‘I’d rather read something imperfect by a human,’ employee says AI is changing work for the worse

SINGAPORE: Artificial intelligence may be helping employees get through their workloads faster, but not everyone believes that’s a good thing. One Singaporean employee says the rapid rise of AI is quietly reshaping workplace culture, and not for the better.

The employee, who had spent some time out of the workforce, wrote in a Reddit post that he felt like a “dinosaur” after returning to work because of how much workplace processes had changed in such a short period.

According to him, AI has become deeply embedded in almost every aspect of work.

“Everything is heavily reliant on AI, but not always in the best way,” he said. “There’s so much less human touch because people no longer talk and type their own emails like normal humans; everything has been drafted by AI.”

One interaction with a recruiter, in particular, reinforced that belief.

“Had this recruiter that has 0 critical thinking still and replies like an AI bot (obviously she has been using AI to input and generate her replies, because I can tell her ABC but her reply is on DEF with that annoying —.”

The employee also argued that AI is giving some people a false sense of expertise.

Because chatbots can generate answers within seconds, he feels some users start believing they fully understand subjects they have barely explored.

Other downsides of AI 

He then pointed out that AI can make certain jobs look deceptively easy.

“People think your work is easy because AI easily chunks out all the information in less than a minute without taking into consideration the human factor, like human judgment, your mental capacity, time spent on manual work, things like that, and the invisible work that isn’t understood by AI.”

Another change he has noticed is how teams approach problem-solving.

In the past, colleagues would brainstorm together, throw ideas around, refine drafts, debate different approaches, and gradually build towards a solution. 

These days, he said, the first instinct often seems to be opening an AI chatbot and asking it for the answer.

“The solution is always to feed it to AI and let it come up with a solution.”

While he isn’t against AI itself, he worries that people are becoming too comfortable letting it do the thinking for them.

“I just feel like it’s making everything lose the human touch?” he went on. “Because I’d rather read a not-perfect piece of an article written and typed out by a human than something way too perfectly generated by a non-human. These are just my thoughts. Thoughts on this??”

“In the hands of the right people, it is a powerful tool”

In the comments, many readers disagreed with the employee’s concerns, arguing that AI isn’t making work worse. Rather, they said, it’s poor use of the technology that’s creating the problems.

“AI doesn’t make work worse. Bad usage of AI does. What you are saying is like money corrupts people, and a world with money makes it worse. Rather, see it as a tool, but apply the same amount of critical thinking, ownership, and responsibility.”

Another wrote, “In the hands of the right people, it is a powerful tool. In the hands of idiots, you get intelligent-looking garbage.”

A third likened AI to a microphone or amplifier, saying it merely magnifies the abilities of the person using it.

“I see AI as a speaker/amplifier/microphone. It’s a reflection of the user, amplified. If you’re good and a critical thinker, your work will be catapulted by AI, but if you’re lazy and don’t like to think, AI will show it also.”

Some said pushing back against AI is much like rejecting the internet in its early days.

One explained, “AI is just another tool. And it is a tool that is growing very rapidly. Ignoring it and thinking it will go away is being ignorant and naive.” 

“Think of the internet. Would you go back to pre-internet days and depend on hard work, going to the library, and journeying the world to search for information? Sure, the journey may allow you to meet new people, discover new paths, and learn more about yourself, but the time taken would have been much longer.”/TISG

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