"I started using ChatGPT in January," said Pierre, a communications manager in a small administrations business, talking about the now-famous conversational robot launched in November 2022 by the company OpenAI. "At first, the results were not too impressive, but by honing my skills through YouTube videos, I've managed to automate about 30% to 40% of my workload, which consists of writing articles and social media posts." Although the person who said this – following a public call for people's experiences put out on Le Monde's French website – was enthusiastic about the technology, they did not want their name to be published, because the boss of their small company "struggles to think of using artificial intelligence [AI] as real work."
The trend for generative AIs – capable of creating text, like ChatGPT, or highly realistic photos, like Midjourney, from a simple written instruction – is starting to affect businesses. "Today, all the creatives in our agency play around with this software. And particularly those under 35," said Bertille Toledano, president of the advertising agency BETC and co-president of the Association des Agences-Conseils en Communication (Association of Communication Consulting Agencies, AACC). But beyond these initial technophile converts, will these tools disrupt the world of work? Or will they join the list of innovations that have been the subject of farfetched hype, only to disappoint, such as the metaverse or the virtual reality headset?
"Generative artificial intelligence is having an effect on jobs that seemed immune to automation, especially in the service sector," said sociologist Yann Ferguson, a teacher and researcher at ICAM in Toulouse and scientific leader of LaborIA, a program to analyze the impact of AI on work launched in 2021 by the government and the Institut National de Recherche en Sciences et Technologies du Numérique (National Institute for Research in Digital Science and Technology). Businesses such as the investment bank Morgan Stanley and e-commerce platform Cdiscount have already started its initial rollout. Digital giants such as Microsoft, Google, Amazon and Meta are also pushing the technology.
"Companies are mostly won over, but they also have questions," said Laurent Daudet, co-founder of LightOn, a French developer of large language models, the drivers behind interfaces like ChatGPT. What will generative AI really contribute? What are the risks? A February JobTeaser-Kantar survey summarized the ambivalence of feelings about this technology: Most people in employment between 18 and 27 thought that it would free up work time or create new jobs – but 61% also feared it would have an impact on their careers.
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