OpenAI’s Chief Technology Officer Mira Murati recently gave a controversial statement, claiming that AI tools will see some “creative” jobs go away. She further added, “but maybe those jobs shouldn’t have been there in the first place(sic).”
Murati was speaking at a talk show hosted at Thayer School of Engineering at Dartmouth, her alma mater, on the topic of “AI Everywhere: Transforming our world, empowering humanity”, where she expressed her views on the collaboration of AI tools and human creativity.
During the event, the talk show host asked Murati, “There’s some fear right now (of AI taking up jobs), but you are saying that they will switch and humans will figure out how to make creative part of the work just better? (sic). To this, Murati replied stating, “I think so….come creative jobs maybe will go away but maybe they shouldn’t have been there in the first place (sic).”
Her statement regarding AI taking away creative jobs has resulted in a backlash from users on social media who accused her company of stealing original works of artists for their machine learning.
Users also criticized Murati for trying to undermine the efforts of artists and creative spaces by claiming that such jobs shouldn’t have been there in the first place.
Several social media users criticized Murati over her point of view on AI tools and human creativity.
In her discussion at the Darmouth Engineering event, Murati highlighted how AI tools are changing the way we interact with information and ideas, making it easier for people to express themselves creatively.
“The AI tools we are building, like Sora, GPT-4o, DALL·E and ChatGPT, are impressive from a technical standpoint. But what really matters is how they’re starting to change the way we interact with information and ideas (sic),” said Murati.
Murati stressed on the importance of responsible AI development claiming that OpenAI is collaborating with red-teaming experts to ensure technologies are used ethically and responsibly, prioritizing positive impacts while minimizing harm. Recently, OpenAI acquired Rockset to integrate real-time data capabilities into its AI infrastructure. This move aims to improve the efficiency and intelligence of OpenAI’s applications.
The backlash over Murati’s statement show the underlying concerns of advancement of AI in everyday lives, prompting fears of mass layoffs in the creative spaces.
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