Despite AI hype, Google's data shows workers aren't automating themselves away
Anyone following the AI space is by now familiar with lofty claims that AI models will soon be better than humans at everything and capable of replacing vast swaths of the human workforce. In a new study from Google Research, though, a team that looked at how workers are actually using Gemini "[did] not find evidence... to support the claims that AI is about to cause massive automation and displacement of white-collar work..." The paper, released last week, introduces the "AI & Economy ATLAS
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Google Research analyzed 15 million real interactions with an AI model to understand how workers actually use AI on the job. The study found that despite widespread predictions of massive job displacement, AI use remains shallow and collaborative rather than automating entire jobs, with most tasks at most jobs unaffected by AI so far. Workers are primarily using AI to assist with low-expertise, routine cognitive tasks like drafting, information retrieval, and language rewriting, rather than replacing themselves or handling the most complex parts of their work. This suggests AI is currently complementing human work rather than replacing workers, though the researchers acknowledge this could change with future technological advances.
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