When listening to interviews with tech founders and experts, I often sense partial disclosure of the impact Artificial Intelligence technology will have on people. The notion that AI is solely a tool rather than a potential replacement for human labour is an intentional omission.

In a Forbes interview, David Jones, the esteemed founder and Chief Executive Officer of Brandtech, shed light on one of his ventures, Pencil. Pencil is a burgeoning startup valued at a billion dollars, which has revolutionised the media and advertising landscape by leveraging artificial intelligence (AI) technology to generate advertisements. The platform empowers individuals and companies to create advertisements suitable for many platforms, including TikTok, YouTube, Google, Instagram, Amazon, and Facebook. In response to an inquiry related to the potential impact of such tools on the future of advertising professionals, Jones alluded to a widely held sentiment among technology enthusiasts, emphasising that it is not generative AI that poses a threat to anyone's employment but rather the individuals who harness its capabilities over those who do not. Jones further reinforced this notion by asserting that Pencil is "a tool for humans to use, not a replacement". 

Jones mentions that a fundamental skill young people with ambitions of entering the marketing and content creation space is an "ability to prompt and use the tools".  If armed with this skill, individuals can perform multiple types of jobs, thereby reducing the overall labour demand. Consider the hypothetical scenario where a single individual can utilise an AI tool such as Pencil to generate advertisements. In this case, design, branding, copywriting, and more tasks can be simultaneously accomplished, eliminating the need for a dedicated team. This development could result in reduced headcounts and a diminished emphasis on human creativity in companies. In the marketing industry, for instance, prompters skilled in utilising AI tools could potentially fulfil multiple roles.

John Loeffler writes in a TechRadar article about a keynote address delivered by another tech founder and CEO of Nvidia, Jensen Huang. Huang revealed in his keynote that Nvidia's Blackwell cluster, equipped with eight GPUs, consumes 15kW of power, indicating a substantial increase in power consumption compared to current-gen Hopper chips. The expected widespread deployment of millions of these AI processors in data centres raises concerns about the already unsustainable energy usage in data centres and the reliance on carbon-emitting sources. Loeffler expresses alarm at the potential environmental impact of such a massive increase in power demand and criticises Huang's non-address of these ecological impacts during the keynote. He writes, "I always feared that the AI data center boom was likely going to make the looming climate catastrophe inevitable, but there was something about seeing it all presented on a platter with a smile and an excited presentation that struck me as more than just tone-deaf. It was damn near revolting."

On the human impact, Loeffler writes about how Nvidia ACE has the potential to power digital humans for customer service, interior design, and more. This could lead to job losses in the service industry as companies replace human workers with cheaper, never-complaining AI avatars. Digital kiosks and robots will further automate tasks. AI's disruption of various industries will leave affected workers with few alternatives, posing significant societal challenges.

Loeffler paints a bleak image: "Next time you go into a fast food restaurant to order from a digital kiosk, your order will probably soon come out of a hole in the wall with a 'digital human' on a screen to pretend that it's actually serving you your food. Behind the wall, an army of robots, also powered by new Nvidia robotics processors, will assemble your food, no humans needed."

In the tech space, "disrupting" and "democratising" are frequently employed. And while artificial intelligence (AI) is heralded as a harbinger of a creative revolution, there is scant consideration of its potential to stifle creativity by performing both the conceptualisation and execution of creative endeavours. A person's role in this AI revolution is to effectively input prompts into these tools. The amount of creativity that goes into this may be debatable. Furthermore, it is concerning that many companies can reduce their costs and maximise profits by implementing AI systems and tools, which may result in job losses. These job losses have a devastating impact. 

The ramifications of job losses resulting from AI implementation have severe consequences that necessitate a more comprehensive and enthusiastic response that matches the prevailing discourse on the benefits of AI.