A brand new examine analyzing the Danish labor market in 2023 and 2024 means that generative AI fashions like ChatGPT have had virtually no vital affect on general wages or employment but, regardless of speedy adoption in some workplaces. The findings, detailed in a working paper by economists from the College of Chicago and the College of Copenhagen, present an early, large-scale empirical have a look at AI’s transformative potential.
In “Massive Language Fashions, Small Labor Market Results,” economists Anders Humlum and Emilie Vestergaard centered particularly on the affect of AI chatbots throughout 11 occupations typically thought-about weak to automation, together with accountants, software program builders, and buyer assist specialists. Their evaluation coated information from 25,000 staff and seven,000 workplaces in Denmark.
Regardless of discovering widespread and infrequently employer-encouraged adoption of those instruments, the examine concluded that “AI chatbots have had no vital affect on earnings or recorded hours in any occupation” in the course of the interval studied. The arrogance intervals of their statistical evaluation dominated out common results bigger than 1 p.c.
“The adoption of those chatbots has been remarkably quick,” Humlum instructed The Register concerning the examine. “Most staff within the uncovered occupations have now adopted these chatbots… However then after we have a look at the financial outcomes, it actually has not moved the needle.”
AI creating extra work?
In the course of the examine, the researchers investigated how firm funding in AI affected employee adoption and the way chatbots modified office processes. Whereas company funding boosted AI instrument adoption—saving time for 64 to 90 p.c of customers throughout studied occupations—the precise advantages have been much less substantial than anticipated.
The examine revealed that AI chatbots truly created new job duties for 8.4 p.c of staff, together with some who didn’t use the instruments themselves, offsetting potential time financial savings. For instance, many lecturers now spend time detecting whether or not college students use ChatGPT for homework, whereas different staff overview AI output high quality or try to craft efficient prompts.
