It's still 'too soon' to say how AI will affect jobs, researchers say
BERLIN: Using artificial intelligence at work has not caused any discernible damage to employees' mental health or job satisfaction, according to researchers based in Germany, Italy and the US, who nonetheless warn that it is probably "way too soon to draw definitive conclusions" about its effects on jobs.
"So far, we find little evidence that AI adoption has undermined workers' well-being on average," said Luca Stella of the University of Milan and the Berlin School of Economics.
Alarm has been growing over companies' increasingly enthusiastic deployment of chatbots and their possible impact on employment if workers are rendered obsolete by software and machines – and if so-called humanoid robots with AI are mass-produced.
"Public anxiety about AI is real, but the worst-case scenarios are not inevitable," Stella said.
The team cautioned that their work focused on Germany, where AI adoption appears to be behind other countries but where labour laws and rights are arguably stronger.
Published by Nature Scientific Reports, Stella and colleagues' research found that there may be a link between using AI and reported "modest improvements in worker physical health" - a trend that seems to "particularly" be the case for people without a university degree.
The reported improvement in some workers' physical health is likely down to "declining job physical intensity and overall job risk in some of the AI-exposed occupations," the team said.
But the team's journal article says their work used "longitudinal survey data from Germany (2000–2020)," meaning it covered years before the widespread availability of so-called "generative" AI such as ChatGPT, starting in late 2022.
A recent survey by Gallup has found AI use at work to have doubled in the US over the past two years, with uptake highest among so-called white-collar employers, with technology professional services and finance seeing the highest uptakes.
"As AI adoption accelerates, continued monitoring of its broader impacts on work and health is essential," said Osea Giuntella of the University of Pittsburgh, who asserted that "technology alone" is not what will decide how AI affects jobs.
"Institutions and policies will decide whether AI enhances or erodes the conditions of work," Guintella said. – dpa/Tribune News Service
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