Around 80 per cent of US workers could see their jobs impacted by artificial intelligence chatbot ChatGPT, a study found.
ChatGPT is a free AI “chatbot” which can be used to do anything from writing essays to creating diet plans and helping users to apply for jobs.
Spectators have hailed it as one of the biggest technological advances since the invention of the computer or the internet.
OpenAI, the Microsoft-backed tech firm that created the software, claims that 80 per cent of the US workforce could have at least 10 per cent of their work impacted by the technology.
Their research also found that 19 per cent of workers could see as much as 50 per cent of their tasks impacted.
The study adds: “Our analysis indicates that the impacts of LLMs (large-language models) like GPT-4, are likely to be pervasive.”
In addition, researchers found that jobs with higher wages—which can involve the worker performing many software-based tasks—could face more exposure to potential disruption from AI-powered chatbots.
“We discover that roles heavily reliant on science and critical thinking skills show a negative correlation with exposure, while programming and writing skills are positively associated with LLM exposure,” the study says.
OpenAI researchers cataloged which professions could see the most disruption using various measurement rubrics. The most affected professions included interpreters and translators, poets, lyricists and creative writers, public relations specialists, writers and authors, mathematicians, blockchain engineers, accountants and auditors, along with journalists.
The paper also breaks down the ChatGPT impact by industry. Sectors including data processing hosting, publishing industries, and security commodity contracts, saw the most potential exposure to disruption.
In contrast, industries known for manual labour—food services, forestry and logging, social assistance, and food manufacturing—saw the least potential impact.
The paper, titled “An Early Look at the Labor Market Impact Potential of Large Language Models”, can be found on the OpenAI website.
It comes after Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates warned that artificial intelligence will radically change people’s lives as much as computers, the internet and mobile phones.
He said he believes AI will revolutionise the world of work, learning, travel, healthcare, and communication.
Writing in his blog, Gates described how he was left stunned by ChatGPT after challenging OpenAI to train an artificial intelligence to pass an advanced biology exam last year.
"I thought [that] would keep them busy for two or three years. They finished it in a few months," Gates said. "I watched in awe as they asked GPT 60 multiple-choice questions from the AP Bio exam and it got 59 of them right.
"Once it had aced the test, we asked it ‘What do you say to a father with a sick child?’ It wrote a thoughtful answer that was probably better than most of us in the room would have given. I knew I had just seen the most important advance in technology since the graphical user interface [the early version of a computer operating system]."
