'Some creative jobs maybe will go away, but maybe they shouldn't have been there in the first place'

Predictions that machines will one day replace humans in the workplaces have been made for decades. But there's a growing feeling that, with generative AI capable of performing cognitive-centric tasks with some degree of human competency, that the next few years might actually give rise to the first wave of job losses and redundancies due to AI.

AI's threat to the job market

Speaking in a discussion at Dartmouth College, Murati was opining about the capabilities of the generative AI tools that her company OpenAI were actively developing – and the potential impact on the labor market. These tools, she explained, would "lower the barrier" for anybody who would want to be creative and could even disrupt global industries, according to a CNBC report.

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Over the last few years, we've seen countless projections about the potential impact that AI could have on jobs. While many see these as terrifying, Murati instead framed this as an inevitability to be welcomed. The implication was that AI-powered scriptwriting or even visualization could even lead to an increase in quality.

Now co-founder and CEO of Thinking Machine Labs, a startup designed to make AI more accessible, Murati was at the heart of some of the company's biggest releases including image and video generation tools.

One person's slop is another man's treasure

For better or for worse, AI has certainly lowered the barrier to entry for those intent on creating content – and we see this with the surge in AI-generated content that is now circulating the web. When it comes to using AI in the creative industries, however, there has been more of a mixed response.

AI generation is used in some areas, according to McKinsey, such as in dubbing content and speeding up laborious processes. Its role in content creation has been the source of heavy resistance, but it is increasingly playing a prominent role in today's best productions.

AI does pose a concrete risk to the creative industries, but there are hurdles to overcome before it can start to leave any kind of mark – exemplified by the collapsed $1 billion deal between OpenAI and Disney, following the shuttering of the Sora video generation tool.

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Keumars Afifi-Sabet is a freelance contributor for Tech Radar and the Technology Editor for Live Science. He has written for a variety of publications including ITPro, The Week Digital and ComputerActive. He has worked as a technology journalist for more than five years, having previously held the role of features editor with ITPro. In his previous role, he oversaw the commissioning and publishing of long form in areas including AI, cyber security, cloud computing and digital transformation.