Generative AI to augment jobs, not destroy them: ILO study
ILO) said, adding that the impact on employment would be more on high-income countries and among females.
According to the ILO study, Generative AI and Jobs: A global analysis of potential effects on job quantity and quality, most jobs and industries are only partly exposed to automation and are more likely to be complemented rather than substituted by the latest wave of Generative AI, such as chatGPT.
“Therefore, the greatest impact of this technology is likely to not be job destruction but rather the potential changes to the quality of jobs, notably work intensity and autonomy,” it said.
As per the study, 5.5% of total employment in high-income countries is potentially exposed to the automating effects of the technology, whereas in low-income countries, the risk of automation concerns only some 0.4% of employment.
The study further shows that the potential effects of Generative AI are likely to differ significantly for men and women with more than twice the share of female employment potentially affected by automation.
“This is due to women’s over-representation in clerical work, especially in high and middle-income countries,” it said, adding that one result of Generative AI could be that certain clerical jobs may never emerge in lower-income countries.
According to the study, clerical work has the greatest technological exposure with nearly a quarter of tasks considered highly exposed and more than half of tasks having medium-level exposure.
On the other hand, the potential for augmentation is nearly equal across countries, suggesting that with the right policies in place, this new wave of technological transformation could offer important benefits for developing countries, the ILO said.
According to the ILO, there
