Everyday automation can replace the aspects of work that make us feel like machines.
Computers have failed to produce a huge surge in productivity, but the problem isn't the computers. It's that we haven't let workers tap into the computers' true power — automation. |
 | | Yeyei Gómez |
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As a historian and professor, I've been intrigued by the potential of machine learning tools like ChatGPT for my students' work. Initially, I was dismissive, unimpressed by ChatGPT's superficial answers and mediocre writing when I asked it questions about historical events, like, "What caused World War I?" |
But the other day, while playing around with ChatGPT, I finally saw its value. I teach a class on quantitative methods in history, where students learn to analyze data sets for historical change using the programming language Python. While the coding itself isn't complicated for them, it can be laborious and time-consuming, taking away from asking the big questions of history. |
Enter ChatGPT. While it may struggle with historical thinking, it excels at writing computer code to automate well-defined tasks. What used to take weeks in class can now be done in a day or two with ChatGPT. |
I tell this story not because I think it's urgent that we reform the way we teach data science to budding historians. I tell this story because it's a small example of how I think programs like ChatGPT can and should be used by workers in a wide range of white-collar fields, such as sales, marketing, logistics, finance, insurance, copy writing, legal services and so on. When properly harnessed, these tools can automate the mundane aspects of labor, making workers more productive and, importantly, more engaged — that is, more human. |
When Henry Ford kicked off the long economic boom of the 20th century, his assembly-line production paid better, but was dehumanizing. It implied that the only way we could be more productive and make more money was to become more like machines. Everyday automation, however, suggests the opposite. It indicates that using technology can help us become more fully human again, by automating the parts of work that make us feel like machines. |
In a guest essay today, I argue that machines will never replace people, but they can replace the parts of work that make us feel like we aren't people at all. |
| READ LOUIS HYMAN'S FULL ESSAY HERE | | |
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