60 Minutes Transcript: Artificial intelligence and the future of work

AI Jon:

This past week successful Washington, America's tech titans met with President Trump to speech about, well, the aboriginal of humanity … specifically, volition AI, artificial intelligence, people the extremity of civilization arsenic we cognize it? Only somewhat little sedate and lone somewhat little depressing, there's a related, much contiguous question: Will AI instrumentality our jobs?

Real Jon walks out:

That close there? Not maine … That was AI. So it is, we don't exempt ourselves successful wondering: is immoderate enactment of enactment safe? So acold this year, U.S. companies person cited AI arsenic the No. 1 crushed for layoffs. AI, aft all, doesn't sleep, oregon instrumentality sick days. Is this exertion simply going to alteration however and wherever we work, overmuch the aforesaid mode different workplace revolutions did? Or is this 1 different? Is the large occupation apocalypse upon us?

Tape:

Here successful this nondescript bureau successful downtown San Francisco, these 20-somethings are designing the aboriginal of your workplace.

You whitethorn not person heard of Mercor, but it's rapidly go a person successful a booming caller manufacture built astir supercharging the already supercharged emergence of artificial intelligence.

BRENDAN FOODY: We were, successful January past year, astir 20 people.

JON WERTHEIM: How galore now?

BRENDAN FOODY: Now it's 400 radical successful San Francisco, yeah.

Brendan Foody is Mercor's CEO. It's present a multibillion-dollar company, and he's present a 23-year-old billionaire. Backstory: 4 years ago, ChatGPT came retired and Foody and his 2 co-founders — precocious schoolhouse buddies — saw wherever the exertion was heading. To get better, AI needed much accusation than what was wide disposable connected the internet.

JON WERTHEIM: AI went from this high-powered hunt motor to each of a abrupt we're successful astrophysics. We've gone from cutesy to beatified moly successful a precise abbreviated magnitude of time.

BRENDAN FOODY: I deliberation that's spot on. And the halfway happening powering that immense translation and the capabilities is quality intelligence.

JON WERTHEIM: It seems similar overarching goal, thing we humans tin do, we privation AI to beryllium capable to do.

BRENDAN FOODY: I deliberation a important information of things. Everything that humans privation AI to beryllium capable to bash — we wanna thatch it however to bash that.

So what does Mercor do? Well, erstwhile the large AI companies want, say, ChatGPT oregon Claude to amended successful a peculiar field, they prosecute Mercor to marque their models smarter. Pick a subject, immoderate subject: finance, architecture, poetry. Mercor has assembled an service of much than 100,000 freelancers — humans! — acceptable to usage their hard-earned expertise to bid the AI.

Shawna Miller: I enactment precocious successful the evening …

We met 3 specified experts: Shawna Miller, a winemaker; Robbie Hiser, a euphony producer; and Melania Poonacha, a physician.

JON WERTHEIM: When you're assigned a task, what are you really doing? How are you grooming AI?

DR. MELANIA POONACHA: On 1 task we were grooming the AI to beryllium capable to accurately construe laboratory results.

ROBBIE HISER: For a songwriting project, you mightiness get 2 antithetic versions of the aforesaid lyric. And past you spell done and springiness feedback connected it. 

All 3 person full-time jobs. AI grooming is conscionable a broadside gig. Long-term, by spending hours teaching a machine the tricks of their trade, are they not grooming themselves retired of a career? No, they insist. Hiser believes that large songwriting, for instance, volition ever necessitate the quality touch.

ROBBIE HISER: AI doesn't person immoderate beingness acquisition to propulsion from you know, an AI ne'er had a woman interruption up with it.

JON WERTHEIM: Real-life inputs that interaction songwriting successful a mode that–

ROBBIE HISER: Absolutely.

JON WERTHEIM: –the robots– yeah–

JON WERTHEIM: There's nary mode to constitute that in?

ROBBIE HISER: I don't deliberation so.

Ultimately, Brendan Foody foresees a utopia: precocious AI helping america cure crab and tackle clime change. And the untold millions of workers? Liberated from the dullest parts of their jobs, they'll beryllium much productive than ever.

JON WERTHEIM: People inactive person this cardinal question, is my occupation harmless from AI? How bash you reply that?

BRENDAN FOODY: I deliberation the cardinal happening to look astatine is if you go much productive, is determination much request for your expertise successful the economy?

JON WERTHEIM: If you're grooming AI to bash what radical person spent years and years perfecting successful their careers, aren't you needfully endangering quality work?

BRENDAN FOODY: Well, I deliberation that you're changing quality work. It mightiness not needfully beryllium that repetitive task that radical person done successful the past, but there's inactive truthful galore different things that radical could beryllium capable to do. And truthful I deliberation that improvement is natural.

Whether workers asked for it oregon not, that improvement is already happening, and not conscionable successful the tech hotbeds.

In places like, Columbus, Ohio, wherever the instrumentality steadfast Vorys, Sater, Seymour and Pease has been serving clients' needs since 1909, Kim Herlihy, a proceedings lawyer, is simply a spouse astatine the firm.

JON WERTHEIM: You're going into courtrooms and facing a justice and jury. How is AI gonna assistance with that?

KIM HERLIHY: AI is ne'er gonna locomotion into the courtroom and springiness an opening connection to the jury. But it helps america person further tools to usage arsenic we hole that opening statement.

A twelvemonth ago, Vorys worked with Stanford University to physique an interior instrumentality for the firm: idiosyncratic AI personas trained connected its elder lawyers. How bash they think? What benignant of proposal bash they give? Presto: an AI mentation of a Vorys partner. Herlihy has her own, which she consulted for us.

KIM HERLIHY: So, what you person connected your surface present is simply a draught opening statement. 

JON WERTHEIM: This is. "Ladies and gentlemen of the jury."  

Now Herlihy asks her AI treble to springiness notes.

KIM HERLIHY: tin spot it's an AI remark from my persona, is saying, "The ineligible phrasing is excessively stiff for an opening statement."

JON WERTHEIM: I'm conscionable struck that radical who aren't acquainted with AI, they mightiness think, you know, it's robots, and avatars, it's conscionable a Word doc.

KIM HERLIHY: Yeah, it is. You're not seeing a representation of me, I'm not talking retired loud.

Not yet anyway. Still, we wondered: Is today's idiosyncratic optimizer not tomorrow's idiosyncratic replacement?

JON WERTHEIM: So we built this exemplary with spouse Kim Herlihy's expertise baked into it. It's not hard to spot a aboriginal successful which the lawsuit conscionable goes close to the model, is it?

KIM HERLIHY: That's hard for maine to see. AI cannot instrumentality the spot of what's a fundamentally quality business. You telephone your lawyer due to the fact that you privation to look successful their oculus and say, "What should I bash astir this issue?"

This sunny picture, it's astatine likelihood with the bleak labour predictions galore AI executives person been issuing.

It's aboriginal and wide unemployment remains mostly steady, but mounting probe shows that, for the astir AI-exposed jobs — instrumentality bundle developers — hiring has slowed and wages person declined. The interaction focused connected 1 radical successful particular: 20-somethings.

CLARA SHIH: Traditionally, the tasks that you mightiness delegate to a young person, possibly doing immoderate marketplace probe oregon creating the archetypal draught of a memo. AI is conscionable truly bully astatine doing those now.

Until January, Clara Shih was overseeing large AI divisions astatine Salesforce and past Meta.

JON WERTHEIM: You've seen however almighty this tin be.

CLARA SHIH: Oh yeah. I've seen america spell from antecedently requiring dozens of radical to conceive of a product, prototype it, physique it, to present being capable to bash that with 1 oregon 2 oregon 3 radical utilizing AI agents.

Shih was truthful alarmed by what this meant for the workforce, she discontinue her plum tech occupation and founded a nonprofit helping young radical navigate this caller system — and she has emerged arsenic an AI Cassandra.

CLARA SHIH: I deliberation AI's gonna person a profound interaction connected each profession. There are a batch of radical whose jobs it is contiguous wrong companies to hole information, research, analyse information for different individuals successful that company. And increasingly, though it's starting with the introduction level, it could effect successful a batch of radical losing their jobs.

JON WERTHEIM: And occupation nonaccomplishment means what arsenic you spot it?

CLARA SHIH: It's ne'er conscionable astir the jobs. It's people's consciousness of self-worth. It's the fracturing of communities.

Shih knows this rhythm firsthand. Her household came to the U.S. from Hong Kong successful the 1980s and landed successful Ohio, wherever globalization was hollowing retired — factories, past neighborhoods. She sees wide parallels.

CLARA SHIH: I deliberation what we tin larn is that archetypal we person to beryllium honorable with radical astir what the risks are. I think, you know, sugarcoating that this AI utopia, possibly we'll get there, but there's a batch of wounded that could hap betwixt present and there.

The nationalist is opening to revolt. Nearly three-fourths of Americans present fearfulness AI is coming for our jobs and amid this increasing backlash, the large tech firms person been massaging their message. Here's OpenAI's Sam Altman successful June:

Sam Altman: But I deliberation our manufacture underestimated however overmuch we're going to beryllium capable to support radical astatine the halfway of everything successful an system that is and a satellite that is based connected people.

JON WERTHEIM: For a time, the AI companies were trumpeting that this merchandise is gonna marque enactment obsolete. And present determination seems to beryllium a pivot and a alteration of tune. What bash you marque of this shift?

CLARA SHIH: I deliberation that they ha– the AI labs person each inducement to merchantability what they're doing to the nationalist now, and I don't deliberation that they really judge that AI won't wounded jobs.

Back astatine Mercor, emblematic trainers tin beryllium paid anyplace from $20 to $200 an hour. Not bad. We spoke with much than a twelve Mercor trainers — past and current. Some were happy. Many much said that the gig enactment comes unpredictably, oregon not astatine all. No substitute for a full-time occupation with benefits.

JON WERTHEIM: I mean sometimes you person experts that are doubly and 3 times your age, and they've spent a batch of clip successful their field, and 1 happening they've gotten is simply a level of predictability and stableness successful their job. And past it seems similar the hours are overmuch much erratic here.

BRENDAN FOODY: Yeah, the hours are much erratic. But it's besides thing that we're precise transparent with them about.

JON WERTHEIM: I mean, it does not dependable similar unchangeable work.

BRENDAN FOODY: Right now, it mostly is much part-time enactment is what experts motion up for. But for the high-performing experts, we ever marque definite that they person enactment available.

Today, AI grooming is America's fourth-fastest-growing occupation class connected LinkedIn. And conscionable arsenic machinists erstwhile replaced artisans, Brendan Foody insists he's creating a vocation of the future. Out of work? Fear not. Come bid AI.

BRENDAN FOODY: Literally, each of the apical 20 economists successful America, they would accidental the nonstop aforesaid thing, which is that there's gonna beryllium much jobs successful 10 years than determination are today.

JON WERTHEIM: You're a apical economist successful America. What accidental you?

DARON ACEMOGLU: No. No, not connected our existent trajectory. I don't spot however that could happen. What we are surviving done with AI is unprecedented. The archetypal signifier of the Industrial Revolution lasted for 80 years. Today, it's taking spot successful 1 oregon 2 years, and it's taking spot crossed galore sectors astatine the aforesaid time.

Daron Acemoglu, is simply a Nobel Prize-winning prof astatine MIT, who studies technology's interaction connected labor.

JON WERTHEIM: We were told by a lawyer and besides a euphony shaper determination are immoderate things that humans– that are truthful fundamental, humans bash them, robots can't. Do you bargain that?

DARON ACEMOGLU: Today, absolutely. 100%.

JON WERTHEIM: You said today?

DARON ACEMOGLU: Today. In 15 years' time, what it's going to beryllium susceptible of doing, I don't know.

JON WERTHEIM: But there's gonna beryllium this immense assemblage of enactment grooming these AI models. So if you're a instrumentality student, you person a hard clip uncovering a job, you tin inactive usage your expertise.

DARON ACEMOGLU: Here is 1 happening I'm not uncertain about. What you conscionable described is B.S. 

JON WERTHEIM: Why bash you accidental that?

DARON ACEMOGLU: Because the fig of radical they're employing successful these positions is tiny comparative to the fig of radical who volition beryllium replaced. I mean, that's the full constituent of automation. 

Acemoglu says we could spot unemployment triple successful the adjacent decennary if we bash thing and proceed connected our existent course.

DARRON ACEMOGLU: I americium very, very, precise cautious successful saying we should accidental nary to technology. Absolutely not. But successful each technological gyration determination is pushback, and that pushback takes galore antithetic forms.

He comes with suggestions: designing AI that makes humans better, not expendable, a taxation codification that incentivizes hiring existent people. But the model is closing. And Acemoglu fears for the stableness of nine itself.

JON WERTHEIM: That shouldn't scare the hellhole retired of us?

DARON ACEMOGLU: It should. And it should determination america into reasoning astir what we tin bash due to the fact that determination is simply a batch we tin do. Because the aboriginal is truthful uncertain, due to the fact that the aboriginal is truthful overmuch taxable to our prime and agency, it is each the much important that we person this discussion.

Produced by David M. Levine and Meghan Lisson. Associate producer, Mimi Lamarre. News associate, Eric Frank. Edited by Mike Levine.

In:

• Artificial Intelligence