BEIJING Developed by OpenAI, ChatGPT has become the hottest topic in and outside the tech world.

The sophistication of its answers is quite amazing. Some have used it to answer questions on university tests on law and medicine, or on a Google engineer recruitment test that could lead to a US$180,000 (S$240,400) a year job. The program passed all with flying colours.

But anxiety has followed. Smart as ChatGPT is, its existence naturally leads to the question whether artificial intelligence (AI) will take away human jobs? And if so, which ones?

We asked ChatGPT. Will ChatGPT cause massive job loss?

ChatGPT: As an AI language model, I do not have the ability to cause job loss or create job opportunities. However, I understand that the increasing use of automation and AI technologies has led to concerns about job loss in some industries.

While it is true that AI can automate certain tasks and reduce the need for human labour in some areas, it can also create new job opportunities in other areas.

For example, AI and automation can help businesses become more efficient, which can lead to increased productivity and growth. This can create new job opportunities in areas such as data analysis, software engineering, and machine learning.

It is also important to note that AI and automation are not capable of replacing all human jobs. There are certain tasks and roles that require human skills and judgment, such as creative work, caregiving, and complex problem-solving.

Overall, while AI and automation may have an impact on the job market, it is difficult to predict the exact extent of this impact. Q: It sounds politically correct. Are you saying this just to avoid being eliminated by scared human beings?

ChatGPT: As an AI language model, I do not have the ability to cause job loss or create job opportunities. However, I understand that the increasing use of automation and AI technologies has led to concerns about job loss in some industries.

While it is true that AI can automate certain tasks and reduce the need for human labour in some areas, it can also create new job opportunities in other areas.

For example, AI and automation can help businesses become more efficient, which can lead to increased productivity and growth. This can create new job opportunities in areas such as data analysis, software engineering, and machine learning.

It is also important to note that AI and automation are not capable of replacing all human jobs. There are certain tasks and roles that require human skills and judgment, such as creative work, caregiving, and complex problem-solving.

Overall, while AI and automation may have an impact on the job market, it is difficult to predict the exact extent of this impact. More On This Topic The Petrov dilemma: moral responsibility in the age of ChatGPT ChatGPT is confronting, but humans have always adapted to new technology Q: Which jobs might be replaced by you?

ChatGPT: As an AI language model, I am designed to assist with natural language processing and generation, so I can help with tasks such as language translation, answering questions, and generating text. However, I cannot replace any specific job on my own.

In some cases, my capabilities may be used to automate certain tasks that were previously done by humans, such as customer service inquiries or content creation.

However, it is important to note that my abilities are still limited to language processing and I cannot perform tasks that require physical abilities, emotional intelligence, or other non-linguistic skills.

Overall, the impact of AI language models like me on the job market will depend on how they are used and integrated into various industries and organisations.

Surprisingly, some of ChatGPTs answers are similar to the arguments in my book AI Future. Perhaps this smart AI was inspired by key points in my books: AI Superpowers and AI 2041.

There have always been worries about job losses caused by AI. But ChatGPT has taken that concern to a new level. AI will replace simple, repetitive jobs, and has shown an ability for understanding and expression. But love, empathy and companionship will never be replaced by cold coded-AI.

Here are the 10 jobs I think are most in danger, and the 10 that will not be replaced by AI. Top 10 jobs most endangered by AI 1.Telemarketing

Telemarketing is among the very first professions to be replaced. Youve probably already received robo-calls, but future calls will be more natural. And having a single-domain conversation where AI takes the lead makes it a lot easier for the AI to appear authentic.

Furthermore, AI can use a customers profile, past purchases and emotional recognition to find ways to appeal to them. For example, using a soothing female voice or a persuasive male voice; upselling the impulsive buyer; and targeting the user with products in the right category and price range.

Considering AI has almost no incremental cost, no complaints, higher performance, and is fully connected to business logic, this job category has no future. 2.Customer support

Customer interaction will increase with the adoption of AI. However, customer support positions are relatively repetitive (their jobs often follow scripts), and therefore will be largely replaced by AI.

Customer service jobs will be replaced in phases. The first to be replaced will be chatbot or e-mail customer service.

Then, replacements will move to voice services where there are large volume of calls and relatively structured products/services. They will begin with human-AI working together, with AI providing suggested answers, topics, or scripts.

Then humans will be the backup when AI cannot handle a call (such as an angry caller). This will result in less waiting time for the customer, a higher problem resolution rate (because AI will be used only when proven to help), and much lower costs.

During this process, more data will be accumulated for the AI to eventually exceed a humans performance. 3.Warehouse workers

Amazon warehouses have had robots developed by Kiva systems to move racks of shelves and bring them to stationary human workers, who then pick up the merchandise and put it into bins. Automation companies in China like XYZ Robotics or J-Elephant may pick, sort, and move goods from small to large.

But computer vision and robotic manipulation technologies have improved, so that the stationary human jobs will soon be augmented and later replaceable. Also, movement of cartons, loading them on trucks, and other warehouse jobs will all soon be doable by AI.

Compared with factories, warehouses will be easier to automate, because of the lower level of precision needed. 4.Clerks and operational staff

Citigroup has announced that it will cut its operational staff from 20,000 to 10,000 people. These are the faceless people who manage data and information.

Job requirements may deal with filing, processing, procurement, inventory management, filling out forms, checking for errors, estimating sales and reporting findings to management. But as business processes become digital, business intelligence can automate the process.

AI can even make decisions. This isnt just in the banking industry, but in every large company that deals with large amounts of data. 5.Telephone operators

Telephone operators are the least personal of all telephone-related work. Speech recognition is getting more accurate (Microsofts speech recognition has surpassed human recognition), and in-context dialogue-oriented speech synthesis is getting more natural (Googles demonstrations are indistinguishable from humans).

Also, these positions are being challenged as more people relying on messaging rather than talking on the phone. This is a job category that will be eliminated completely over time. More On This Topic Civil servants to soon use ChatGPT to help with research, speech writing Bill Gates says ChatGPT will change our world, likens it to creation of the Internet 6.Teller/cashier

Tellers and cashiers are already being replaced by ATMs and self-checkout stations. Increased competition will force retailers, banks and fast-food restaurants to eliminate many manual processes.

Amazon Go and many autonomous stores in China point to a future where stores are completely autonomous, but there wont be widespread adoption quickly. It is expensive.

But if youre a cashier, dont feel relieved yet RFID and computer-vision based self-checkout are coming, as are smart vending machines and mini convenience stores. 7.Fast food workers

Food preparation is both repetitive and takes place in a fixed location, so displacement is inevitable. Existing franchises have already begun to automate order-taking, and are likely to get into face and speech recognition soon.

The natural next steps are food preparation and cooking. Also, there will emerge a whole new chain of fully automatically cooked and served food, with a lower price (a Chinese robo-store offers lunch for about half the price of McDonalds). These robo-restaurants will also take business away from traditional fast food chains, which will lead to a reduction in fast-food workers. 8.Dishwashers

Dont think of a dishwasher as a man-shaped robot, but think of it as a super-sized dishwasher that can take dishes (and food, bones, napkins, utensils) right off a restaurants table, then produce shiny clean dishes and silverware.

Dishcraft, a start-up in California, is already selling these. They are still expensive, but compared to the human labour saved, larger restaurants or hotels can afford them. And over time, volume will drive down the cost. 9. Assembly line inspector

Assembly line jobs will be phased out because of the fixed, static environment, and the repetitive nature of the jobs.

They will be replaced by technologies built by companies like Ainnovation, an AI manufacturing solution company. This process may take 20 years not so fast because robotic manipulation is not easy for AI. But there are some assembly line jobs that are easy inspection for blemishes or flaws (cosmetic like iPhone casings, or functional like circuit boards). They leverage the rapid improvement in computer vision, and require little or no manipulation.

These jobs are taxing on human inspectors, particularly for their eyes. 10. Couriers

Couriers and delivery people are being replaced by delivery robots, mini-vehicles, full-size trucks and drones. This will first begin with indoor delivery in structured environments (hotel rooms, apartments and condominiums), before moving into non-public roads, and then finally into full delivery.

When I was quarantined during the intense period of Covid-19 in China, all food and deliveries were brought to my apartment by a R2-D2-like delivery robot. That robot could summon the elevator from the ground floor, choose the right floor to go to, and notify me by phone when it reached my door, where it waited for me patiently.

While e-commerce continues to grow, it will need a greater number of delivery workers, at least in the short term. But this is definitely not an area to be in. The human differentiation and the human interaction are too minimal. More On This Topic ChatGPT v Spore pupils: How chatbot fared in PSLE maths, science and English OpenAI is faulted by US media for using articles to train ChatGPT The top 10 jobs safest from AI 1.Psychiatrists

Psychiatrists, social workers and marriage counscounsellors are all professions that require strong communication skills, empathy and the ability to win trust from clients. These are the weakest areas for AI.

Also, with the changing times, growing inequality and job displacements, the demand for such services is likely to increase. 2.Therapists (occupational, physical, massage)

Dexterity is one of the challenges of AI. Physical therapy (such as chiropractics or massage therapy) involves applying very delicate pressure and sensing equally minute responses from the clients body.

In addition, there are the added challenges of customising care for each client, consequences for hurting a client, and the need for interpersonal interaction. Such human interaction includes professional advice, small talk, as well as encouragement and empathy. These aspects make the job impregnable to AI in the short-term. 3.Medical caregivers (nurses, elderly care)

The overall healthcare industry is expected to grow substantially due to increased income, greater benefits, AI lowering the cost of care, and the ageing population (which will requires much more care).

Many of these reasons will foster a symbiotic environment in which AI helps with the analytical and repetitive aspects of health care, as more of the health care profession shifts to attentiveness, compassion, support and encouragement. 4.AI researchers and engineers

As AI grows, there will be a jump in demand for AI professionals. Gartner estimates that in the next few years, these increases will outnumber the jobs replaced.

However, one needs to keep in mind that AI tools are getting better so that some of the entry-level positions in AI will be automated over time as well.

AI professionals will need to keep up with the changes, just like over the years, software engineers have had to learn about assembly languages, high-level languages, object-oriented programming, mobile programming and now, AI programming. 5.Fiction writers

Storytelling is one of the highest levels of creativity, which AI will be weak at. Writers have to create, engage and write with style and beauty. In particular, a great work of fiction has original ideas, interesting characters, an engaging plot, surprising emotions and poetic language. All of these are hard to replicate.

While AI will be able to write social media messages, title suggestions, or even imitate writing styles, the best books, movies, and plays will be written by humans for the foreseeable future. Entertainment will be a hot area in the era of AI, because we will have more wealth overall, and more free time. More On This Topic If you think ChatGPT could make Google or knowledge jobs obsolete, wait till GPT-4 arrives ChatGPT is a dagger aimed directly at academia and the news media 6.Teachers

While the education community is wringing its hands over ChatGPT, I believe AI can become a great tool for teachers and education. AI is capable of knowing how to help personalise education curriculum based on each students competence, progress, aptitude, and temperament.

However, education will be more about helping each student find what he or she wants, helping hone each students ability to learn independently, and being a friend and mentor, so each student can learn to interact with others. These are jobs that can only be done by teachers, and require a low student-to-teacher ratio (like 5:1 or lower). So there will be many more such humanistic teacher positions created in the future.

In fact, a parent may be the best such teacher if future governments are wise enough to support home-schooling parent-teachers. If you are or want to be a teacher, learn more about how to connect with your students, one student at a time or in small groups, and less about how to lecture to 50 students. 7.Criminal defence attorney

Top lawyers will not have to worry aout their jobs. Reasoning across domains, winning the trust of the clients, harnessing the experience of working with different judges, and persuading a jury are the perfect combination of complexity, strategy, and human interaction that are so hard for AI to replicate.

However, a lot of paralegal and preparatory work in document review, analysis, and recommendations can be done much better by AI. And many tasks performed by paralegals legal discovery, creating contracts and handling small claims will be increasingly handled by AI.

The cost of the law profession makes it worthwhile for AI companies to work toward creating AI-paralegals and AI-junior lawyers, but not the top lawyers themselves. 8.Computer scientists and engineers

As the information age advances, a McKinsey & Co. report shows that engineering jobs (computer scientists, engineers, IT administrators, IT workers, tech consulting) are safe.

This high-wage category is expected to increase by 20 million to 50 million jobs globally by 2030. But these jobs require staying up-to-date with technology, and moving into areas that are not automated by technology. 9.Scientists

Scientists are the ultimate profession of human creativity. AI can only optimise based on goals set by human creativity. While AI is not likely to replace scientists, AI will create great tools for scientists.

For example, for drug discovery, AI can be used to hypothesise and test possible uses of known drugs for diseases, or filter possible new drugs for scientists to consider. AI will propel disruptions in many fundamental disciplines of science, as we are already investing in the area of biology. In the AI for science area, AI will amplify the abilities of human scientists. 10. Managers/leaders

Good managers have interpersonal skills such as negotiation, persuasion and the ability to motivate others. Good managers can effectively connect with employees on behalf of their companies, and vice versa.

More importantly, the best managers are leaders, who establish a strong culture and values, and through their words and actions, inspire employees to follow with their heart. While AI can be used to manage performance, managers will continue to be human.

That said, if a manager is merely a bureaucrat sitting behind a desk and giving employees orders, he or she will be replaced by other humans. CAIXIN GLOBAL This story was originally published by Caixin Global. More On This Topic Opt for skills that make you human in the age of AI and ChatGPT How ChatGPT robs students of motivation to write and think forthemselves