And yet, amid all the pessimism, one tiny group of humans has become extraordinarily valuable: Those creating AI. Many tech companies are scrambling to hire top-notch AI leaders and researchers, using multi-million dollar paychecks to entice them.
The AI talent war between Meta and OpenAI is just an extreme example of what’s happening across the tech industry. Companies large and small are fighting to recruit big-name AI leaders and their foot soldiers, readily acknowledging that developing superintelligence, or AI that’s vastly smarter than humans, hinges on the work of actual humans.
In their sales pitches, companies often claim AI can perform magic. But for now at least, the technology can’t entirely perform its magic on itself.
AI research scientists who are focused on foundational AI and making sci-fi advancements to it are considered to be at the top of this new pecking order. They oversee the training of vast general-purpose models, fine tune them, and make them more adaptable for developers to incorporate into their products.
David Horn, head of AI at financial services company Brex, agreed that humans are essential for developing and perfecting AI at his company and others. A few individuals, he said, can have a huge impact on a company’s ultimate success.
“You still need people who can tell AI what problems to solve when we’re working with AI tools,” Horn said. “What we found is that the value humans bring to a task is not necessarily putting in the effort but being able to very clearly explain what needs to be done—and also, more importantly, why.”
Unlike many of the major tech companies, Brex isn’t developing foundational AI. Rather, it’s building on top of the super-sized models that those bigger companies produce, specifically to tailor it for the financial sector. Several layers of workers are needed to do the job, Horn said. They include those who work directly with the AI, others who manage their work and the product pipeline, and still more who set the policies, or broader strategy, for how to work with AI on particular tasks.
Of course, not everyone in tech is in as big demand as AI researchers are.
Because of AI, hiring is slowing in certain specialties.
Customer service, data entry, and low level finance jobs are particularly vulnerable to advances in AI.
But a glance at Salesforce’s website shows something that Benioff didn’t mention: Salesforce has dozens of job openings with AI or related terms in the title or description.
