More ChatGPT and what is new in PyScript
Will ChatGPT put 300 million out of a job and is it even legal? I also look at the new features in PyScript and use ChatGPT to create a Streamlit dashboard.
The robots are coming. Again. And this time it’s the generative AI that’s threatening to disrupt the labour market. According to a report from the investment bank Goldman Sachs, generative AI, which, as we know, is capable of creating content that is almost indistinguishable from human work, is predicted to replace the equivalent of 300 million full-time jobs.
But more of that later.
I’ve not been totally in the grip of ChatGPT, recently, I’ve also managed to look at another of my favourite technologies: PyScript. I’ve been looking at the new features that have emerged since last year and have used them to produce an interactive web app. You can see the results of my efforts here:
What’s new in PyScript in 2023:
Since I last wrote about PyScrypt (Hello PyScript) there have been two updates — versions 2022.09.1 and 2022.12.1 — and we no longer seem to be in alpha territory.
PyScript, Pandas and Plotly: an Interactive Web App
The new version of PyScript makes interaction with a web page easier with support for many more user events, and a Javascript interface allows us to use Plotly for the charts.
On the ChatGPT front, I’ve looked at the reports that it might be breaking the open source licences of the code that it is trained on.
Will ChatGPT Kill Open Source and Is It Even Legal?
Time and a lawsuit will tell but there is a large question mark over generative AI and its use of copyrighted material
And I’ve been using it to produce Streamlit code, here.
How I used ChatGPT to Build a Streamlit Dashboard App
Using CO² emission data I created a dashboard app in Streamlit with ChatGPT and no coding
But back to the loss of 300 million jobs, here is a complete article.
ChatGPT-like AI Could Replace the Equivalent of 300m Workers
A new Goldman Sachs report will be scary reading for some.
Artificial intelligence (AI) has made remarkable advancements over the last few years, and LLMs like ChatGPT, appear to be on the brink of causing major changes to our working lives.
A new report from the investment bank Goldman Sachs says that “If generative AI delivers on its promised capabilities, the labour market could face significant disruption”.
Job losses but increased productivity
The report predicts that generative AI could replace the equivalent of 300 million full-time jobs. However, the report also notes that, in the next 10 years, AI may create new jobs and fuel a productivity boom which could increase the total annual value of goods and services produced globally by 7%.
Generative AI, capable of creating content indistinguishable from human work, is “a major advancement,” the report says. It is capable of writing software, holding conversations, and even composing poetry. Since the launch of OpenAI’s ChatGPT in November, many tech companies have been looking to capitalize on it.
Microsoft is incorporating ChatGPT into its Bing search engine, and its office suite Microsoft 365 where it can summarise discussion points from the meeting software, Teams, create PowerPoint presentations, draft emails and create summaries and graphs of data in Excel spreadsheets. Search giant Google has also revealed its own ChatGPT rival called Bard.
Goldman Sachs predicts that generative AI could impact up to two-thirds of US jobs and replace up to 50% of the workload of those affected. With 7% of US jobs being replaced by AI, 63% being complemented by it, and 30% not being affected by it.
Jobs at the greatest risk of task replacement are, not surprisingly, office and administrative support positions, followed by legal positions and architecture and engineering jobs. Also unsurprising is the prediction that AI will have little impact on manual jobs such as cleaning and maintenance, installation and repair, and construction.
Lower wages
However, apart from the direct impact on the way people work, there is also a concern that generative AI could drive down wages, especially in creative industries. Journalists, for example, may face more competition, which could reduce their wages unless there is a significant increase in demand for such work. And artists and designers could find some of their work taken over by image generation AI like DALL-E.
Talking to BBC News Carl Benedikt Frey, future of-work director at the Oxford Martin School, Oxford University, gave Uber as an example of a technology-driven company that made changed the market for drivers. “Suddenly,” he said, “knowing all the streets in London had much less value” and that the result was “lower wages, not fewer drivers”. He believes that AI could have a similar effect.
The impact of AI on the labour market is likely to be significant, and it is essential to focus on both the potential living standards gains and the risks of falling behind if firms and economies fail to adapt to technological change.
Will it really happen
However, predicting the impact of technology is tricky and the report concludes that the impact of AI will “ultimately depend on its capability and adoption timeline — and uncertainty around both of these factors is sufficiently high that we are not incorporating our findings into our baseline economic forecasts at this time”.
Whether Goldman’s predictions are completely on the nail or not, it is clear that AI will have a significant disruptive impact on the world of work. the trick will be to ensure that the benefits of higher productivity will accrue to society as a whole and not just the owners of the technology.
Thanks for reading, I hope you found it interesting. You can download the complete report here.