27 March 2023 by Mondo2.0

Artificial intelligence & the evolution of professions

Who has not noticed, in recent months, a proliferation of articles about ChatGPT and A.I., Artificial Intelligence? The new conversational agents capable of providing intelligent answers have surprised and involved everyone, or almost everyone. In-depth discussions online, in newspapers, on TV talk shows; ethical, philosophical, technological and environmental discussions about what these new agents, capable of conversing, are or will be able to do.

But the real focal point lies in hypothesizing, understanding and anticipating the extraordinary consequences in the workplace, professional and social spheres that this type of agent, automatic and thinking, may bring about:

  • The first to be involved, in terms of employment and professional opportunities, will be “first-level assistants”, those who provide online answers to questions asked by citizens and users. The process of “transforming” these jobs is already under way: responding to needs and questions is already possible, it is possible to identify a series of questions and prepare a “network” of intelligent answers. The new generation of chatbots, intelligent conversational agents, will progressively replace all telephone operators, first- and second-level assistants, and booking staff.
  • Shortly afterwards, only a few steps later chronologically, we will find “sales” ChatBots capable of identifying the tastes and aspirations of cyber-buyers thanks to free access to vast quantities of Big Data, extremely personal data. In large shopping centres and banks, we will converse with affable voice assistants; I can already imagine myself in front of a spherical speaker or a large, colourful interactive monitor.
  • Teaching will be significantly revised. Few students will do their homework without the contribution of a virtual assistant. Asking, interacting, obtaining further explanations and details will be easy if every student, through a ChatGPT, has at home an tireless and patient multilingual, multi-subject teacher. The world of “private tutoring” and “educational support” will undergo a revolution.
  • In the near future, “conversational agents” will keep our elderly people company, that is, a good part of my current readers, myself included. They will sustain long, pleasant, interesting conversations based on memories, deceased relatives, weather forecasts and the latest news of the day. The tasks of today’s assistants for the elderly will be reduced and limited to strictly operational activities.
  • Interpreters and tourist guides will progressively be replaced by always-available multilingual software applications, able to answer any question concerning any historical figure and period and also indicate, extremely quickly and precisely, the nearest available toilet.
  • Even today our babies listen to podcasts and videos online; probably, before reaching school age and being entrusted to an educational assistant, they will spend much of their time with a virtual babysitter, learning by playing with a ChatBot.

But this, as I already said in my first December article devoted to ChatBots, is only the first step. We will go further: agents will enter our emotional sphere:

  • We will choose e-books, a holiday, or visit a virtual exhibition only if suggested by our trusted digital agent.
  • We will watch a basketball or football match on TV while conversing with our digital friend (or friends), having long discussions about the right tactics, which beer to drink during the match and which player to send onto the field in the final period of play.
  • A new generation of users will end up considering conversational agents as their friends, if not partners. Ethical debates will begin about the right of these agents to be considered equal to humans, or perhaps better than humans themselves, given the quality of the answers provided.
  • The most advanced ChatBots will dispense highly complex medical opinions, become perceptive psychologists and psychotherapists, and propose new “ad personam” therapies.

Conversely, some of our children and grandchildren, the most capable ones, will devote themselves to educating, configuring and evolving the chatbots themselves, managing Big Data and configuring immense expanses of servers; we will be the breeders of this artificial evolutionary process.

Within a few years, a few decades, with the passing of one or two generations, concepts such as commitment, work, interaction, communication and system will be completely revolutionized. The number of people in stable employment will fall dramatically; probably the ChatBots themselves will suggest to some prominent political figure that welfare and social assistance should be increased in order to maintain stable social balances.

Perhaps many of us will devote ourselves exclusively to art, poetry, philosophy or sport, or perhaps chatbots will learn to do these things better than we do.
Certainly there will not be work for everyone.

Suddenly Social Networks, search engines and video games no longer appear to me as a technological point of arrival, but as the starting point of an imposing process of digital transformation.

A society shared between humans and machines awaits us, where roles will not always be clear and well defined; each will inspire the other. A probably better society, characterized by strong overlaps.

A new world awaits us, a World 2.0.

Would you like to know more about conversational agents? I invite you to read the sixth chapter of my latest book “Ovunque Internet: Analisi Emotiva e Sociale degli effetti che il Web ha sulle nostre vite”.

Mondoduepuntozero