A new study suggests that people who use AI tools like ChatGPT, Gemini and Copilot at work are perceived as less intelligent and lazy by their co-workers. While several reports, including Google’s very own, suggest that AI can boost productivity in certain scenarios, it looks like the use of these tools have a hidden social cost.
Funded by Duke University and published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the study focuses on how AI use is viewed by the people in the workforce.
Researchers said they conducted four online experiments on 4,400 people. In this, participants were to imagine scenarios where some workers used AI tools while others did not, and asked them how they viewed themselves and others in such circumstances.
The first experiment involved asking people to imagine using an AI app to complete work projects and asking them how they thought others would perceive them if they used such tools. As it turns out, many participants involved said that they would be termed as less diligent, lazy and incompetent while some said that they would be looked at as easily replaceable compared to those who didn’t use such apps.
The next experiment asked participants to describe colleagues who used AI apps to complete their work. Unsurprisingly, the researchers found out that such employees were termed as incompetent, less independent and less self-assured.
In the third experiment, people were to assume the role of managers looking to hire new employees. The researchers said if managers found out that the candidate admitted to use AI to work had less chances of being hired compared to those who don’t. However, if the manager used AI at work, the chances of hiring a candidate who used AI tools for work were similar to those who did not use them.
As for the last experiment, researchers asked people that if an AI tool was appropriate for the task and has had a positive effect on efficiency, the negative perceptions were negligent for the most part.
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In short, the study suggests that the use of AI tools in workplaces may be limited because of how the technology is perceived by others and that we still have a long way to go before AI becomes mainstream in offices.
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