KUALA LUMPUR (March 27): A new research paper has posited that a vast amount of employees could see their careers impacted by the rise of ChatGPT, the intelligent chatbot released in November.
In a mainly US-centric study, researchers from OpenAI and the University of Pennsylvania argued that 80% of the US workforce could have at least 10% of their work tasks affected by the introduction of ChatGPT.
The researchers found that while higher-income jobs will likely have greater exposure to generative pre-trained transformers (GPTs), it will span across almost all industries.
They investigated the potential implications of large language models (LLMs), such as GPTs, on the US labour market, focusing on the increased capabilities arising from LLM-powered software compared to LLMs on their own.
The projected effects span all wage levels, with higher-income jobs potentially facing greater exposure to LLM capabilities and LLM-powered software.
Significantly, these impacts are not restricted to industries with higher recent productivity growth.
Economic impacts of automation technologies
The researchers said a large and growing body of literature addresses the labour market impacts of AI and automation technologies.
The concept of skill-biased technological change and the task model of automation — often considered the standard framework for understanding technology’s influence on labour — originated from research demonstrating that technological progress raises the demand for skilled workers over unskilled workers.
The findings indicated that the importance of science and critical thinking skills are strongly negatively associated with exposure, suggesting that occupations requiring these skills are less likely to be impacted by current LLMs.
Conversely, programming and writing skills show a strong positive association with exposure, implying that occupations involving these skills are more susceptible to being influenced by LLMs.
The analysis suggests that individuals holding Bachelor’s, Master’s, and professional degrees are more exposed to LLMs and LLM-powered software than those without formal educational credentials.
The study found that mathematicians, interpreters, accountants, legal secretaries, writers and authors are some of the jobs to have the highest levels of exposure.
