The impact of artificial intelligence on the workplace has been a mystery, with some companies increasing hiring while others decrease it. However, the doomsday scenarios predicting that AI will render most people redundant may have been confirmed in an article published by BBC two days ago. The report detailed the story of an entire team of 60 people being replaced by an employee who only used ChatGPT, and then he was also fired.
According to the report, Miller was employed by a company that resells data, responsible for leading the content creation team. He led a team of over 60 writers and editors, publishing blog posts and articles to promote a tech company that packaged and resold data on real estate, used cars, and more. "It was very interesting work," Miller said, a chance to showcase creativity and collaborate with various experts.
However, this situation did not last long when company leaders decided to introduce automation for content creation. Initially, ChatGPT was only used to generate outlines for articles, which were then written by the human team. But soon, ChatGPT was asked to write entire articles, with humans only needing to edit them to sound more human.
In less than a year, only the former team leader Miller was left—this time, with the help of the OpenAI robot, Miller completed all the work of the team:
"Most of the time, I just organized the articles to make them sound less awkward, deleting overly formal or enthusiastic language," Miller said. "The editing work was more than what I did for human writers, but it was always monotonous. The real problem was that the editing work was too repetitive and boring. I started to feel like a robot."
Then, in April 2024, he was also fired.
Miller's story may first make freelancers feel the threat of AI, but the possibility of widespread unemployment is relatively low. However, from July 2021 to July 2023, the latest reports from Imperial College London, Harvard Business School, and the German Institute for Economic Research analyzed two million job postings in 61 countries and found a 21% decrease in demand for writers and software developers, followed by graphic design and 3D modeling jobs, down by 17%, and data entry and social media post-production down by 13%.
These temporary jobs are the most susceptible to being replaced by AI automation because they involve hiring employees as needed. It is much easier to try using AI solutions than to screen and hire freelancers.