'ChatGPT can't take human jobs': IT Stalwarts NR Narayana Murthy, Debjani Ghosh come in support of AI

With the rise of ChatGPT, the big fear of artificial intelligence (AI) taking over jobs has only gotten stronger by the day. However, contrary to popular perception, India's IT sector, and its industry body, Nasscom, believe that instead AI would help facilitate the creation of more jobs.

Last week, Nasscom released a strategic review report highlighting that AI is the highest employment-generating sector within the tech industry and is likely to only grow more as the Indian tech industry aims to reach $245 billion in size by the end of FY2023.

Talking to BT, Debjani Ghosh, President of Nasscom, said that the world has always reacted in a negative way when a new thing arrives. She pointed out that when automation arrived on the scene, there was widespread fear that this new technology would end up eating away many jobs.

"But the data strongly suggests that new technology is only making more jobs. There are so many new jobs being created because of AI and emerging tech. AI will definitely make jobs easier and create a need to upskill but it will only take over jobs that don't require humans. New tech has always been a creator of jobs, earlier there were no Uber drivers, or Zomato/Swiggy delivery boys, these jobs were created because of technology," Ghosh explained.

Echoing Ghosh, Krishnan Ramanujam, President, of Enterprise Growth Group, at TCS, is of the opinion that AI and automation taking away livelihood has now become an old and boring story.

"For the last four generations we have seen that AI and automation will never take your job away, they are not job killers but only creators. So be it generative AI or any new form it will never take away jobs. However, it will require Indian techies to upskill constantly," he said.

He further underscored that generative AI and its products are meant to help and facilitate human jobs, that's when true transformation happens. He highlights sectors like BFSI or medical, where the role of technology, especially AI and data, have increased to a point where now it is impossible to solve problems without them. "The key is in finding the right kind of generative AI," he said.

Even IT doyen and Infosys founder NR Narayana Murthy too is on the same page. Talking to BT, Murthy came in support of ChatGPT and stressed on the fact that it can never take away jobs. "I have used ChatGPT and no it can never take over human jobs. It can facilitate better and smooth functioning but humans will never be replaced by AI," he noted.

He also said that his son introduced him to ChatGPT and described the chatbot as a 'nice thing'

"There has always been a fear of losing jobs with anything new coming to the world but we must not fall for that. We must take AI as the good thing that it is and use it for the right purposes," Murthy underscored.

CP Gurnani, CEO and Managing Director of Tech Mahindra, too explained his thought on generative AI and said, "I am so happy about the generative AI. To me, it did not take away jobs. It created jobs. Technology is the heart of everything."

He added that the use cases of generative AI are still being defined, which means that it has the potential to create more job opportunities in the future.