The Workers Who Lost Their Jobs To AI

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'One day I overheard my boss saying: just put it in ChatGPT': the workers who lost their jobs to AI

The increasing sophistication and adoption of Artificial Intelligence are no longer abstract future concepts but a present-day reality reshaping the workforce, as detailed in a recent Guardian piece. The story gives voice to journalists, illustrators, copywriters, and voice actors who have found their livelihoods threatened or lost to AI tools, raising critical questions about the future of creative professions and the ethical implications of this technological shift.

Mateusz Demski, a journalist from Poland who lost his radio job, describes a particularly jarring experience when his former station introduced AI hosts:

One of the first shows they did was a live "interview" with Polish poet Wisawa Szymborska, winner of the 1996 Nobel prize for literature, who had died 12 years earlier. What are the ethics of using the likeness of a dead person? Szymborska is a symbol of Polish intellectual culture, so it caused outrage. I couldn't understand it: radio is created by people for other people. We cannot replace our experiences, emotions or voices with avatars.

Annabel Beales, a copywriter from the UK, shared her dismay after her dream job was diminished and then eliminated due to AI:

Around eight months in, I noticed I was getting less work. One day, I overheard my boss saying to a colleague, "Just put it in ChatGPT." The marketing department started to use it more often to write their blogs, and they were just asking me to proofread [...] The company's website is sad to see now. It's all AI-generated and factual - there's no substance, or sense of actually enjoying gardening. AI scares the hell out of me. I feel devastated for the younger generation - it's taking all the creative jobs.

As these personal accounts highlight the human cost and ethical dilemmas of AI replacing human roles, it makes one wonder: Beyond economic efficiency, what societal values do we risk eroding when we prioritize automated content generation over human creativity, experience, and ethical oversight, and what responsibilities do companies and policymakers have in navigating this transition?

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