Blazevic: ‘A definition of artificial intelligence (AI)? That's difficult, there are so many different forms of it. It ranges from the spell checker in Word, the voice assistant on your phone to robots in healthcare. The literature frames AI as a machine that performs a task so well that it could have also been a human. Personally, I think AI can do some things better than humans, such as recognizing patterns from large amounts of data.’
Artificial intelligence: friend or foe?
Artificial intelligence (AI) is ‘hot’. It seems new, lays the foundation for smart technical solutions, and is developing at lightning speed. Time for a look back at the basics. What is AI and how will it affect us? We asked Vera Blazevic, associate professor in Marketing, and Roel Schouteten, associate professor in Strategic Human Resource Management.
As a business expert, Blazevic studies how organizations innovate in the field of AI. She looks at what challenges and tensions are involved, and what impact this has on collaboration partners and other stakeholders. In her latest research, she studied the role of the large language model GPT-3.5 -ChatGPT is also based on that- in brainstorming sessions, where human participants interactively and alone and human participants with AI had to collect ideas for different types of questions. The experiment showed that the group with humans and AI together generated the most ideas. The human-interactive group experienced the most fun during the tasks. Blazevic: ‘I find developments like that of language model ChatGPT both exciting and promising, provided we keep thinking and taking responsibility for its application. I sometimes use ChatGPT for my own LinkedIn messages. It works very efficiently: because the basic text is already there, all I have to do is add nuance to the text and I get to the depth more quickly. At the same time, you see that the text, which ChatGPT derives from the internet, is often exaggerated and convincing, without nuance. If you are not aware of that, it can be dangerous, because there is also a lot of nonsense on the web. So, it becomes even more important that we learn to think critically.’
Hybrid intelligence
Fellow researcher and business expert Schouteten emphasizes that the use of AI is not only the responsibility of users themselves but also that of organizations in the role of employers. According to Schouteten, companies should continue to put the quality of work and employee welfare first in how they organize future work with AI. Schouteten: ‘You can make robots do all sorts of things, but that doesn't mean you have to introduce them that way in the workplace. For example, in relation to Blazevic's research: if you know that human interaction is a factor in job satisfaction, then the organization can make conscious choices in that regard. In other words, it is ultimately the choices organizations make around the design of AI technology that determine how people will experience their work.’ Blazevic: "My prediction of AI in the labor market? I think we could have something like hybrid intelligence. We as humans still have to decide what we want and can question AI on that. Because, yes, AI is good for generating ideas and solutions efficiently, but they have no morals. It will always remain humans who have to weigh ideas and interpret the context.’ Schouteten: 'Back in the twentieth century, we had utopian thoughts of machines taking over work and humans only having free time. And look at us sitting here. We have to keep in mind that people will always be needed to operate technology, and with that, there is a need to continue to ensure humanity.'
More interdisciplinary research
That there needs to be further research on AI is beyond dispute for Blazevic and Schouteten. Blazevic: ‘I do believe that people with AI are going to replace people without AI. So, employers will have to start preparing employees for that step and more research is needed for that.' From a broad consortium with some 50 roboticists, designers and social scientists, Blazevic and Schouteten want to initiate multiple studies on robots in the workplace. ‘Because it remains important to look at possibilities of AI from all different disciplines’, they say.
Text: Annette Zonnenberg
Photos: Duncan de Fey
Contact information
- Organizational unit
- Institute for Management Research, Business Administration
- About person
- Prof. V. Blazevic (Vera) , Dr R.L.J. Schouteten (Roel)
- Theme
- Artificial intelligence (AI), Society