Denton Jenkins
The age of artificial intelligence is here, and people are getting nervous. While ChatGPT and other word-processing AI systems are a source of moderate entertainment for consumers today, their inevitable integration into the workplace is estimated to shift 85 million jobs globally into new fields such as machine learning, data security and digital marketing.
But what does this mean for you? Professors and students from various departments at the University of Mississippi shared their thoughts on what a future career with AI might look like.
Yixin Chen, chair and professor of computer and information science, shared that he views AI as “a dynamic tool capable of enhancing our abilities, optimizing workflows and providing groundbreaking solutions to intricate challenges.”
Chen predicts that AI will revolutionize several industries, bringing with it new employment opportunities.
“The ramifications of AI on employment are nuanced. It undoubtedly threatens to revolutionize certain industries, particularly those centered on routine tasks,” Chen said. “However, it simultaneously births unprecedented opportunities. A prevailing sentiment is that AI will transform the essence of numerous professions, not necessarily obliterating them.”
Chen specified that AI cannot operate alone and will still need humans for some of its most complex tasks.
“While its prowess in data-centric tasks is indisputable, realms demanding empathy, inventive flair or discerning judgment might invariably require the human element,” Chen said.
This is a common view of many professors and students alike. Emily Steele is a third year law student. On the cusp of entering the professional world herself, Steele does not believe AI could fulfill the many interpersonal aspects of the legal field.
“I would be afraid of AI in a way, but I think there are a lot of things in the legal field that AI couldn’t do,” Steele said. “The personable aspects of the job it couldn’t do. It could probably take over drafting but not necessarily litigation in the courtroom.”
Public Services Law Librarian and Professor Jacob Waldo echoed Steele’s view that AI could allow attorneys to work more efficiently, cutting down time on writing and research.
Paralegals, sometimes referred to as legal assistants, perform research, organize files and perform a variety of other administrative tasks to support attorneys. According to Waldo, AI is already impacting legal work.
“There is some concern for how it would affect paralegals and some smaller aspects of what lawyers do daily, but the deep analysis of the law would have to be done by people, at least for right now.” Waldo said. “Some people working with AI in the legal industry like Casetext have a tool called CoCounsel that can write legal memos, do research and other tasks. Some firms are already using that.”
Waldo emphasized that the skills to contextualize the law that are essential to doing the job rest in the hands of human beings, not AI.
“Even if AI got to the point where it was making valid arguments, you still need people who understand the law to ask the right questions and get the best information,” Waldo said.
The belief that AI lacks the ability to comprehensively reason and write, thus holding it back from replacing people in the job market, is commonly held in different fields.
Jacob Duncan, a junior journalism major, said that he believes that AI operates too rigidly to take over the field completely.
“I believe AI is too structured, unlike journalism that has many different viewpoints and arguments,” Duncan said.
Associate Professor of Journalism Instruction Vanessa Gregory thinks it is inevitable that reporters will find a way to utilize AI in the news gathering process. The biggest threat, she thinks, is misinformation.
“There is no doubt that journalists will find a way to use AI in ways that will enhance news gathering,” Gregory said. “I think the big threat is that it will play into the spread of misinformation and a media landscape in which the average reader and the journalist is less able to distinguish truth and fiction. It is going to be a challenge for reporters to have to look at every single piece of media and not only worry that it might have been edited, but that it could just not be real.”
While Gregory thinks that AI will reshape the field of journalism, she also believes something sets the profession apart from AI’s capabilities.
“One thing that is really important to remember about AI as it exists now is that it exists on the internet while journalists exist in the world,” she said. “Some of the most important and best reporting happens with the traditional boots on the ground journalism. This is still the bright core of journalism — people going out and making observations about what’s happening in places. So, until robots have bodies, I am confident that we will still need traditional journalists and that journalism will at least, to some degree, function as it needs to.”
While AI is relatively new to the workforce and the university, it is poised to revolutionize both education and employment as we know them. Professor of Public Policy and Ethics Zachary Vereb expressed that institutions of higher learning must work to ensure that students of today are equipped for the AI world of tomorrow.
“I think we are facing a paradigm shift in education with the introduction of AI like ChatGPT, so we will eventually need to learn to adapt to it, along with our students who will likely be required to work with said AI in their professional lives,” Vereb said.
