AI has been the talk of the town with its scope and widespread applications and especially after the explosion of ChatGPT and other generative tools. Just like any technology, people are apprehensive and rather afraid of AI because they feel that AI will take up their jobs. However, as per a recent study conducted by Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), there is no need to worry about AI in terms of job displacement in near term. The study dispels the widespread notion of job losses after AI amalgamation of business.
AI Technology Currently Not Cost Effective
When the cost effectiveness of automating tasks via AI was studied by researchers, it was found out that the tasks particularly related to the visual assistance by AI could only supplant 23% of workers.
The research by MIT researchers highlighted that it is still expensive to install, deploy and operate AI assisted visual recognition whereas the human labour is more economical in numerous ways.
It was through online surveys collected on approximately 1000 visually assisted tasks across 800 occupations that the study was conducted. As per the MIT-IBM Watson AI Lab funded study, the cost to benefit ratio of computer vision is only deemed favourable in the sectors like healthcare, retail, warehousing and transportation. The low cost to benefit ratio is driven by high data costs and low accuracy, but if scenario would reverse, which means a low data costs and high accuracy, then the number of tasks that can be replaced by AI would rise from current 3% to 40% by 2030.
MIT Study Challenges Job Displacement Fears
As per the International Monetary Fund, 40% of all global jobs could be affected by AI, but the study by MIT researchers said that currently AI is not positioned in a way currently that it can replace the majority of jobs.
Mustafa Suleyman, co-founder of Inflection AI as well as Google’s DeepMind said that the AI systems are “fundamentally labor-replacing tools.
