A content writer, Eric Fein, has been forced to turn to trade work after OpenAI’s ChatGPT wiped out his business. Fein had nine contracts that were all canceled in quick succession, leaving him with no income as his business was almost overnight destroyed. His largest client dropped him in March after it started using ChatGPT to write its content. Fein charged $60 an hour for his services as a content writer which includes writing website short blurbs and product descriptions.
Currently, the 34-year-old writer is training to become a heating and air conditioning technician, hoping that learning a trade will be more future-proof. According to Goldman Sachs’ early analysis, generative AI could disrupt the labor market and affect about 300 million jobs globally. It also predicted that trade work will be one of the industries least affected by advances in artificial intelligence.
Although AI has been developed to aid productivity and efficiency and offer a competitive edge in business, its rapid advancements have raised concerns over widespread unemployment. Mustafa Suleyman, co-founder of Google DeepMind, recently suggested a universal basic income to aid those who will lose their jobs to AI.
