The study also considered the impact of self-hosted, self-service AI systems sold through vendors like OpenAI. However, even with a system costing as little as $1,000, there are many jobs that wouldn't make economic sense for a business to automate. The researchers concluded that even with rapid decreases in cost, it would still take decades for computer vision tasks to become economically efficient for firms. They also highlighted the importance of decreasing the costs of AI deployments and increasing the scope of how they can be deployed for AI to be economically attractive for automation.
Key takeaways:
- A new research study from MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL) investigates the potential impact of AI on job automation, suggesting that the process may be slower and less dramatic than some predict.
- The study found that many jobs previously identified as being at risk of AI displacement aren't economically beneficial to automate at present.
- The researchers focused on jobs requiring visual analysis and did not consider the potential impact of text- and image-generating models on workers and the economy.
- Despite the potential for AI to automate tasks, the study suggests that humans are still the better economic choice for many jobs, and it could take decades for AI tasks to become economically efficient for firms.