In the midst of the great debates about whether this technology with tools such as Chatgpt or Deepseek at the head will end millions of jobs, David Author, Economics Professor at MIT, offers a more optimistic vision, which is good.
During the MIT AI 2025 conference, author commented that artificial intelligence has the potential to complement human skills instead of making them obsolete. «There are two opposite visions of AI. One is that machines make us irrelevant. Another is that machines make us more useful. I think the latter has much to offer,» he says.
This statement does not throw it into the air as if nothing and supports it with reassuring data. In the last 200 years, automation has eliminated physical and repetitive works, but has also created new job opportunities.
«We have increased the value of labor during that period», adding that this has affected much of agricultural and manufacturing work, but that that has not made us less valuable. On the contrary, he comments that we have increased our productivity and wages have grown.
However, the fears and great fears of a world domination are still there and, according to an Pymnts Intelligence report of January 2025, 54% of respondents believe that AI represents a great risk to jobs.
This fear is stronger among workers dedicated to technology and administrative (58%), while sectors such as education and health seem less concerned (48%and 52%, respectively). Besides, major generations such as baby boomers and gene x are more pessimistic than young people in gen z.
In spite of all this, the expert ensures that the future of work is not written and in the end it is not about predicting what will happen, but to design how this technology wants to use. According to him, the key is to take advantage of the tools to enhance human abilities instead of replacing them.
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One of the examples mentioned by the author was Chexpert, a system of AI capable of analyzing radiographs with greater precision than many radiologists. Although this might seem a threat to these professionals, he says that collaboration between humans and machines is essential.
In fact, when the radiologists worked with Chexpert made more mistakes because they did not know when to trust the machine.
«The future is not a prognosis problem. It is a design problem, something that we are building collectively,» says author. «There are many branches and options to take on how we want to use this technology,» he adds.
In addition, AI can create new types of jobs. For example, although manual transcripts are disappearing thanks to automated tools, there is now demand for roles such as AI model coaches or ethical data analysts. In a nutshell and as he says, technology always creates new skills that are necessary.
What about catastrophic scenarios and how does this affect qualified workers?
Despite all this, other experts, including figures such as Elon Musk or Sam Altman, have already put on the table on risks if artificial intelligence is lacking. For example, some researchers They fear that AI can be used to enslave human beings or even cause a global catastrophe in less than three years if it is not regulated as it should.
One of the great concerns is the ability of AI to influence critical human decisions, such as elections and financial markets, without society detecting what is happening. This concern seems to be associated with recent studies that demonstrate how advanced models, such as GPT-4, are already able to deceive humans in strategic games.
On the other hand, a MIT study commented that workers with high academic training are quite vulnerable to the impact of AI. Professions such as advanced programming or financial analysis are being changed and improved by tools capable of doing all this faster.
However, this does not necessarily mean a massive loss of jobs. According to the MIT Sloan Management Review report, many employees have improved, despite all this, their day to day, and its productivity has grown thanks to this technology.
The great challenge of humanity is how companies adapt to these tools without leaving humans in their processes. As MIT expert comments, collaboration between humans and artificial intelligence is the key to maximizing benefits while minimizing risks.