6 November 2019; George Arison, Founder, Shift, on Future Societies Stage during day two of Web Summit 2019 at the Altice Arena in Lisbon, Portugal Photo: Eóin Noonan/Web Summit via Wikipedia
Grindr’s out CEO George Arison said at Fortune‘s Brainstorm Tech conference that he believes “synthetic employees” will replace many workers in the tech sphere. He called for “A+ employees” to be used alongside generative AI companions.
At the conference in Park City, Utah, earlier this week, Arison said that it’ll become common for startups to reach $100 million in revenue with a small skeleton team of human employees. This will pressure tech entrepreneurs to compete for “exceptionally good” talent.
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This isn’t the first time he has publicly been optimistic about AI technology.
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“[Artificial intelligence] is a huge opportunity for us. We are working it into our product roadmap in a significant way to make our products better for users with AI. Obviously, always with their consent, but there’s so much we can do to make it better. Relationships are all about using data to match people, and AI is fantastic for that,” Arison said in an interview with CNBC.
The dating company is currently seeing substantial growth, in large part due to increased acceptance of LGBTQ+ individuals. This leads to more users on their app when people turn 18 and thus even more revenue for the company.
AI is projected to affect the overall job market in a particularly complicated way. Matt Daly, CEO of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, is optimistic about how AI will affect America’s net jobs, however he recognizes that it could have a substantial impact on inequality.
“Technology does not reduce net jobs in a country. But that’s not the same as saying it doesn’t affect inequality, or saying it doesn’t affect some people differently,” he said in an interview with WIRED.
Pew Research reveals that, while most workers are in jobs that won’t be affected by AI, nevertheless over 20% are projected to be affected, possibly replaced, by the new technology.
This, however, may be a lower bounds estimate. According to an International Monetary Fund study analyzed by The Guardian, over 60% of jobs internationally may be affected by AI, with about 30 to 40% of those potentially being replaced.
The jobs most at risk of being replaced by AI are “highly skilled” ones – those that require a degree and are typically labeled “white-collar” jobs, including customer service representatives, writers, programmers, and more. This would mean that many of the jobs at a tech company like Grindr could face replacement.
“Roughly half the exposed jobs may benefit from AI integration, enhancing productivity,” said Kristalina Georgieva, the IMF managing director, in a blog post. “For the other half, AI applications may execute key tasks currently performed by humans, which could lower labor demand, leading to lower wages and reduced hiring. In the most extreme cases, some of these jobs may disappear.”
Still, jobs considered “lower-skilled” may also be on the chopping block. Companies are currently rushing to automate fields like fast food, manufacturing, and possibly even agriculture, although results are mixed depending on the field as companies await new developments.
AI could worsen inequality if poorly implemented, although there is no expert consensus on the impact AI will have. This inequality may even affect companies like Grindr who are just starting to use AI.
“In most scenarios, AI will likely worsen overall inequality, a troubling trend that policymakers must proactively address to prevent the technology from further stoking social tensions,” said Georgieva. “It is crucial for countries to establish comprehensive social safety nets and offer retraining programs for vulnerable workers. In doing so, we can make the AI transition more inclusive, protecting livelihoods and curbing inequality.”
