The list of jobs in which AI can replace humans is long: delivery drivers, supermarket cashiers, customer service, administrative assistants…
However, this bad news is accompanied by truly positive news: AI has also created new areas in professional careers that, a priori, might seem to have no direct relationship with this technology.
Such is the case of Hispanic Philology, unfairly mistreated on numerous occasions for its only “feasible” job opportunities: ending up being a secondary school language teacher.
They told him this same thing in his second year of high school. Esther Fernández Carbayo (2000), a young philologist who currently works in an AI team in language engineering.
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“My job right now consists of creating, designing and maintaining virtual assistants, both chatbots and voicebots and, little by little, I intend to get more into generative AI,” Esther acknowledges in an interview with Computer Today.
Precisely, at the same time as it works study a postgraduate degree in natural language processingthat is, a part of computational linguistics responsible for how machines process and understand human language.
Generative AI, a promising future
When they told him that the choice of his studies was unwise due to his few exits, back in 2017, AI had not yet become a media topic, despite the fact that, in the shadows, the projects were beginning to bear fruit.
With the arrival of OpenAI's ChatGPT in November 2022, all focus turned to the chatbot, which also attracted a lot of attention from investors. Given this, the success of generative AI had been demonstrated.
According to Esther, This type of AI is also gradually reaching the field of publishing in the sector, which continues to be one of Philology's favorite outlets.
“Many attempts are being made to implement predictive texts based on algorithms so deep that they even become very unique to each author,” he highlights.
Although she does not agree that, in this case, a machine can replace human writers.
“I don't believe that a machine can write a book for an author, but it can give him ideas or improve his writing, but always assuming that he is going to make the basis of a book,” he adds.
According to data from the World Economic Forum, technology will create 97 million new jobs by 2025, that is, 12 million more than those that will be destroyed. Specific, AI created 3 times as many jobs as destroyedaccording to FeeStories.
In short, as assured by AMETIC, which brings together the main players in the Spanish digital industry, this sector will not face the destruction of jobs due to AI, but will instead spare workers the most repetitive tasks.
New jobs thanks to AI
Beyond the positive data related to jobs in the field of AI, Esther recognizes that there are still more opportunities in her sector for those who want to specialize in technology.
This is the case of data science, a path that can be chosen if you have completed Hispanic Philology and have received subsequent technical training.
According to Esther, The income range for a young worker who has recently entered the industry ranges between 18,000 and 20,000 eurosdepending on the company.
It is still far from what you can earn as an employee of Amazon's Alexa division as a machine learning engineer, approximately 167,000 euros, but it shows the potential of AI.
Although if Esther had to bet on the future of this technology, she is very clear about it.
“I bet a lot that there will be more and more generative AI, which works with such extensive models that it seems that it is really intelligent, because in the end we forget that what we are trying to do is make it seem intelligent,” he concludes.