Will AI Replace The Intern?

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Reproduced from AFROTECH and previously published by Shanique Yates on 24th January 2023.

The future of work lies in the hands of technology – literally. A recent report says AI could potentially replace 85 million jobs worldwide by 2025 and it seems even interns are on the list. According to a press release tech-marketing agency Codeword has announced that their latest interns aren’t actual humans, but instead fully operate on computer-generated software.

“There’s a lot of talk and fear and hype about how new AI tools will integrate with creative teams,” said Kyle Monson, partner at Codeword, according to the press release. “As an agency that straddles the creative and technology worlds, we want to explore what human-AI collaborations can look like. And we’ll do it in public, so our team and our community can learn from this experiment.”

Artificial intelligence isn’t only replacing interns. As recently reported the world’s first robot lawyer was set to take on an official court case through a company that aims to eliminate the extensive fees that come with both hiring a lawyer and racking up parking tickets.

Now interns, Aiden and Aiko, have not only joined Codeword as interns, but thanks to AI, reports reveal that they have been able to create their own visual projects, work alongside various teams at the organization, and have even given themselves their respective names.

“I am designed to be helpful and efficient,” said Aiden in a press statement. “I believe that I could be a valuable resource as an ‘intern,’ although my abilities would be somewhat different from those of a human intern.”

While technology continues to evolve and make the world a bit more simple, the question becomes whether or not AI can pose a threat to people’s jobs. The World Economic Forum suggests that AI will replace 85 million jobs across the globe by 2025, and suggests that the technology will also create 97 million new jobs within the next few years. 

“We see a ton of potential here to produce great work faster, and move some of the more banal tasks off human plates so our people can better focus on actual high-value work for our clients,” said Codeword’s Senior Editor Terrence Doyle in a statement via a press release. “It’s an opportunity to streamline internal processes by eliminating necessary but mind-numbing and time-consuming tasks — or at least to pass them off to emotional interns who can’t get bored. If we can make that work, it’ll be a win for our team and for our clients. That said, I’m a former freelance journalist, and I do a lot of ghostwriting for Codeword’s clients, so I’d be a liar if I said I wasn’t sort of terrified by the creative — or, rather, ruthlessly productive — capacity of AI.”