AI Can Already Do the Work of 12% of America's Workforce, Researchers Find

An anonymous reader shared this report from CBS News:

Artificial intelligence can do the work currently performed by nearly 12% of America's workforce, according to a recentstudy from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The researchers, relying on a metric called the 'Iceberg Index' that measures a job's potential to be automated, conclude that AI already has the cognitive and technical capacity to handle a range of tasks in technology, finance, health care and professional services. The index simulated how more than 150 million U.S. workers across nearly 1,000 occupations interact and overlap with AI's abilities...

AI is also already doingsome of the entry-level jobsthat have historically been reserved for recent college graduates or relatively inexperienced workers, the report notes. 'AI systems now generate more than a billion lines of code each day, prompting companies to restructure hiring pipelines and reduce demand for entry-level programmers,' the researchers wrote. 'These observable changes in technology occupations signal a broader reorganization of work that extends beyond software development.' 'The study doesn't seek to shed light on how many workers AI may already have displaced or could supplant in the future,' the article points out.

'To what extent such tools take over job functions performed by people depends on a number of factors, including individual businesses' strategy, societal acceptance and possible policy interventions, the researchers note.'

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