Students are worried about AI taking their jobs

20-year-old Sandra Ubege is in her final year of studying Media Studies at the University of Huddersfield. Like most soon-to-be graduates, she’s worried about securing her first job after university. But for Sandra’s cohort and the cohorts which come after, these anxieties about securing work are becoming exacerbated by the growing power of AI.

Sandra is a creative, and is particularly keen to get into screenwriting and film directing. “This year we’ve seen how easy it is for studios to implement AI in production and push out humans that put in the effort,” she says. “My understanding is that AI steals from human artists, and that’s how it learns, and as such studios will take advantage of the fact they don’t have to pay AI like they pay human artists.” She refers to the Hollywood strikers who walked out over issues regarding AI as a potent example of just how much of an impact new technology is having on the creative industries. “I’m too disconcerted by the growth of this technology to even look at the positives.” 

“One of my modules is about short film, and another is about journalistic writing; in both of these we’ve had a few lectures where we talk about AI and what it’s doing to the industry. Professors are basically saying that this is going to be a part of the arts industry now, and we have to embrace it. I really hated that,” Sandra continues. “I’m extremely worried about AI’s impact on my career prospects, because it can only get worse from here [...]  I’m trying to be optimistic but I just can’t.”

Sandra isn’t alone: a new study from Kingston University has found that half of current students at university think their job prospects could be under threat from AI. This chimes with BMG resarch for the i, which found that some 52 per cent of 18 to 24-year-olds are worried about the impact of the technology on their future employment prospects, compared to 39 per cent of the general population. The situation across the pond is identical, where half of US college and university graduates also feel threatened by the growth of AI.

Since the launch of OpenAI chatbot ChatGPT in November last year, conversations surrounding artificial intelligence’s capabilities have grown increasingly urgent. Many have expressed concern over the possibility of AI supplanting workers from their jobs, leaving swathes of the population unemployed. And it’s unsurprising that students are particularly concerned about the impact AI could have on the graduate job market: competition for graduate jobs hit a record high in the UK in 2021 post-COVID, with companies receiving an average of 91 applications per graduate vacancy. While the graduate job market has since improved, the situation is still bleak: data from Reed, one of the UK’s largest employment platforms, shows the number of available graduate jobs is still about 40 per cent below 2018 levels, with wages remaining stagnant in the face of the rising cost of living. Graduates from 2020 onwards currently face an unemployment rate of 12 per cent, which equates to over 96,000 unemployed graduates each academic year.

“I would be so much less worried if the government did more for university students and graduates, especially those in the arts” – Sandra Ubege

It’s been estimated that 10 to 30 per cent of jobs are automatable, and with all this in mind, it tracks that students are conscious of anything which may hinder their already dwindling prospects. Sandra’s degree is in Media Studies, but students studying other courses have cause for concern too. AI has many capabilities, including writing, creating art, coding, and translating – potentially threatening jobs which use these skills, such as copywriting, graphic design, software development, and translation to name a few. 

David Spencer is an economics professor at the University of Leeds and author of Making Light Work: An End to Toil in the 21st Century, and he explains that it is not surprising that so many students and graduates are concerned, given how frequently the media is reporting on mass job losses due to AI. But he stresses that all hope is not lost. “Whether there will be fewer jobs in the future remains a moot point. New jobs have been created in the past and there is no reason why they won’t be created in the future,” he says. “AI, like other technologies, may change the skills required by employers but graduates will likely retain advantages in the labour market.” He adds that this not only applies to STEM graduates, but arts graduates too, “who will have the creative skills to undertake tasks that AI won’t be able to replace”.

“I think the problem of graduates not getting graduate jobs reflects an economy that cannot produce enough graduate jobs,” he continues. “The UK economy is too focused around the promotion of low paid and low productivity work, which means it cannot absorb more graduates.” He adds that students would be less concerned about AI “if investment levels in the economy could be improved and the demand for graduate employment raised,” while a better welfare ‘safety net’ would “benefit all workers but more so non-graduates who face fewer prospects for moving on to better-paid work or worse, underemployment or unemployment”.

“I think the problem of graduates not getting graduate jobs reflects an economy that cannot produce enough graduate jobs” – David Spencer

This chimes with Sandra. “Even after university, a lot of jobs ask for years of experience, and if we’re really busy studying we often don’t have time for that or there aren’t appropriate internship or placement opportunities there in the first place,” she says. “I would be so much less worried if the government did more for university students and graduates, especially those in the arts.”

Ultimately, it isn’t unequivocally a ‘bad’ thing if AI ends up doing jobs previously done by humans. AI could actually make life better for us, by making work more efficient and productive and granting us more leisure time. What is worrying, though, is the government’s lack of preparation for the advent of AI. While Rishi Sunak has postured as a technocrat and even hosted the world’s first AI safety summit at Bletchley Park this autumn, his government and the past decade of Tory rule has done very little to actually brace UK society for the ways AI will revolutionise the workforce – conversely, they’ve made us as ill-prepared as possible by slashing the welfare system and doing little to provide enough highly-skilled jobs for graduates and other workers.

Still, the potential for a better future is there. “AI should be used to generate productivity gains that can be used to lighten work,” Spencer surmises. But, he adds, the future of work depends on ensuring that AI is governed democratically. “A better future of work and life for all will depend on ensuring that AI is operated in the interests of people, not profits.”