AI: The Battle between Employment and Job Loss, Ethical Dilemmas and Technological Advancements

At the same time as speculations started to emerge about Google possibly laying off employees due to advances in artificial intelligence (AI), reports highlighted that Paytm’s parent company One97 Communication laid off more than 1,000 employees in a matter of months to streamline various departments. According to reports, the restructuring of the company was facilitated primarily by advances in artificial intelligence, which made some roles redundant in the organization.

Around the same time, late last year, The New York Times revealed that it had filed a copyright infringement lawsuit against the much-talked-about artificial intelligence company OpenAI and tech giant Microsoft, a key investor in the company.

While the NYT is the first major news publisher to sue AI creators in a copyright case, earlier last year Getty Images accused AI image generator company Stability AI of copyright infringement for copying and manipulating millions of its images and metadata.

Recently in India, deepfake videos, another product of artificial intelligence technology, raised a lot of concern. Considering how serious these issues are and how technology can be misused, the Ministry of Electronics and IT has issued a comprehensive advisory to all brokers to guide them to comply with the existing IT rules.

Additionally, it should be noted that a whopping 16.2 million Indian workers will need to train or upskill for the AI and automation wave, even as it creates 4.7 million new tech jobs, according to a ServiceNow and Pearson study.

However, most industry insiders believe that while the potential for both positive and negative impacts is undeniable, the odds favor a positive net impact from AI if its development can be steered in the right direction.

For example, Amit Relan, co-founder and CEO of mFilterIt, agreed that AI is a double-edged sword. According to him, artificial intelligence has the power to revolutionize traditional work methods and by automating tasks and ensuring accuracy, artificial intelligence speeds up processes, reduces human errors and effort.

Additionally, he said, “Artificial intelligence has also revolutionized fraud detection methods. It has changed the way we detect and combat fraud by uncovering sophisticated patterns that slip through manual checks, speeding up decision-making processes.”

Prateek Garg, co-founder and CEO of WorkElevte, noted that despite the ethical challenges, companies are skillfully using AI to improve their business processes. From a business perspective, he believes that thanks to the responsible adoption of employee intelligence chatbots and Large Language Models (LLM), organizations are now optimizing operational workflows.

“This not only increases employee productivity, but allows employees to focus on a more strategic initiative, with AI taking care of repetitive tasks. Organizations are already investing heavily in AI for workplace management, which shows that AI can have a positive impact on how we work,” he added.

Meanwhile, Amit Prasad, Founder and CEO of SatNav Technologies said, “Whenever a new technology becomes popular, it has both good and bad sides. While AI may seem like a “never before” opportunity now, the fact is that many examples of the past were also unique when they were launched. So the benefits of AI are more positive than negative.”

REASONS FOR OPTIMISM

Despite the concerns about artificial intelligence and its effects, it is possible to promote continuous training and skills improvement initiatives so that employees can move into roles that utilize technology without fear of it.

It should be noted here that according to a report by the World Economic Forum, AI could lead to the loss of about 85 million jobs by 2025, but it could also create 97 million new roles.

At the same time, some experts also suggested that a focus on developing human-AI partnerships where each side complements the other would help improve productivity and creativity as AI flourishes in synergy with human expertise and judgment.

In addition, it is believed that as artificial intelligence develops, awareness of its possible disadvantages will increase. Governments can therefore legislate and enforce comprehensive regulations on such matters and open a debate on the opportunities and challenges of AI involving a wide range of stakeholders, build trust and guide responsible development.

Global cooperation on AI governance and ethical standards is considered crucial to ensure responsible development and prevent abuse. This is where India has played a crucial role at the GPAI Summit in New Delhi.

The New Delhi Declaration adopted by the member countries assured the development of an artificial intelligence framework, the promotion of diverse and inclusive participation in the development of artificial intelligence, and the support of projects to ensure equitable access to critical artificial intelligence resources. This step has positioned GPAI as a leader in shaping the current and future narrative and governance structure of AI.