I have been involved in several discussions where it has been talked about how “robots will take our jobs” in the future. Some of the discussions have been quite utopian and some quite realistic. But when I say that I work in the social services sector, people usually say that the social services and health care sector will never run out of jobs, and that “robots” will never take them away from us.
Throughout history, there has been a fear that technology will take away our jobs. Fear has been aroused by household appliances in households, new factory machines, the mechanization of the farm and probably thousands of years ago also the creation of fire and the invention of the wheel. Miraculously, even with the increasing population of the earth, we have enough jobs. The jobs have just moved elsewhere. What is different about modern times is that the development of technology is much faster than before. If we look for example a hundred or two hundred years into the past, technology didn’t really develop alot during one generation, when, for example, a blacksmith was able to use the lessons and tools he got from his father, his son was able to start using new tools and techniques little by little after his father (it shows that I´ m reading the Hovimäki book series right now). Today, technology can bring us new methods and tools every year and change the way we do our jobs several times during our career. So it is quite possible that during our working career those “robots” will actually come and take our jobs.
I work in the social sector and my most important tools are my own interaction skills, social skills and empathy. Would it be possible to achieve these skills with technology? Recently, ChatGPT and Snapchat’s AI chats have become viral phenomenas. With these services, you can really talk about any topic, and of course these services know almost anything and learn more from every conversation they have. Could this be the future of the social services? You would never have to wait for an appointment with an overworked social worker or get wrong information about a service (social and health services are so vast and change often, that no person can remember them by heart).
I decided to test ChatGPT. I asked for it e.g. to write me an essay on artificial intelligence, I asked it how to apply for a job and I portrayed a depressed person who seeks its help. I was really surprised how it was able to answer my questions and help me with my problems. It goes without saying that it knew a lot of facts about the topics we were talking about, but I was most surprised by its interaction skills, social skills and empathy. I told it that I was depressed and it advised me to seek professional help, listed places where I could get it and comforted me by saying; “Depression is not a weakness and should not be ashamed of.” and “Depression is treatable and many people can get help and recover to full functional capacity.” I couldn’t have said it better myself! However, ChatGPT didn’t directly tell me any place where I should have called when I was depressed, but advised me, for example, what search words to put in google to find the right phone number. Of course, it also didn’t call anywhere for me or gave me moral support if I had called myself. It also probably wouldn’t have made a child protection report or an adult concern report if it had been necessary. However, it would probably be easy to somehow program these features into it, if it were to be used as a service in the social sector (I don’t know of the moral support, but the others maybe).
I will tell you a story about one of my clients. A few years ago I received a tip from a school about a young person who was at risk of being marginalized and who did not want to accept any help from the school. I contacted the young person, and as a result of lengthy messaging, we were able to arrange a meeting at my office. The young person canceled the meeting a couple of times, but eventually I was able to persuade them to come and meet me. We were able to agree on follow-up measures and support measures for them, and as a result of a few years of work, they got back on they feet, got a job and a place to study. I chatted with them when our joint work was coming to an end. They told me that at first they didn’t want to work with me at all, because they had been let down so many times by adults who had only blamed them for their situation and bossed them around. They had promised to come and see me, hoping me to leave them alone after that. However, when they came to my office, they were surprised by my blue hair (yes, I had blue hair, and it was beautiful) and thought that no one with blue hair can be so bad. Then when they realized that I wasn’t going to blame them or boss them around, they decided to give me a chance to help. This young person was ready to refuse my help, but my blue hair saved the situation! I’m not saying that blue hair is especially important in social work, but what is important is that the client feels comfortable in the company of the professional. For this customer, it was the blue hair. Can such experiences be created with artificial intelligence? After all, I hadn’t dyed my hair for this client or knew that colour of my hair would be an important thing. Artificial intelligence could certainly, with the help of some kind of algorithm and data, create experiences like this for customers. And artificial intelligence could also change its appearance faster, to meet the customer’s needs, than I could. For example, for a senior citizen that blue hair might not have inspired confidence at all (luckily, I only worked with young people at the time).
So I have come to the conclusion that artificial intelligence can take away my job too, and even in the next few years. But that’s fine. That’s interesting! We need to develop ourselves and our work, so that we can learn skills that we can use in the future. These jobs can be something that we can’t even imagine yet. Think about that 19th-century blacksmith, who certainly couldn’t think that his distant relative would work as an IT consultant in the 21st century. Lets see what the future holds for us!
P.S. This blog has not been written by artificial intelligence. It could have been, and maybe it would have been better if it was. But yes, I wrote it, by myself. 😀
Sources that I used and which I recommend you to familiarize yourself with:
- ChatGPT from https://www.giti.ai/fi
- Hovimäki book series and TV series, Carl Mesterton, Anna-Lisa Mesterton, Kirsti Manninen and Jussi-Pekka Aukia
- Images from https://pixabay.com/