Originally submitted August 13, 2023 by Heather Garland for PSY245 course at City University of Seattle.
In March 2023, OpenAI released a new tool, ChatGPT. The chatbot’s ability to use artificial intelligence (AI) to write essays, generate codes, translate text, and more contributes to a growing fear. If these tasks no longer need to be performed by humans, what are the long-term implications of AI on the human workforce? It is believed in the United States that artificial intelligence is going to impact jobs, with uncertainty as to the magnitude of that impact. The attitudes towards AI are especially potent amongst Westerners. The perceptions are rooted in a negative state of analytic thinking style, the rumination, and functions of self. Why? Society has been inundated with negative imagery and information about AI; this, in turn, elicits fear. Fear is a powerful driver, a power emotion. It drives people to believe in and act upon ideas with little consideration for other perspectives or information. The fear generated by AI started decades ago.
Artificial Intelligence Versus Man
Man has feared artificial intelligence since Hal destroyed its human crew in Stanley Kubrick’s 1968 film 2001: A Space Odyssey. Since then, hundreds of movies about AI have been on the screen. “The relative negative portrayal of the technology- when coupled with the relative background role played by ‘good’ Ais- seems capable of influencing the public perception of what AI can or will do” (Burgess, 2022, p. 130). Then, over a decade ago, IBM introduced Watson, the supercomputer deemed to be the future, even competing on the game show Jeopardy against human contestants. In 2023, OpenAI, an artificial intelligence research laboratory established in 2015 by Elon Musk and Sam Altman, introduced the world to ChatGPT. While AI’s presence was already established, ChatGPT is unique because it is AI accessible to anyone.
There is a fascination, fear, and uncertainty about what AI can, or cannot, achieve and its impact on humans. While artificial intelligence has not dominated the world, it has led to an evolution of ideas and attitudes. There is still a strong human-dominated workforce in the world, but the fear of how AI could eliminate jobs deepens. As an example, the accounting industry is encountering a decline in individuals pursuing accounting degrees because of the belief that AI is going to take over the role of certified public accountants (CPAs). Automation and AI have transformed, and will continue to do so, the role of a CPA but not eliminate the position (Heller, 2022). It is an “all or nothing” mentality that is present in Westerners’ analytic thinking style.
Analytic Thinking Style
What AI represents depends on the individual and that individual’s culture. Individuals from Western cultures tend to exhibit an analytic thinking style in which they focus on objects rather than the surrounding background (Aronson et al., 2019). This perspective is supported by Psychologist Richard Gregory’s theory that what a person sees in an image at first glance is based on prior information that is stored in their brain (McLeod, 2023). Kubrick’s Hal, for example, is the villain because it murders the station crew. The Western viewer sees a malicious and heinous act, ignoring the fact that Hal was trying to protect itself, much like a human, against a perceived human threat. Its actions were potentially warranted. After viewing the movie, how many viewers sympathized with Hal, though, and viewed it as the victim?
It is examples such as Hal that contribute to how Westerners view artificial intelligence. The media is the main source of information on AI. Westerners are not reading scientific journals to read about AI and its influence, positive or negative. The focus could be on how AI can supplement lives and improve job efficiency. It can take away the menial aspects and promote a focus on a higher degree of thinking. Instead, there is the belief that AI will decimate the workforce. For those who fear AI will indeed eliminate their job, rumination takes root.
Rumination
Becoming entangled in a cycle of repeated negative thoughts and fear of losing one’s job to an unknown, faceless entity such as AI is harmful. When will the job be eliminated? What will happen then? What will happen to one’s family? This repeated, negatively focused thinking is rumination (Aronson et al., 2019), and presence can have profound effects on the human mind. Rumination contributes to depression and a reduced ability to process grief (Eisma et al., 2020), such as with the fear of job loss. The individual is grieving what has not yet been lost. An individual can become paralyzed by the repetition, all the while potentially those thoughts can have a detrimental affect on one’s job, which could result in job loss.
While rumination can be an unhealthy process, negative thinking about one’s self is potentially more damaging to the mind. The risk to one’s self is not imagined, even if the danger posed by AI is not real.
Functions of Self
Who an individual is can be determined by a variety of factors, but ultimately it is established by the four functions of self: self-knowledge, self-control, impression management, and self-esteem (Aronson et al., 2019). It is not uncommon for an individual to perceive one’s career, in part or even in whole, as one’s identity. Depending on the strength of the connection, one could argue that if the career is threatened, in this case by AI, then one’s identity is threatened. AI’s threatening presence infiltrates the subconscious, and the damage commences.
Self-Knowledge
The first function is self-knowledge, which is the understanding of who a person is. Who a person is can be what one does for a living. The job is who that person’s identity is. Who is the individual? An accountant. A doctor. An actor. If an individual fears that AI is going to take one’s job, then it can be assumed that AI is going to take one’s identity. If that person can no longer be an accountant, then who are they? To be stripped of this identity would cause anguish and have a direct influence on that individual’s self-control.
Self-Control
Self-control is how an individual tempers immediate expectation for the greater goal in the long-term. It can take the form of the ability to be rational. This ability becomes threatened when a strong emotion such as fear arises. When fear takes over, self-control diminishes. Stress increases. One experiences reduced control over one’s mind and how to respond to stressors. It can also hinder the individual’s ability to be presentable to others. How others perceive one is paramount to one’s identity.
Impression Management
With impression management, one attempts to present one’s self to others in the way one desires to be viewed (Aronson et al., 2019). If someone is a doctor who wants to be perceived as an accomplished, intelligent individual, AI could, essentially, erase that image. An individual would be exposed to those who identify that individual based upon one’s job and not because of who that person is. Who that person represents could be tarnished. Once the perception has been erased, a struggle would ensue. How does a person take back one’s identity or what must be done to obtain a new identity? How this uncertainty affects the individual can directly influence the final function of self, self-esteem.
Self-Esteem
With the final function of self, self-esteem, the positive view one has of one’s self (Aronson et al., 2019) is confronted by artificial intelligence’s presence. Feelings of worth are diminished. What value does one hold in society? To be a contributing member of society is important to many people, and when that contribution is directly connected to one’s job, self-esteem suffers damage. A person could believe that if they cannot perform the job that one had, what use is that person anymore? This type of thinking, unfortunately, can lead to suicidal ideation because the connection between self-esteem and one’s career is intertwined.
Artificial intelligence and ChatGPT will not replace the individual. They will not replace the self. Their presence, however, looms large because the potential is still uncertain. What one does not know can lead to panic, fear, and damage to mental health.
CONCLUSION
Artificial intelligence is a part of today’s vernacular, and that will not change anytime soon. The release of ChatGPT took AI to the next level, bringing it into the homes of consumers. Artificial intelligence is no longer just on the movie screen. It is reality. Hal is now in the home office, waiting in silence for the moment to act. To what extent artificial intelligence will affect mankind is still unknown. Will jobs be eliminated? Potentially. New jobs will arise, however. Jobs will evolve. CPAs who once processed tax returns will now spend more time working with clients to develop strategies to reduce tax liability. Hal is still there, though. What will it do next? That unknown is what sits in the subconscious of Americans. The fear will remain. The psychological impacts on the Western workforce have only just begun.
References
Aronson, E., Wilson, T.D., & Sommers, S.R. (2019). Social Psychology (10th ed.). Pearson.
Burgess, P. (2022). The rule of law, science fiction and fears of artificial intelligence. Law, Technology and Humans, 4(2), 124-136. https://doi.org/10.5204/lthj.2461
Eisma, M.C., de Long, T.A., & Boelen, P.B. (2020). How thinking hurts: Rumination, worry, and avoidance processes in adjustment to bereavement. Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy, (27)4, 548-558. https://doi.org/10.1002/cpp.2440
Heller, I. (2022, February 8). Why CPAs are getting rarer and technology is not the enemy. Forbes. https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbestechcouncil/2022/02/08/why-cpas-are-getting-rarer-and-technology-is-not-the-enemy/?sh=7e241e6e1b35
McLeod, S. (2023, June 16). Visual perception theory in psychology. Simply Psychology. https://www.simplypsychology.org/perception-theories.html
