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Narrator: We’re in the era of generative AI. While many workers are rushing to use AI tools to schedule their work week, rewrite emails, and edit their cover letters, a significant number have not yet adopted the new tool—and some fear it will soon take their jobs. So who is using ChatGPT, and should we be afraid of a future where AI has taken our jobs?
Anders Humlum: So to answer these questions, we collaborated with Statistics Denmark to conduct a large-scale survey, inviting 100,000 workers from 11 exposed occupations. These exposed occupations include journalists, software developers, and paralegals.
Narrator: That’s Chicago Booth’s Anders Humlum. He and his coauthor collected 18,000 survey responses that they linked to the Danish government’s administrative register data and Statistics Denmark. This enabled the researchers to characterize workers who adopted ChatGPT and to refine the analysis by workers’ earnings, labor market histories, and demographics.
Anders Humlum: Our survey responses revealed that ChatGPT is already widespread in the exposed occupations. So half of all workers have used this tool at some point. Around one-third of these are still actively using the tool, and then even fewer, 7 percent, are subscribing to a Plus account, which means that they’re paying for the service. But substantial inequalities in the use of the tool have emerged. In particular, we uncovered a staggering gender gap in the use of ChatGPT. In particular, women are 16 percentage points less likely to use ChatGPT relative to comparable men in the same occupations. Furthermore, despite the potential for this tool to lift workers with less expertise, we can link the survey responses to the administrative data at Statistics Denmark. We can see the tax records of each individual worker and see that the workers that are using ChatGPT, they earned more already before this tool was invented.
Narrator: In its first year, workers individually chose to adopt ChatGPT. In the future, employers will be crucial in driving its broader use. Many workers who could save time with AI are prohibited from using it by their employers. Others say they need training, especially older workers and women. By providing clear guidelines and training, employers can boost adoption while addressing significant inequality gaps. Humlum and his coauthor also asked workers if they were worried they would be replaced by AI.
Anders Humlum: It appears from our survey that workers do not seem to fear ChatGPT or generative AI tools. In particular, very few workers said that the reason for them not to use the tool is fear of becoming redundant in your job or dependent on the technology. (lively music)
