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Site: Wired

Genre: Article

Title: "AI Is Rewiring Coders’ Brains. Yours May Be Next"

Link: https://www.wired.com/story/fast-forward-ai-rewiring-coders-brains-github-copilot/

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Many people-like, say, journalists-are understandably antsy about what generative artificial intelligence might mean for the future of their profession. It doesn't help that expert prognostications on the matter offer a confusing cocktail of wide-eyed excitement, trenchant skepticism, and dystopian despair.

Some workers are already living in one potential version of the generative AI future, though: computer programmers.

"Developers have arrived in the age of AI," says Thomas Dohmke, CEO of GitHub. "The only question is, how fast do you get on board? Or are you going to be stuck in the past, on the wrong side of the 'productivity polarity'?"

In June 2021, GitHub launched a preview version of a programming aid called Copilot, which uses generative AI to suggest how to complete large chunks of code as soon as a person starts typing. Copilot is now a paid tool and a smash hit. GitHub's owner, Microsoft, said in its latest quarterly earnings that there are now 1.3 million paid Copilot accounts-a 30 percent increase over the previous quarter-and noted that 50,000 different companies use the software.

Dohmke says the latest usage data from Copilot shows that almost half of all the code produced by users is AI-generated. At the same time, he claims there is little sign that these AI programs can operate without human oversight. "There's clear consensus from the developer community after using these tools that it needs to be a pair-programmer copilot," Dohmke says.

Copilot's power is in how it abstracts away complexity for a programmer trying to work through a problem, Dohmke says. He likens that to the way modern programming languages hide fiddly details that earlier, lower-level languages required coders to wrangle. Dohmke adds that younger programmers are particularly accepting of Copilot, and that it seems especially helpful in solving novice coding problems. (This makes sense if you consider that Copilot learned from reams of code posted online, where solutions to beginner problems outnumber examples of abstruse and rarified coding craft.)

"We're seeing the evolution of software development," Dohmke says.

None of that means demand for developers' labor won't be altered by AI. GitHub research in collaboration with MIT shows that Copilot allowed coders faced with relatively simple tasks to complete their work, on average, 55 percent more quickly. This increase in productivity suggests that companies could get the same work done with fewer programmers, but companies could use those savings to spend more on labor in other projects.

Even for non-coders, these findings-and the rapid uptake of Copilot-are potentially instructive. Microsoft is developing AI Copilots, as it calls them, designed to help write emails, craft spreadsheets, or analyze documents for its Office software. It even introduced a Copilot key to the latest Windows PCs, its first major keyboard button change in decades. Competitors like Google are building similar tools. GitHub's success might be helping to drive this push to give everyone an AI workplace assistant.

"There's good empirical evidence and data around the GitHub Copilot and the productivity stats around it," Microsoft's CEO, Satya Nadella, said on the company's most recent earnings call. He added that he expects similar gains to be felt among users of Microsoft's other Copilots. Microsoft has created a site where you can try its Copilot for Windows. I confess it isn't clear to me how similar the tasks you might want to do on Windows are to the ones you do in GitHub Copilot, where you use code to achieve clear objectives.

There are other potential side effects of tools like GitHub Copilot besides job displacement. For example, increased reliance on automation might lead to more errors creeping into code. One recent study claimed to find evidence of such a trend-although Dohmke says that it reported only a general increase in mistakes since Copilot was introduced, not direct evidence that the AI helper was causing an increase in errors. While this is true, it seems fair to worry that less experienced coders might miss errors when relying on AI help, or that the overall quality of code might decrease thanks to autocomplete.

Given Copilot's popularity, it won't be long before we have more data on that question. Those of us who work in other jobs may soon find out whether we're in for the same productivity gains as coders-and the corporate upheavals that come with them.

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AI Is Rewiring Coders' Brains. Yours May Be Next

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The CEO of GitHub says half of all code produced by users of the Copilot programming helper is now AI-generated-but that there's no sign the technology will replace human coders.

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Site: Forbes

Genre: Article

Title: "The Gig Economy and Automation: How AI and Robots Will Impact the Future of Work"

Link: https://www.forbes.com/sites/ashleystahl/2021/03/10/how-ai-will-impact-the-future-of-work-and-life/#:~:text=Rather%20than%20promoting%20the%20obsolescence,the%20creation%20of%20more%20jobs.

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Site: The Guardian

Genre: Article

Title: "Automation and AI: How Machines Are Affecting People and Places"

Link: https://www.theguardian.com/business/2024/mar/12/workplace-ai-robots-trackers-quality-of-life-institute-for-work

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Exposure to new technologies including trackers, robots and AI-based software at work is bad for people's quality of life, according to a groundbreaking study from the the Institute for Work thinktank.

Based on a survey of more than 6,000 people, the study analysed the impact on wellbeing of four groups of technologies that are becoming increasingly prevalent across the economy.

The authors found that the more workers were exposed to technologies in three of these categories - software based on AI and machine learning; surveillance devices such as wearable trackers; and robotics - the worse their health and wellbeing tended to be.

By contrast, use of more long-established information and communication technologies (ICTs) such as laptops, tablets and instant messaging at work tended to have a more positive effect on wellbeing.

"We found that quality of life improved as the frequency of interaction with ICTs increased, whereas quality of life deteriorated as frequency of interaction with newer workplace technologies rose," the report said.

While the authors did not directly investigate the causes, they pointed out that their findings were consistent with previous research which showed, "such technologies may exacerbate job insecurity, workload intensification, routinisation and loss of work meaningfulness, as well as disempowerment and loss of autonomy, all of which detract from overall employee wellbeing".

Economists at Goldman Sachs speculated last year that 300m jobs worldwide could be automated out of existence by 2030 as a result of the development of generative AI, with many more roles radically transformed.

Dr Magdalena Soffia, the study's lead author, said it was not necessarily the technologies themselves that are the problem, but the way in which they are adopted.

"We don't want to claim that there is some sort of determinism in what technology causes, in terms of wellbeing," she said. "We say it really depends on the context: on lots of structural factors, on environmental conditions, how it is designed and how it is deployed. So lots of human decisions."

She added that the researchers used a well-established measure of quality of life, EuroQoL EQ-5D-3L, which asks respondents about factors such as their mobility, mental health and pain levels.

"We wanted to give a more multidimensional, nuanced understanding of what was happening in terms of wellbeing. So we used this measure which is a very validated measure, used by the UK public health sector," Soffia said.

Discussing the fillip to quality of life from ICTs, she suggested "one possible potential mechanism is that actually what they do is to streamline work processes, and they make working life a bit more efficient. And that in turn, gives you kind of a sense of achievement."

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By contrast, the findings about trackers and surveillance technologies chime with recent warnings from trades unions and campaigners about the negative impact on workers whose performance is being constantly monitored.

Mary Towers, the TUC's lead on AI, said: "These findings should worry us all. They show that without robust new regulation, AI could make the world of work an oppressive and unhealthy place for many.

"Things don't have to be this way. If we put the proper guardrails in place, AI can be harnessed to genuinely enhance productivity and improve working lives."

The new report forms part of the Pissarides Review into the Future of Work and Wellbeing, being carried out by the IFW in collaboration with Warwick Business School and Imperial College London.

Prof Sir Christopher Pissarides, the veteran economist overseeing the review, said: "As new technologies rapidly reach further into our working lives it is vital that we understand how our interactions with them impact our quality of life."

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Workplace AI, robots and trackers are bad for quality of life, study finds

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Tech such as laptops, tablets and instant messaging has more positive effect on wellbeing, says thinktank

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Site: Journal of Economic Perspectives

Genre: Paper

Title: "Artificial Intelligence and the Future of Work"

Link: https://journals.openedition.org/rei/pdf/8727

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Site: Harvard Business Review

Genre: Paper

Title: "The Future of Employment: How Susceptible Are Jobs to Computerization?"

Link: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/271523899_The_Future_of_Employment_How_Susceptible_Are_Jobs_to_Computerisation#:~:text=It%20is%20no%20exaggeration%20to,(2020).

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Site: International Labour Review

Genre: Paper

Title: "The Implications of AI and Robotics for Work and Employment"

Link: https://www.ilo.org/media/416031/download

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Site: TED

Genre: Talk

Title: "The Rise of the Gig Economy: How to Embrace It"

Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ewelBy30PZ8

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The Gig Revolution | Andreas Hatzigeorgiou | TEDxKTH

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Site: NPR

Genre: Podcast

Title: "The Future of Work: How Will AI and Automation Change Our Lives?"

Link: https://www.npr.org/2023/11/24/1215152748/workers-are-seeing-how-ai-could-change-our-jobs

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Every day in the workplace, people are discovering that artificial intelligence has the potential to change our jobs and our lives - for better or worse.

SCOTT DETROW, HOST:

Artificial intelligence has the potential to fundamentally change our lives for the better and for the worse. That simple truth is fueling the debate in the tech world over how quickly to move forward. It's also on the minds of everyday people as they start using AI in their work. NPR's Andrea Hsu reports.

ANDREA HSU, BYLINE: Baltimore illustrator John de Campos has strong feelings about AI dating back to when he discovered that some of his original work had been used to train AI to be smarter.

JOHN DE CAMPOS: And I'm not famous at all. I'm, like, a very not-well-known dude outside of the world of just Baltimore.

HSU: He joined the ranks of artists denouncing programs that use AI to create images, pointing out that they were built using work like his scraped from the internet without permission.

DE CAMPOS: It's so gross.

HSU: Practically overnight, programs like Midjourney and DALL-E have made it possible for anyone to create highly sophisticated images for fun but also to make money - or, if you're a business, to save money. For de Campos, that's an outrage and a concern.

DE CAMPOS: The fact that human expression and art is now at risk and on the chopping block is just, like, super-duper scary to me.

HSU: Now de Campos is hoping to make a living as a board game designer.

DE CAMPOS: So yeah, here's some of my stuff here.

HSU: In his home studio, he shows me his newest release, Black Mold, which he describes as a survival horror escape. It's played with dice and decks of cards adorned with drawings sprung from his own mind and hand.

DE CAMPOS: This game is massive. There's easily 50 or 60 hours' worth of illustration work in this box.

HSU: It's work that de Campos knows can be done and is being done elsewhere by AI. As disgusted as he is by that, even he has found a use for AI. Nowadays, he uses ChatGPT to write updates for his Kickstarter followers and social media posts to market his games. He starts by dictating instructions into his phone.

DE CAMPOS: I'll say, like, these are the qualities of the game that we're selling. Take all of this information, melt it down into 15 words or less, give me five different versions written to sell this product on Instagram.

HSU: He'll take what he likes, make a few edits, and mission accomplished in a fraction of the time. De Campos says he doesn't have the same ethical issues using AI to generate text as he does with images.

DE CAMPOS: And I think that that's probably a lot of implicit bias, and I'm trying to grapple with being maybe a little hypocritical for using generative text, but I'm kind of figuring it out.

HSU: In Michigan, Ethan Kissel has also been thinking about where to draw the line with AI. He produces television commercials for local businesses like car dealerships, mom-and-pop shops. Lately, he's been turning to ChatGPT for help.

ETHAN KISSEL: It's really good for spitballing ideas.

HSU: Especially for tag lines - that last sentence that's often hard to get right. Kissel found ChatGPT can generate 20, 30, even 50 taglines in 10 seconds.

KISSEL: Most of them are probably trash, but you take a bit from one and a couple words from another and fashion them all together, and suddenly you have something that you actually kind of like.

HSU: He does see a future in which copywriters are no longer needed, and he thinks voice actors who do narration are also at risk. Already, they'll use AI to fix a mispronunciation if they're on deadline. But he's less worried about his own job, which includes shooting and editing video and meeting with clients. Being a jack-of-all-trades, he says, offer some protection.

KISSEL: I don't think it's as scary of a problem for the right now, but it is one that we need to discuss and plan for.

HSU: Because, he says, like it or not, it's what history has always shown us.

KISSEL: Anytime a new technology that helps automate an industry comes out, eventually, that technology costs people jobs.

HSU: Of course, how soon that happens will be shaped by decisions made by actual people - at least for now.

Andrea Hsu, NPR News.

Copyright © 2023 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information.

NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR's programming is the audio record.

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Workers are seeing how AI could change our jobs

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Every day in the workplace, people are discovering that artificial intelligence has the potential to change our jobs and our lives - for better or worse.

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Site: YouTube

Genre: Panel Discussion

Title: "Automation, AI, and the Future of Work: What's Next?"

Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I2xyxABvizM

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Panel discussion on the future of artificial intelligence