A little over a year has passed since the release of Openair's ChatGPT chatbot. Its user base reached 100 million subscribers in a month, setting a world record for the speed of audience recruitment. Technology companies and investors around the world are interested in the new tool and the wide possibilities that generative artificial intelligence opens up in various fields. So it became the main trend of 2023.
AI makes information more accessible to non-specialists
It is often said that with the introduction of generative AI, our entire familiar world will change this year, but how do new technologies already affect different areas of our lives?
Ivan Stelmakh, a professor at the Russian School of Economics, emphasizes the importance of Russia keeping up with the trend, and Yandex has already released its version of the YandexGPT chatbot and is implementing it into products. This, according to the expert, will allow training specialists and developing AI in our country.
Daria Levina, Strategy and Operations Manager, DataGPT (Canada), notes that she was surprised by the speed with which artificial intelligence was able to penetrate into all areas of online business. For example, at DataGPT, AI is already helping to write programs, compose emails, and analyze data. Virtual assistants are now actively used. The expert also notices an increase in his own productivity by 3-5 times when working with data. The speed of change, according to Levina, has become unprecedented.
Stanislav Mazurenko, head of the AI research group in the field of protein engineering, Masaryk University (Czech Republic), recalls that artificial intelligence has been used in biology for about 10 years. Thanks to new technologies, it is now possible to collect data on various observations within a couple of weeks. Previously, according to the expert, scientists had been collecting a similar amount of data for years. In addition, AI can give impetus to new scientific discoveries. For example, he has already helped predict the structure of the protein.
According to Mazurenko, from the point of view of the fundamental field of knowledge, AI has great potential, because biological systems are very complex, and new technologies allow you to automatically look at different combinations.
Daria Levina believes that data analytics should now increase the availability of data for users. If earlier people had to know programming languages to obtain certain data, now they can get the necessary information through AI message dialogues and form models for different tasks. It is worth noting an undoubtedly positive point - AI reduces the threshold for entry into a particular industry for non-specialists. Information is becoming more accessible.
The benefits of introducing AI into business processes and barriers to the development of new technologies Levina believes that the introduction of AI and real-time data monitoring always have a positive impact on revenue. Online companies usually have a lot of data to collect and analyze. This information can be used, for example, to optimize websites in order to correct inefficient places and avoid losses. As the expert emphasizes, even for small companies, annual losses from the inefficiency of various digital resources amount to millions of dollars. However, if earlier companies needed, for example, three days to understand what happened and fix the error, now the reaction speed is increasing, and it takes only 33 minutes. Such technological optimization will allow businesses to save a lot of money.
Ekaterina Sivyakova, author of Kommersant.Science" and the GURU portal draws attention to the existing barriers to the rapid development of AI in business. Thus, according to a study by Fintech published in October 2023, one of the main obstacles to the introduction of artificial intelligence in the financial sector was the shortage of specialized specialists - 83% of respondents admitted that their companies do not have enough qualified personnel: data engineers, data analysts and other experts working with AI. According to the survey, 95% of large financial companies are already implementing artificial intelligence technologies in their work, but 53% of them do not have a long-term strategy for the development of AI.
The imperfection of AI and the labor market
The large-scale introduction of AI has become a stumbling block for many countries, which this year began to introduce laws regulating the operation of new technologies. The main question that remains relevant is how correct the AI's help is, and whether it can harm people.
Ivan Stelmakh gave an example of a scientific paper in which scientists investigate the stability of algorithms to collective actions of people. So, during the experiment, the researchers came to the conclusion that in the recommendation system of the popular professional social network LinkedIn, the same behavior of even a small group of people who put the same hidden symbol and clicked resumes leads to a malfunction in the system and their withdrawal to the top specialists of the site. This shows that AI machine learning algorithms are still imperfect now, and they can be bypassed quite simply. According to the expert, in the future it is necessary to learn how to better integrate AI into different areas so that the number of errors is minimal and does not harm businesses and people.
As for the labor market, many experts believe that AI will not change it overnight, but will be implemented at a slower pace than expected at the beginning.
Daria Levina does not yet see major changes in the labor market in the field of data analytics, which would be associated with the introduction of AI. In her opinion, at this stage of technology development, they still need to be trained and given clear tasks in order to make AI more organized.
According to forecasts by the HSE Institute for Statistical Research on the Economics of Knowledge, cited by Ekaterina Sivyakova, almost two thirds of children who entered school in 2016 will work in professions that do not yet exist. At the same time, 50% of people working today will need retraining in 2025.
Stanislav Mazurenko believes that in order to build a successful career in the modern world, it is necessary to learn to be flexible and discard the model of older generations, according to which it is necessary to build a clear career in a certain field. According to the expert, it is worth focusing on the development of specific skills, which can then be applied in various fields and move from one to another. For example, the digital world is further actualizing the so-called "soft skills", communication skills and interaction with other people.
Daria Levina believes that sooner or later artificial intelligence will enter into all business tasks. However, now it is difficult to predict the speed and trajectory of the introduction of new technologies, therefore, according to the expert, you just need to keep up with the times and improve various skills, including working with AI, as needed.
