A set of billboards that promote what seems to be a nightmarish scenario in which people are completely replaced by machines play on widespread anxieties about how artificial intelligence may affect employment in the Bay Area and beyond.
“I wanted to make a statement,” the CEO of the business that made those billboards told CBS News Bay Area.
It is a frightening billboard for anyone who has ever been concerned that AI might replace them in their line of work. The advertisements across San Francisco tell businesses to “stop hiring humans.” The company’s AI employees “won’t come into work hungover” or “take naps at work,” according to some of the placards on local bus stations.
Jaspar Carmichael, Artisan AI’s founder and CEOJack acknowledged that the ads capitalize on widespread anxieties around artificial intelligence. He was also quick to clarify that the advertisements are meant to be provocative and should not be taken literally, as many people may already be aware.
“I believe we understood going into this that no one would care if we produced billboards like everyone else. ‘We are going to enhance your outbound sales,’ I would have written on a billboard, and we wouldn’t be speaking at this moment. It would not make a difference. We would spend the money and receive no return. Knowing that we needed to be provocative, we went in. To get attention, we needed to do something unique.
CarmichaelAccording to Jack, his AI sales software is intended for companies who want to automate some tedious operations rather than those that want to eliminate jobs.
“And they are excited to be able to hand off the manual work that they don’t enjoy doing to focus on real human work, and doing things only a human can do,” Carmichael-Jack stated. “And I think that’s what we’re really going after. In order for people to do the work they genuinely enjoy, we are working to replace the work they don’t want to do.
However, the advertisements do capitalize on a common worry. 48% of working Americans believe AI would reduce the amount of jobs available in their field, according to a poll conducted in August.
That raises the questions of whether that is actually happening and how such changes would that be measured. Businesses usually don’t just come out and publicly detail their private strategies or explain how AI might be affecting their employment. Therefore, knowing something that businesses won’t necessarily disclose is the first step.
“So we overcome that challenge by leveraging very detailed data on the job postings of those firms and the resumes of their workers,” explained Anastassia Fedyk, a behavioral economist at UC Berkeley’s Haas School of Business. “So think LinkedIn profiles, PDF resumes, or the resumes people submit to jobs, so we can be able to see who the firms are hiring.”
Fedyk is a part of an amazing detective work. With help from partners around the world, they’re following enough resumes and LinkedIn pages to have a track on 60% to 70% of the American professional workforce. So they’ve been able to see which businesses have been hiring AI expertise, years before those companies would publicly talk about those programs.
“And then link that to what’s happening at the firm,” Fedyk said. “The public information like its sales, their employment numbers. That’s what’s in the reports.”
And from all of that they can say that most businesses that move towards AI actually add employees.
“On net, in most sectors — and again, there are some sectors and some tasks where it is replacing jobs — but on net in most sectors, employment does not decline when the firm starts investing in AI,” Fedyk said. “They leverage AI tools for innovation. Then you have additional product patents, additional trademarks, you have to hire additional product managers to manage products. You need more salespeople to sell the product.”
“We actually do secretly love humans,” Carmichael-Jack told KPIX. “We have a lot of humans on our team and we’re hiring a lot more.”
Artisan’s billboards probably say more about the AI business frenzy than the impact on human employment. It is worth noting that Artisan is advertising to potential buyers in a market that is still taking shape. Many traditional businesses are thinking about what AI might be able to do for them, and emerging AI producers are fighting each other for that business.
“So there’s a lot of competition for market share among the firms that are producing the technology,” Fedyk said of the billboard blitz. “That of course will lead to more catchy advertising.”
“And to be completely candid, I don’t think anyone should stop hiring humans,” Carmichael-Jack added. “There’s a lot of things that humans can do that AI cannot do. And when we get to the point where we don’t require humans, we should have universal income by then, and there should not be a five day work week.”
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Eliot Pierce is a dedicated writer for ChiefsFocus.com, covering local crime and finance news. With a keen eye for detail and a passion for storytelling, Eliot aims to provide his readers with clear and insightful analysis, helping them navigate the complexities of their financial lives while staying informed about important local events. His commitment to delivering accurate and engaging content makes him a valuable resource for the community.