ChatGPT will replace some jobs, but traders say it’s not theirs

(Bloomberg) — Advanced AI systems threaten jobs primarily in the financial, legal and technology sectors, according to the latest MLIV Pulse study.

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What is even more striking in the results: more than two-thirds of the 292 respondents said they do not see their jobs as being at risk in the near term, even though they work predominantly in the financial sector.

Artificial intelligence, in one form or another, has been developed for decades. But in recent months, a surge of interest in so-called generative AI — most notably OpenAI products ChatGPT and DALL-E — has sparked widespread excitement among investors, who believe it could also bring huge financial rewards.

Participants in the MLIV Pulse poll were almost evenly divided on whether or not to invest in such technologies. There was a clear lack of professional use of any kind of artificial intelligence by most investors, with only 12% saying they had used it, and only 27%. saying what they planned. Over half of all respondents said they weren’t even considering using AI to help them invest.

This contrasts sharply with the recent rally seen in the advanced AI market, fueled in part by the publicity of ChatGPT and the $10 billion investment by Microsoft Corp. at OpenAI, its developer. Companies such as BuzzFeed Inc., C3.ai Inc., SoundHound AI Inc. and BigBear.ai Holdings Inc., are among the companies whose stocks have experienced massive volume surges along with dizzying swings in their stock prices.

Read more: We asked ChatGPT to create the best ETF on the market. Here is the result

The story goes on

Businesses and investors are competing to become the hot names for technologies that can create rich media such as text and images from simple clues or human conversations on topics ranging from whether a cat wins a fight with an eagle to practical considerations about world events or school projects. Microsoft is up against companies like Alphabet Inc., Meta Platforms Inc. and Amazon.com Inc., aiming to bring the smartest AI tools to the greatest number of people.

However, the promise of tools like ChatGPT leaves some investors wishful thinking, with only 49% of respondents saying they plan to buy stocks using such generative AI tools. Overall, about 41% of all respondents said they intended to increase their stakes in tech stocks more broadly, while 38% said they would remain flat over the next six months.

Even before the current wave of interest in AI, the question of whether intelligent automation will create more opportunities than it will displace was of great interest to workers and businesses alike (not to mention the Pentagon and the UK government). In 2023, many of the companies that are cutting jobs on an unprecedented scale are also investing billions in their AI capabilities.

In January, Alphabet announced it was cutting 12,000 jobs worldwide, but at the same time, CEO Sundar Pichai highlighted AI as a key area of ​​investment. Similarly, Microsoft announced its $10 billion investment in OpenAI just days after saying it would lay off 10,000 employees. Neither company is unique in this regard.

“There are some very interesting AI wars coming up between tech companies,” University of Southampton computer science professor Wendy Hall told Bloomberg TV.

For more market analysis, see the MLIV blog.

–With assistance from Alicia Diaz.

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