美国国家公共电台 NPR--How will generative AI — such as ChatGPT — affect the workplace?

How will generative AI — such as ChatGPT — affect the workplace?

Transcript¹

New technologies often benefit highly paid, college-educated professionals — while putting others out of work. Research indicates generative AI could benefit middle-skill workers in surprising ways.

LEILA FADEL, HOST:

There's a history of new technologies benefiting highly paid, college-educated professionals while putting others out of work. Will the same thing happen as generative AI like ChatGPT enters the workplace? Adrian Ma and Wailin Wong from our daily economics podcast the Indicator² says new research offers some reasons for optimism.

WAILIN WONG, BYLINE³: Now there's no shortage of hot takes on how generative AI could affect the economy. But MIT economist⁴ Daniel Li is not really a hot takes person.

DANIELLE LI: I get stressed out when there's sort of, like, too much hype around tech.

WONG: Danielle wanted to study the effects of generative AI in the context of someone's actual job. So she and her colleagues, Lindsey Raymond and Erik Brynjolfsson, found a company that had begun experimenting with using AI in its customer contact centers, you know, the places you call or message when you can't log into your account or you keep getting an error message.

ADRIAN MA, BYLINE: The company created this virtual AI assistant, which they trained up using thousands of examples of successful customer interactions. And then the customer support employees, when they were chatting with customers, they had this AI assistant on a screen in front of them, and it would instantaneously serve up suggested responses or solutions to the customer's problems.

WONG: Danielle and her fellow researchers got six months of data from this company, thousands of customer interactions, and what they learned is, well, first, that working in customer support is not easy.

LI: If you look, you see, you know, like, lots of yelling, people writing in all caps.

WONG: Despite the unpleasant customers, it turns out with an AI assistant, it's a little bit better. One of their main findings was that workers were more productive. They measured this by looking at the number of problems workers were able to resolve in an hour and found that productivity increased 14%.

MA: they also found that customer satisfaction increased and employee turnover⁵ decreased, which suggests that the workers were more satisfied with their jobs. So in this case, Danielle says that the AI seemed to make a positive difference, not just for the customer or the company's bottom line but also for the employee.

LI: A lot of what customer service is, is about managing people's feelings 'cause people come, they're tired or whatever. And so in some sense there's kind of this sort of human soft skills component⁶ that these technologies are able to capture in a way that prior technologies couldn't.

MA: The researchers did expect generative AI to have some benefits for the employees, but what was really interesting to them was who benefited the most. Turns out, the improvements in productivity and customer satisfaction were mostly coming from relatively⁷ inexperienced workers, people who had been in the job for less than a couple of months. Danielle's co-author, Lindsey Raymond, says this makes sense when you think about it.

LINDSEY RAYMOND: Because the AI is learning from these human-generated training examples about, like, what makes a good interaction. The really experienced and really good workers are already doing that, while the newest workers have the most to gain from access to those AI recommendations.

MA: Danielle and Lindsey say just maybe what we're seeing here is the potential for generative AI to shift the old narrative⁸ - decades where technological⁹ advances have mainly benefited the most elite¹⁰ workers. And with these new AI tools, maybe workers who didn't have a ton of experience or elite education can get a leg up this time.

WONG: Wailin Wong.

MA: Adrian Ma, NPR News.

(SOUNDBITE OF MOKHOV'S "SOLID STATE DREAMS")

1 transcript   

n.抄本，誊本，副本，肄业证书

参考例句：

• A transcript of the tapes was presented as evidence in court.一份录音带的文字本作为证据被呈交法庭。
• They wouldn't let me have a transcript of the interview.他们拒绝给我一份采访的文字整理稿。

2 indicator   

n.指标；指示物，指示者；指示器

参考例句：

• Gold prices are often seen as an indicator of inflation.黃金价格常常被看作是通货膨胀的指标。
• His left-hand indicator is flashing.他左手边的转向灯正在闪亮。

3 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

4 economist   

n.经济学家，经济专家，节俭的人

参考例句：

• He cast a professional economist's eyes on the problem.他以经济学行家的眼光审视这个问题。
• He's an economist who thinks he knows all the answers.他是个经济学家，自以为什么都懂。

5 turnover   

n.人员流动率，人事变动率；营业额，成交量

参考例句：

• The store greatly reduced the prices to make a quick turnover.这家商店实行大减价以迅速周转资金。
• Our turnover actually increased last year.去年我们的营业额竟然增加了。

6 component   

n.组成部分，成分，元件；adj.组成的，合成的

参考例句：

• Each component is carefully checked before assembly.每个零件在装配前都经过仔细检查。
• Blade and handle are the component parts of a knife.刀身和刀柄是一把刀的组成部分。

7 relatively   

adv.比较...地，相对地

参考例句：

• The rabbit is a relatively recent introduction in Australia.兔子是相对较新引入澳大利亚的物种。
• The operation was relatively painless.手术相对来说不痛。

8 narrative   

n.叙述，故事；adj.叙事的，故事体的

参考例句：

• He was a writer of great narrative power.他是一位颇有记述能力的作家。
• Neither author was very strong on narrative.两个作者都不是很善于讲故事。

9 technological   

adj.技术的；工艺的

参考例句：

• A successful company must keep up with the pace of technological change.一家成功的公司必须得跟上技术变革的步伐。
• Today,the pace of life is increasing with technological advancements.当今， 随着科技进步，生活节奏不断增快。

10 elite   

n.精英阶层；实力集团；adj.杰出的，卓越的

参考例句：

• The power elite inside the government is controlling foreign policy.政府内部的一群握有实权的精英控制着对外政策。
• We have a political elite in this country.我们国家有一群政治精英。