Latest news with #knowledge work
Gizmodo
31-07-2025
- Business
- Gizmodo
Microsoft Predicts These Jobs Are Safe From AI
Much ink has already been spilled about the threat of AI to various labor markets. As new forms of automation seep into industries, folks want to know which jobs are endangered and which are safe. Well, a new study published by Microsoft researchers purports to show which positions have the most AI 'applicability,' and which do not. From the research, you might assume you could predict which careers have longevity and which may soon go the way of the Dodo—although the report itself denies that this is necessarily the case. Microsoft's study was compiled by analyzing queries entered into its search engine chatbot, Bing Copilot. The goal of the research was to analyze 'what work activities users are seeking AI assistance with, what activities the AI performs, and what this means about occupations,' the report states. From its research, Microsoft developed what it calls an 'AI applicability score,' which measures whether a particular vocation can productively apply AI in its activities or not. The score 'allows us to track the frontier of AI's relevance to work,' researchers write. Frequently, in jobs where AI ranks relatively high in terms of applicability, the technology 'often acts in a service role to the human as a coach, advisor, or teacher that gathers information and explains it to the user,' the report claims. 'We find the highest AI applicability scores for knowledge work occupation groups such as computer and mathematical, and office and administrative support, as well as occupations such as sales whose work activities involve providing and communicating information,' it continues. The 40 occupations with the highest AI 'applicability' score are as follows: As you can see, most of the jobs here are so-called 'knowledge economy' jobs—careers that involve learning about, analyzing, and communicating specialized information. On the other hand, the jobs that don't have much AI applicability are decidedly more blue-collar. They are as follows: As you can see, my job (writer) scores relatively high on the scale of positions that could be exposed to automation. On the other hand, job categories such as 'dishwasher,' 'cement mason,' 'gas pumping station operator,' 'floor sander,' 'motorboat operator,' 'hazardous waste removal worker,' and 'embalmer,' all rank relatively low on that same scale. One would think that you wouldn't need to do a whole study to come to these conclusions, but here we are. Microsoft's study claims that there isn't necessarily a positive correlation between activities that AI can do and jobs that will soon find themselves on the chopping block. It states: 'It is tempting to conclude that occupations that have high overlap with activities AI performs will be automated and thus experience job or wage loss, and that occupations with activities AI assists with will be augmented and raise wages,' the report states. 'This would be a mistake, as our data do not include the downstream business impacts of new technology, which are very hard to predict and often counterintuitive.' It makes sense that Microsoft would want to downplay the disruptive potential of its new technology. Yet if recent history is to be considered (i.e. layoffs in industries where AI has seen inroads—like coding), it may not actually be all that difficult to predict how things will pan out, at least in the short term. We'll probably see a lot of embarrassing efforts to fire people and hire AI being reversed before the god-machine ever graces us with its presence. So, if you've always dreamed of making a living by dipping corpses in preservative liquid in preparation for their journey into the afterlife, good news! You will probably be able to have a career that is relatively unperturbed by AI, and there's very little chance that a chatbot (or robot) will take job opportunities away from you. If, on the other hand, you aspire to a lot in life that doesn't involve cleaning plates, felling trees, disposing of plutonium, or consorting with dead bodies, there may be little hope for you.
Yahoo
25-07-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Meta is shelling out big bucks to get ahead in AI. Here's who it's hiring
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg is on a mission for his company to be the first to reach so-called artificial superintelligence — generally considered to mean AI that's better than all humans at all knowledge work. It's a nebulous and likely far-out concept that some analysts say may not immediately benefit the company's core business. Yet Zuckerberg is shelling out huge sums to build an all-star team of researchers and engineers to beat OpenAI and other rivals to it. Zuckerberg's recruiting spree, which has reportedly included multimillion-dollar pay packages to lure top talent away from key rivals, has kicked off a talent race within the AI industry. Last month, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman claimed Meta was offering his employees $100 million signing bonuses to switch companies. And just this week, Google CEO Sundar Pichai was asked during an earnings call about his company's status in the AI talent war, a sign that Wall Street is now also invested in the competition. The stakes are high for Zuckerberg — after Meta's pivot to the metaverse fell flat, he's reoriented the company around AI in hopes of being a leader in the next transformational technology wave. The company has invested billions in data centers and chips to power its AI ambitions that it's now under pressure to deliver on. Unlike other tech giants, Meta doesn't have a cloud computing business to generate immediate revenue from those infrastructure investments. And the company is coming from somewhat behind competitors, after reported delays in releasing the largest version of its new Llama 4 AI model. 'That's the Llama 4 lesson: You can have hundreds of thousands of (GPU chips), but if you don't have the right team developing the model, it doesn't matter,' said D.A. Davidson analyst Gil Luria. But more than anything, Zuckerberg appears to be in a circle of Silicon Valley 'AI maximalists' that believe the technology will change everything about how we live and work. Becoming a leader in the space is essential to Meta and other companies whose leaders follow that line of thinking, Luria said. 'For our superintelligence effort, I'm focused on building the most elite and talent-dense team in the industry,' Zuckerberg said in a Threads post earlier this month. Meta last month invested $14.3 billion in data labeling startup Scale AI. Scale founder and then-CEO Alexandr Wang joined the social media giant as part of the deal, along with several of Scale's other top employees. Wang is now leading the new Meta Superintelligence Labs team, along with former GitHub CEO Nat Friedman. 'My job is to make amazing AI products that billions of people love to use,' Friedman said in an X post earlier this month. 'It won't happen overnight, but a few days in, I'm feeling confident that great things are ahead.' On Friday, Zuckerberg announced that Shengjia Zhao, one of the co-creators of ChatGPT who Meta hired away from OpenAI several weeks ago, will be chief scientist of Meta Superintelligence Labs. Zhao will 'set the research agenda and scientific direction' for the team, Zuckerberg said. (Meta's existing chief scientist, Yann LeCun, who has been with the company for more than a decade, will remain in his position leading the company's Fundamental AI Research team, a spokesperson confirmed.) In recent weeks, Meta has also attracted top researchers and engineers from Apple, Google and Anthropic. Multiple news outlets, including Bloomberg, Wired and The Verge, have reported that Meta has, in some cases, offered pay packages worth hundreds of millions of dollars to new AI hires. It's a sign of just how far Zuckerberg is willing to go in his quest to win the AI superintelligence race, although the Meta chief has pushed back on some of the reporting around the compensation figures. It is with that mission that Meta's new team will be working to build superintelligence. Here are some of the most prominent recent hires to the team. This list was compiled based on public statements, social media profiles and posts, and news reports, and may not be exhaustive. Meta declined to comment on this story. Zuckerberg's drive to get ahead on AI may be rooted in part in his desire to own a foundational platform for the next major technology wave. Meta lost the race to control the operating systems for the mobile web era in the early 2000s and 2010s, which Apple and Google won. In recent years, he has not been shy about expressing his frustration with having to pay fees to app store operators and comply with their policies. Meta recently partnered with Amazon Web Services on a program to support startups that want to build on its Llama AI model, in an effort to make its technology essential to businesses emerging during the AI boom. Although AI has benefitted Meta's core advertising business, some analysts question how Zuckerberg's quest for 'superintelligence' will benefit the company. Emarketer senior analyst Minda Smiley said she expects Meta executives to face tough questions during the company's earnings call next week about how its superintelligence ambitions 'align with the company's broader business roadmap.' 'Its attempts to directly compete with the likes of OpenAI … are proving to be more challenging for the company while costing it billions of dollars,' Smiley said. But as its core business continues to grow rapidly, Meta has the money to spend to build its team and 'steal' from rivals, said CFRA Research analyst Angelo Zino. And, at least for now, investors seem to be here for it — the company's shares have risen around 20% since the start of this year. And if Zuckerberg succeeds with his vision, it could propel Meta far beyond a social media company. 'I think Mark's in a manifest destiny point of his career,' said Zack Kass, an AI consultant and former OpenAI go-to-market lead. 'He always wants to point to Facebook groups as being this way that he is connecting the world … And if he can build superintelligence that cures cancer, he doesn't have to talk about Facebook groups anymore as being his like lasting legacy.' Sign in to access your portfolio
