And there she stood at the gate of the university she worked so hard to get into. These were the doors to her dreams. The doors that would get her to the desk she oh so craved for. The hustle and bustle of the newsroom. The smell of the freshly printed issue of the newspaper that featured her article right on the front page. But little did she know that her dreams would be crushed by not another student fighting for that desk but by the little device she had in her hands. The device she depended on more than anything.
Artificial intelligence (AI) has swiftly emerged as a transformative force, revolutionizing various aspects of our lives. From the way we communicate to how we work, AI is reshaping entire industries and opening up new possibilities. But with its rise it is also bringing in concerns about job displacement and the need for upskilling to adapt to changing roles. AI and automation can replace certain tasks and roles, which means that some jobs may become obsolete or require less manpower. I think now the question that arises in every college student’s mind is: Why would someone pay me for an article in their newspaper when they could get it done for much cheaper by AI? So isn’t what we’re doing pointless?
But that is not the opinion of Paramveer Bakshi, Designated Partner at Innovente Solutions. When asked about the role of AI in job displacement, Mr Bakshi says, “Any new technology that comes up does displace people from the job sphere but it also creates new jobs and at the same time brings development in the old ones. While some jobs like content creation might seem redundant, it is quite the opposite. If anything, the introduction of AI has only increased
the demand for college graduates with more sophisticated sets of skills. At the end of the day, we still need manpower to use AI efficiently. The job rules have changed- now we want people that are smart enough to know real world problems and know how to solve them using AI. The industry’s expectations have changed- we want graduates that have a sense of what the real world needs and can use technology to add to what they know, not be a basis of what they know. Technology can only act as an added bonus, it is the user that needs to be in the spotlight.”
While AI might seem like a bane to our existence as upcoming journalists, it might just be a little bit of a boon. Generative AI could actually make our jobs easier on the information collection front. It can help us run large amounts of data, identify trends and anomalies that might be invisible to the human eye. It can help us cross-reference multiple sources of information and even help with fact-checking in this era teeming with fake news. AI can help bring the latest news through Social Media monitoring, helping journalists stay on top of the news at all times. So in the end, agreeing with what Paramveer said, while AI might lead to a few changes in the industry, it is time we adapt to them and evolve to bring in a new era of journalism in the digital space.
BY:-
YAGNA GUPTA
CHRIST (DEEMED TO BE UNIVERSITY)