Music producer Robbie Hiser is confident there will always be a place for human creatives even though he helped teach artificial intelligence some of the tricks of his trade. Hiser trained AI for Mercor, a multibillion-dollar company that has assembled more than 100,000 freelancers across various industries to teach AI models like ChatGPT and Claude about their fields. Despite this, Hiser and other trainers believe creative work requires human experiences that technology lacks. Nearly three-fourths of Americans now fear AI is coming for their jobs, according to Pew Research, and a McKinsey Global Institute report found AI could force 11 million U.S. workers into new careers by 2035. Mercor CEO Brendan Foody views these changes as a natural evolution that will free people from repetitive tasks, noting that AI training has become LinkedIn’s fourth-fastest-growing job category with hourly pay ranging from $20 to $200. Law firms are also adapting, such as Columbus, Ohio-based Vorys, Sater, Seymour and Pease partnering with Stanford University’s Liftlab to build AI personas trained on senior lawyers’ experiences. Partner Kim Herlihy emphasizes that while AI aids preparation, it cannot replace the fundamentally human aspect of legal practice. Conversely, Nobel Prize-winning economist Daron Acemoglu warns of potential worker displacement, noting that automation is happening across many sectors simultaneously at an unprecedented speed, with a worst-case scenario potentially tripling unemployment in the next decade. Stanford and U.S. Census research already show declining hiring and wages for young people in AI-exposed fields like software development. Clara Shih, a former executive at Salesforce and Meta, left her tech job in January to start a nonprofit helping young workers navigate the new economy after watching AI absorb entry-level tasks like market research and memo drafting. Shih highlights that the impact extends beyond livelihoods to self-worth and community stability, drawing parallels to the effects of globalization on the white-collar workforce. While Acemoglu does not oppose technology, he stresses that choices like designing AI to augment humans or altering tax codes to incentivize hiring can help prevent mass unemployment and shape a better future.
Source: cbsnews.com
