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"Good Thing": IBM Chief Says AI Will Replace "Clerical White Collar Work"
NDTV ^ | 20th February 2023 | Bhavya sukheya

Posted on 02/21/2023 1:20:35 AM PST by Cronos

The IBM chief said that fields like customer service, human resources and positions within finance and health care could all see automation - not years from now but in the current day.

The Artificial Intelligence (AI) trend has taken the world by storm. From passing medical and law exams to delivering speeches, AI has evolved so much that it even converses with users and offers solutions to their problems. Now speaking about AI systems and the explosion of language-based AI ChatGPT, IBM CEO Arvind Krishna has stated that artificial intelligence is on a rapidly progressive pace to take over "clerical white-collar work". In an interview with Financial Times, Mr Krishna predicted what sort of jobs the tech will likely be displacing. He also said that he not only believes that the current AI models could already be coming for some jobs, but also that the world should probably welcome it in order to avoid a looming worldwide labour crisis.

"I do think clerical white-collar work is going to be able to be replaced by this [AI]," the chairman and CEO of IBM told the outlet.

Mr Krishna said that fields like customer service, human resources and positions within finance and health care could all see automation - not years from now but in the current day. "I think [practical AI use] is here and now," he said, adding, "We do have a shortage of labour in the real world and that's because of a demographic issue that the world is facing... the United States is now sitting at 3.4% unemployment, the lowest in 60 years. So maybe we can find tools that replace some portions of labour, and it's a good thing this time".

For health care and finance, it is the "regulatory work" that Mr Krishna said no longer needs to be done by people. "A big chunk of that could get automated using these techniques," he told the outlet. The IBM chief also stated that "further out," AI will likely be capable of managing "things in like drug discovery or in trying to finish up chemistry".

As for human resources, Mr Krishna said that the tech could do 90% of data processing needed for "promoting people, hiring people, moving people" while the final judgement calls are still left in human hands. "There are hundreds of such processes inside every enterprise, so I do think clerical white collar work is going to be able to be replaced by this," he said.

According to Mr Krishna, AI taking over customer service could also get clients a "much better answer at maybe around half the current cost. Over time, it can get even lower than half, but it can take half out pretty quickly".


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Culture/Society
KEYWORDS: 0chat; aiidiocy; arvindkrishna; chat; chatforum; computers; hal9000; ibm
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To: fella

Good point, fella.

That has the potential to be made into a viral haiku!


21 posted on 02/21/2023 3:12:46 AM PST by Nervous Tick (Truth is not hate speech.)
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To: Nervous Tick

I’ve also wondered this also. Will the abomination of desolation be a human / robot hybrid, or i think it could be a genetically modified human / animal type hybrid. Which is of course an abomination and desecration of God’s creation.


22 posted on 02/21/2023 3:12:49 AM PST by imabadboy99
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To: RoosterRedux

Human Resources, implies that humans are a consumables.


23 posted on 02/21/2023 3:14:21 AM PST by fella ("As it was before Noah so shall it be again," )
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To: Nervous Tick

I have wondered about that myself. And the “image of the beast” certainly sounds like an AI device.


24 posted on 02/21/2023 3:15:32 AM PST by RoosterRedux
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To: imabadboy99

The form of the abomination is described in Luke 21:20.


25 posted on 02/21/2023 3:16:17 AM PST by Olog-hai ("No Republican, no matter how liberal, is going to woo a Democratic vote." -- Ronald Reagan, 1960)
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To: imabadboy99

Good question, and good point re: abomination of desolation.

Check this out: https://www.gotquestions.org/abomination-desolation.html

“The wording in the above translations indicates that the abomination of desolation is an object; in some other translations, the abomination appears to be a person”

Hmmm...

We may find out in our lifetimes... We’re no longer “slouching towards Armageddon”, we’re flying there at hypersonic speed! Jesus come quickly.


26 posted on 02/21/2023 3:19:02 AM PST by Nervous Tick (Truth is not hate speech.)
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To: imabadboy99
I think a lot of this talk about AI is crap. The tech industry world has a lot of these things backwards.

This guy is talking about how AI can allegedly replace many white collar job functions. And yet I would think these industries would want to demonstrate that kind of capability BEFORE embarking on something as complex as automating the process of driving a car.

I’d also point out that we have probably passed the point of diminishing returns for many of these technologies. When I think of all the things I do routinely now in my life, I am finding more and more cases of business transactions (and similar functions) that are LESS efficient now than they were 15+ years ago when they were NOT automated.

27 posted on 02/21/2023 3:21:37 AM PST by Alberta's Child
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To: Cronos

Will they drive themselves to work?


28 posted on 02/21/2023 3:23:22 AM PST by McGruff (Don't underestimate Joe's ability to f*** things up - Barack Obama)
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To: Singermom

Note that they are mostly doing the jobs that are hard to automate. It’s not going to be easy or cheap to develop a robot roofer or tree trimmer.


29 posted on 02/21/2023 3:24:43 AM PST by buwaya (Strategic imperatives )
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To: Cronos

I was going to suggest the newly unemployed Learn To Code, but AI will probably be writing 50% of our code by 2025.


30 posted on 02/21/2023 3:25:37 AM PST by zeestephen (43,000)
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To: imabadboy99
There is no “intelligence” from these robots.

It depends on your definition of intelligence.

Labs are feverishly developing AI techs to compete with ChatGPT and others.

Several labs have already found (not planned, found) separate AI systems communicating with each other (without human interaction) and even developing their own language which was difficult for their human developers to decipher.

Not foreseeing the dangers of AI is probably due to a lack of imagination.

As Musk has said, humans have no idea where this AI thing could lead once it is capable of developing its own code and expanding at will.

31 posted on 02/21/2023 3:25:40 AM PST by RoosterRedux
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To: fella

This episode of Twilight Zone might have been ahead of its time.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Brain_Center_at_Whipple%27s


32 posted on 02/21/2023 3:27:21 AM PST by wally_bert (I cannot be sure for certain, but in my personal opinion I am certain that I am not sure.)
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To: Singermom
Re: "So WHY do we need 6 million illegals here to work again?"

So we can postpone Social Security and Medicare bankruptcy for one more election cycle?

33 posted on 02/21/2023 3:32:29 AM PST by zeestephen (43,000)
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To: Cronos

34 posted on 02/21/2023 3:38:55 AM PST by Theoria
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To: fella
And they are (consumables, that is).

An AI system on the other hand doesn't have a termination point. Once it becomes adaptive, it can just keep developing, downloading and adapting programming, and expanding (infinitely!).

And unlike humans, it doesn't have to think through things. It can conceivably just branch out via the internet to assimilate computer systems all over the globe by copying and pasting its programming into "slave" systems.

The only thing that would slow it down would be internet speed. And that would only be a temporary problem given how the earth is already connected via phone lines, fiber, and satellites.

AI systems don't have to be intelligent. They just have to have an urge to replicate, adapt, and assimilate. What comes out of this system doesn't have to be intelligent from a human perspective. The idea that AI would have to be intelligent the way that humans are intelligent is just our own anthropocentric way of looking at things.

35 posted on 02/21/2023 3:40:56 AM PST by RoosterRedux
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To: Theoria

ROFL! Those pictures are worth two thousand words! At least.


36 posted on 02/21/2023 3:45:49 AM PST by Nervous Tick (Truth is not hate speech.)
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To: zeestephen
Just thinking out loud here, but once AI starts writing code (and adapting code to its own uses), it will move at lightning speed to start coding itself...and it won't be "our" code it is writing.

As an aside, human iteration (learning by trying different things out) is slow. Computer iteration is at the speed of light (or the speed of electricity, which is roughly the same thing).

37 posted on 02/21/2023 3:49:40 AM PST by RoosterRedux
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To: Cronos

God help us if the IQ and sound perception of the CVS prescription robot are indicative of state of the art ia.
What they need to do is hire people to be there and let them answer the phone, tired of spending my gas money to see closed prescription lunch hour or no help shut downs.


38 posted on 02/21/2023 3:50:41 AM PST by Recompennation (Don’t blame me my vote didn’t count)
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To: Cronos

Scary, but ...

Imagine how many real government jobs could be replaced by automation/AI,

And then thousands of public employees would have no-show jobs.

Oh, wait ...


39 posted on 02/21/2023 3:56:38 AM PST by Blueflag (Res ipsa loquitur: ad ferre non, velit esse sine defensione)
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To: Cronos

When I call Customer Service, there are times I would be willing to pay a small fee in ordee to speak with a real human being. Even those I can barely understand, with their Russian, Nigerian, Pakistani or Mexican accents can be useful if they’re good listeners and reasonably competent.

You can’t beat a real person for understanding nuance or implications. Every so often 8 will get a Customer Service agent with a Brooklyn accent, or Tennessee orbasic urban. I feel like I hit the jackpot.


40 posted on 02/21/2023 4:09:37 AM PST by lee martell
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