The Pace of AI Technology Growth Sparks Mixed Emotions Among New Yorkers

Since the late 2022 launch of ChatGPT by OpenAI, artificial intelligence (AI) has rapidly advanced into the mainstream and New York companies are jumping on it as evidenced by the proliferation of startups. Although New York is poised to capitalize on this latest “tech craze” since it is home to some of the biggest industries that will use AI, it has sparked concerns of the impact of the nascent technology. While the city is “the second most valuable tech hub in the world with an ecosystem worth more than $700 billion, according to the New York City Economic Development Corp. (NYCEDC), the potential of white-collar job loss exits. A report released in late June 2024 by Citigroup projected that “about 54% of jobs across banking have a high potential of being automated,” affecting not only back-office positions, but also analysts, data processors, traders, and others. A separate study by data research firm Burning Glass Institute led to the prediction that both “finance and tech jobs — some of the highest-paying in the city would be the most vulnerable to elimination.” At the same time, companies could see rising profits. Jaime Dimon, the chief executive at JPMorgan Chase “believes the technology will allow employers to shrink the workweek to just 3.5 days.” In contrast, a recent Goldman Sachs report “questions whether AI will live up to its promise, both financially and in terms of complex problem solving.”

Although AI has the ability to “analyze reports, write briefs, sift through mountains of data and generate images, often more efficiently than humans, the Citigroup report cautioned that the bank found in some cases, chatbots struggle to understand slang and they often have difficulty comprehending ambiguous questions. Furthermore, “since AI models are known to hallucinate and create information that does not exist, organizations run the risk of AI chatbots going fully autonomous and negatively affecting the business financially or its reputation.” Those that are optimistic about the technology, which is perhaps the most disruptive ever for the human race, believe it promises to create jobs as well as eliminate them, while recognizing that certain turmoil can be created due to a possible shift in who’s getting the jobs and who’s not. The time-tested resilience of New York City’s economy has enabled it to ably navigate technological change; and although it is unclear at this juncture what is going to be the ratio of [job] transition to new creation, it is the role of the NYCEDC to “try to make sure that we support industry in a way that creates the most jobs that are accessible to the most diverse set of New Yorkers,” according to statements by the organization’s Executive Vice President and Chief Strategy Office Cecilia Kushner.

Source:    https://www.crainsnewyork.com/technology/how-ai-will-shape-new-york-future