A wave of lay-offs across major tech companies in recent weeks has left young Australians increasingly concerned about job security, as Artificial Intelligence (AI) renders some tasks obsolete.
Among them is 23-year-old Kosta Drossos, who studied IT at Swinburne University in Victoria. While currently in full time employment, he says there is an “increasing fear” surrounding the “unsettling” nature of AI stealing tech jobs.
“The IT field already has an incredibly high demand for positions, meaning competition was fierce before AI even entered the conversation,” he told The Australian.
“Now there’s an added layer, not just competing with other candidates, but with technology that, if used effectively, can match or exceed what humans are capable of.”
Drossos is most bothered by the rate at which AI can develop and do tasks.
“My concern is companies will prioritise output and profit over the ethical responsibility of keeping humans employed, even in roles where AI isn’t the only option,” he said, adding that businesses will decide whether they see the importance of human input or would rather invest in AI platforms.
“The unsettling part is that none of us really knows where the line is. Which roles are safe? Which aren’t?”
This comes as Atlassian co-founder Mike Cannon-Brookes recently announced that 10 per cent of its workforce are casualties of the AI revolution, saying “our approach is not ‘AI replaces people’. But it would be disingenuous to pretend AI doesn’t change the mix of skills we need or the number of roles required.”
WiseTech also cut one-third of its workforce with newly appointed CEO Zubin Appoo stating manual coding was no longer relevant, and Afterplay owner Block culling 4000 employees.
Source: The Australian
