Jun 24, 2024 17:00:00

OpenAI CTO says AI may take away creative jobs, but 'it may be better if those jobs didn't exist in the first place'

As generative AI develops rapidly, there are growing concerns that 'human jobs will be taken over by AI,' and it has been pointed out that creators such as illustrators, writers, and musicians may also be adversely affected. Meanwhile, in a discussion at

Dartmouth College in the United States, OpenAI CTO Mira Murati acknowledged the possibility that AI could take over creative jobs, but said, 'It may have been better if those jobs didn't exist in the first place.'

OpenAI CTO Mira Murati Shares Optimism at Th'12 | Dartmouth Engineering
https://engineering.dartmouth.edu/news/openai-cto-mira-murati-th12-shares-optimism-for-ais-future

OpenAI CTO: AI Could Kill Some Creative Jobs That Maybe Shouldn't Exist Anyway | PCMag
https://www.pcmag.com/news/openai-cto-mira-murati-ai-could-take-some-creative-jobs

In recent years, AI capable of high-quality output has been appearing one after another, such as ChatGPT, a text generation AI released by OpenAI, and Stable Diffusion, which generates highly accurate images. These AIs perform well in creative fields such as writing and illustration, and there are concerns that they may cause human creators to lose their jobs.

A survey conducted by the Society of Authors (SoA), a creator rights organization, in January 2024 found that 26% of illustrators and more than 36% of translators said they had lost their jobs to generative AI. In addition, artists such as Billie Eilish and Stevie Wonder have signed a letter condemning 'predatory AI' that devalues human artists, and the music industry also recognizes AI as a threat.

More than 200 celebrities, including Billie Eilish and Stevie Wonder, sign letter condemning 'predatory AI' that steals audio and replaces artists - GIGAZINE

In June 2024, OpenAI's Murathi spoke with Jeffrey Blackburn , a director of several media and technology startups, at Dartmouth College. In the conversation, Murathi argued that the creative jobs that will be taken over by AI were not necessary in the first place.

You can hear Murati making the remarks at around 29 minutes and 30 seconds in the video of the interview below.

AI Everywhere: Transforming Our World, Empowering Humanity - YouTube


Responding to Blackburn's comment that some creators are afraid their jobs will be taken away, Murati (right) said, 'Some creative jobs may disappear, but some jobs that generate low-quality content may not have existed in the first place.'

He argued that using AI as a tool for education and creativity would expand human intelligence.

In addition, a research team from Harvard Business School and others published the results of a survey in June 2024, which showed that jobs such as writing and coding, which generative AI excels at, on freelance job platforms fell by 21% in the eight months after ChatGPT was introduced. In addition, jobs related to illustrations also fell by about 17% with the advent of image-generating AI.

Who Is AI Replacing? The Impact of Generative AI on Online Freelancing Platforms by Ozge Demirci, Jonas Hannane, Xinrong Zhu :: SSRN
https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=4602944

AI Doesn't Kill Jobs? Tell That to Freelancers - WSJ
https://www.wsj.com/tech/ai/ai-replace-freelance-jobs-51807bc7