them for as long as our history goes(I am not talking about your ex’s scam). But, AI can stop it (Financial scams), how? We can securely integrate AI models (Supervised or unsupervised ML Models) in financial transactions to check the behavioural aspects of transactions which can predict the probability of scams. By the way, it can also used to detect phishing scams (either love-related or financial), thus you are safe emotionally and monetarily.
Talking about scams, Goldman Sachs is using Generative AI to develop new trading strategies to put everyone out of business. Just kidding, they cannot put everyone out of business or otherwise, there will be an uprising against them (Realistically, History tells us that).
Sea of Amazing Products
AI can be (is being actually) used to create products and services that were not possible before and in a really short period. It’s better than innovation, right?
For Example, Generative AI can be used to create personalized educational material(How to learn Python with books for book wizards or courses for visual learners or a combination of both ), Custom clothing (Just like the elite class) and new forms of entertainment (Bye Bye everything, but it depends on your personal preference).
Talking about amazing things, General Motors is using (or taking a good amount of help) generative AI to design a JET Engine. (Now that is Something good)
But now, it is the TIME.
Time to go for the dark side.
Negative Side of Generative AI
Everything has a negative side somehow (Duality works that way in our real world). We cannot assume everything is like sunshine and rainbows.
Job Displacement
It is one of the biggest concerns about Generative AI that it could lead to widespread job displacement(800 million to be exact by 2030) because every company and organization regardless of its size and market share wants to reduce its labour cost.
The reality is, that Generative AI will become more efficient for complex tasks, and jobs will be lost in the name of automation. This could be even the loss of millions of jobs around the world particularly in industries that are heavily reliant on labour.
This could include manual labour workers and some jobs related to data like data entry or data analysis (it will be polished). These are just such examples. But the fact is, some jobs related to building AI systems will also be automated. Yup, AI Engineers and data scientists will transform themselves as well but they cannot be properly automated though. (It is what it is)
Economic Inequality
Well, that is something no one has ever wondered I suppose. Generative AI is a complex tool to build and manage, that requires sophisticated knowledge from humans which comes at a good cost. That means, people who are already wealthy can use and would use it (Why wouldn’t they) to gain more money, power and sustainability for their wealth. And they are already most likely to be Top 1 or 2% (My observation).
These people or organizations will have an unfair advantage concerning their possible competitors or small businesses which will lead to greater market share and their dominance in the business. Just like the Goldman Sachs example I gave above.
Horrors of War and Misinformation
Many of us have seen deep fakes of Obama a million times and Trump’s photos and videos were so widespread that the government had to intervene and clear the fog on the matter. These are just small ripples for a possible humongous Tsunami because the manipulation of information has become so easy and effective at the same time with Generative AI that the smallest mistakes can initiate a Global War or Crisis.
Generative AI can create hoaxes and propaganda that could undermine people’s trust in any organization, company or Country and tear apart social cohesion.
Steps to Improve the Negative Impact of Generative AI
There are still some measures we can take to minimize the Negative impact of Generative AI.
Invest in education and training of people in transitioning them to new jobs or upgrading them so that they are less likely to spin in the swirl of automation and lose their jobs.
Regulate Generative AI to prevent its use in the scamming industry, malicious purposes, defamation or cyberbullying.
People who have already lost their jobs to AI should be taken care of either through compensation **or better **give them new jobs by equipping them with new skills related to Generative AI.
Support the development of new industries and businesses that are creating new jobs and economic opportunities either with Generative AI or other fields.
By taking these steps, we can minimize the risk of Negative Impacts of Generative AI.
Factors That Limit Generative AI Economic Impact
The time it will take the Generative AI to be widely adopted. AI is still in the early stages of development and it will consume its fair share of time to be merged in society and business.
The availability of Skilled People in Generative AI can also limit its growth. Generative AI systems are sophisticated and require special skills to train and use them.
Generative AI requires a good amount of money to build and deploy. So, the people or organizations who have access to vast amounts of wealth will enjoy economic control. That could also limit the Generative AIs’ Economic Impact.
Generative is trained on a set of data and information but if the information is biased towards a particular set of people, it will create biased responses against those people that could slow the growth of Generative AI.
Final Thoughts
One way to ensure Generative AI is used for the good of people and humanity is to make sure that it is used ethically and responsibly. This can be ensured by creating proper guidelines for its use and implementing those guidelines. It should also be ensured that no specific group of people take advantage of the economic aspect of Generative Artificial Intelligence but everyone is given a good opportunity to benefit from it.
If you have enjoyed it, Do give a Follow for the Upcoming Articles.
Thanks for Reading, Happy Learning!
Top comments (0)