“AI”’ was Collins Dictionary’s word of the year in 2023, and this ambiguous buzzword in many industries seems to be humming around the ears of many. Is it possible to predict the implications AI may have on the job market, and should students be aware of its looming presence on their future livelihoods? What effects will AI like Chat-GPT have in academic settings? Within global capitalist economies, the advent of AI has made labour markets — such as Ireland’s — a prime target; 30% of jobs could be in danger. Are students prepared?
The prevalence of AI in the labour market will unilaterally affect every job to varying degrees. According to the Irish Department of Finance’s report on AI, people in the fields of hospitality and retail are the most at risk of losing their jobs.
Female-dominated fields are primary targets, with nearly 40% of jobs carried out by women found to be in danger.
The report also notes AI will reduce the demand for labour, with administration and data-entry level tasks the most vulnerable to be absorbed by the technology. This will, in turn, enhance the competitiveness for entry-level positions.
Natalia Timulakova, a fourth-year psychology student from Dublin, stressed the need for regulation and education.“I don’t see AI going anywhere,” she said. Her primary experience with AI mainly encompasses trying out Chat-GPT, but her friends in “tech-related fields and businesses would hear more mention about how private companies are investing in AI”.
“‘Experience with it is essential in a competitive labour market’”
Another fourth-year studying computer science student at Trinity from Slane, stated that: “whilst AI has always been there in the computer industry, it is becoming unavoidable nowadays”, citing how: “experience with it is essential in a competitive labour market”. But there is no AI widely-available on the market that could capsize humanity. “Trusting AI is like trusting a parrot (granted, a parrot who has heard an awful lot of words),” they said. “I think knowing that helps to ease the existential dread”.
Timulakova similarly noted the impossibility of AI removing humans from the workplace just yet however, she did note the dangers of avoiding the technology entirely: “When the internet first came about, there were similar worries about its misuse and effects…with time people learn how to look out for red flags”.
Brian Kelleher, a third-year economics and maths Naughton Scholar at Trinity, has extensive experience in the mechanics of AI as the founder of Micro-doc, a “digital assistant for doctors” with a specific language model that offers automated services for medical paperwork. He believes that in our lifetimes, AI will uproot much of the labour market, with even white collar or “safe jobs” potentially in danger.
“This technology probably already exists [to replace mankind]. The challenges are much more to do with adoption, legal frameworks, and regulation impediments, than any technical ones. It’s a question of integrating this technology into the existing structures in our life.”
Without compounding into an existential crisis over doomsday sci-fi scenarios, or dismissing AI as a temporal phase, what are the red flags we should be on the lookout for?
“The solution offered… is to restructure education, and to develop different skills to work in tandem with this technology”
The National Council of Skills Preliminary Report emphasises the importance of working with these technologies. The solution offered by this research is to restructure education, and to develop different skills to work in tandem with this technology. Has this been implemented yet?
Talk of Chat-GPT floods nearly every introductory lecture, with warnings of its use being regarded as plagiarism. However, detection is difficult, and it is increasingly easy for students to “cheat” with proper use of such language models. Many lecturers may cite their disappointment with its impact on essay-based assignments, and feel the need to shift to sit-down examinations to avoid blatant abuse of the programmes, but do not address how one could proactively use AI in an ethical and acceptable way. “I think it is more important to adapt to the new opportunities that the technology provides, I could definitely see it being useful in helping students manage more mundane tasks,” Timulakova said. The changing labour market provides an opportunity to give “humans more nuanced tasks, with the tedious jobs left to artificial intelligence”, essentially enhancing the efficiency and output of many industries.
Kelleher also recognised AI’s potential. However, he is of “two minds” when it comes to its use in education. While for him it could be viewed as a “personalised tutor in your pocket” for “filling in gaps of understanding”, he stressed the potential dangers.
“Mastery and innovation require a deep understanding of the fundamentals so that you can apply them in novel and unexpected ways. If you abdicate that deep understanding in AI, you will never innovate.”
The question of how to use AI without completely giving up on your own education and knowledge is integral to the future. In the meantime, developing a strong ability to understand and operate AI systems is a necessity.
“‘It’s not unreasonable to think that this progress will continue, and our capacity to innovate will become redundant’”
“Already,” Kelleher said, “we are seeing superintelligent AI systems like O1 from OpenAI surpass even the most intelligent people in reasoning capabilities, so it’s not unreasonable to think that this progress will continue, and our capacity to innovate will become redundant.”
His work with AI started at just fourteen. From building machine learning models to predicting house prices, to working with a startup in Dublin at eighteen to create image recognition models for weighbridges, Kelleher knows both the positives and the negatives of the rise of AI.
“Even anecdotally, I find in my everyday life that I’m ten times more productive when using AI than I was before.” He has found that AI can increase productivity across the board, in turn automating even “traditionally white collar professions, such as doctors and lawyers”. Consequently, the economic imbalance as a result of the increasing development of AI by the minority must be considered. As Kelleher proposed: “I think certainly we’re going to have to have extremely aggressive redistributive taxation policies because the existing unequal effects of contemporary capitalism will be intensified with AI”.
This economic element is key to the introduction of artificial intelligence. AI’s production of better services and better medical care has the enormous inverse potential to majorly and irrevocably reduce the earning power of some professions, as well as the complete elimination of certain occupations for humans. However, Kelleher stressed that provided there are strong safety nets, the expansion of AI may be worthwhile. Thus, the result of this question of automation, while potentially revolutionary or apocalyptic, will not be due to the tech itself, but because of a capitalistic means of production by humans.
To ignore AI therefore: “is an exercise in ignorance, and a fool’s errand”. AI’s increasing imposition in people’s daily lives, at college or in the workplace, good or bad, is not a far off reality.
