It's no secret that the AI revolution is here, and it has ignited the debate about?whether it's actually a boon or a bane for humans. In another example of the loss of income that many people across the world are facing due to AI, a 22-year-old student from Kolkata has shared her ordeal.
Sharanya Battacharya was once a ghostwriter and copywriter for a creative solutions agency while pursuing her degree, wherein she used to pick up a few SEO-optimized articles each week and earn just over $240 (about Rs 19,000) a month.
That is?until ChatGPT came into the picture in November last year.?By late 2022,?Sharanya's?workload eventually reduced to writing just one or two articles per month, claiming that companies who used to commission her work began to rely on AI, as per New York Post.
She said the companies gave ¡°no explanation¡± for the lack of work, but suspects the introduction of ChatGPT was to cut costs.?¡°It has been really tough since the reduction in my workload ¡ª not just for me but my family, too,¡± the Kolkata, India, student told SWNS. ¡°I can hardly make 10% of what I used to make.¡±
The student's?income supports both herself and her 45-year-old mother, Bandana, who sells sarees.
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As the cash flow slowed down, the mother-daughter duo suddenly had to ¡°cut back¡± on living expenses, which has ¡°been extremely rough.¡±
¡°We¡¯ve had to monitor how much food we consume, and we no longer do things we used to enjoy doing like going out to eat ¡ª we can only do that once every couple of months now,¡± said Bhattacharya, a postgraduate biologic science student at the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research.?¡°We¡¯ve had to focus our money on the necessities, like food and bills, to make sure we can live fine.¡±
Now, her life is ¡°extremely uncertain¡± as she faces potential unemployment in a ¡°cutthroat¡± job market for copywriters.
¡°This is how I earn my living whilst also studying, I was devastated when I started receiving less and less work,¡± she explained. ¡°I have been anxious, feeling lost, having panic attacks, it has not been a very good past couple of months for me.¡±
She has urged companies to consider who is affected by mass job cuts, highlighting the ¡°huge difference¡± between human-produced work and AI-generated content.
¡°There are a lot of good copywriters not just in India but around the world that are being affected by this,¡± she said, as per the report.
She added, ¡°I hope there will be a way in the future where humans can incorporate AI with their copyrighting skills to work together to yield overall, better results.¡±
22YO Bhattacharya isn¡¯t alone in her outcry against AI.?Earlier this month, Adobe employees reportedly voiced concerns over the company¡¯s design tools, fearing that the AI utilization could result in job loss.
Their unease follows a June report from the consulting firm McKinsey revealing that the introduction of artificial intelligence in the workforce will result in a job shakeup, especially for ¡°higher-wage knowledge workers.¡±
A few months ago, even?IBM's?CEO had mentioned that about 7,800 jobs at the company could be replaced by AI in the next five years.
On the other hand,?last month, India's Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeiTY) had a different take on AI's impact on jobs, mentioning that the rise of Artificial Intelligence (AI) was not leading to any job losses. It was in fact on track to increase India¡¯s Gross Domestic Product (GDP), as per TheHindu report.?
However, at the same time,?the Ministry didn¡¯t deny that some tasks may become redundant. As per the govt, AI may result in automating some routine jobs but will also result in job creation in various data science, data curation etc. This will require reskilling and upskilling.
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