{"id":608896,"date":"2024-02-16T19:20:01","date_gmt":"2024-02-16T16:20:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/drowning-in-digital-debt-ai-assistants-can-help-but-we-must-use-them-carefully\/"},"modified":"2024-02-16T19:20:01","modified_gmt":"2024-02-16T16:20:01","slug":"drowning-in-digital-debt-ai-assistants-can-help-but-we-must-use-them-carefully","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/drowning-in-digital-debt-ai-assistants-can-help-but-we-must-use-them-carefully\/","title":{"rendered":"#Drowning in &#8216;digital debt&#8217;? AI assistants can help\u2014but we must use them carefully"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"ez-toc-container\" class=\"ez-toc-v2_0_85 counter-hierarchy ez-toc-counter ez-toc-custom ez-toc-container-direction\">\n<p class=\"ez-toc-title\" style=\"cursor:inherit\">Table of Contents<\/p>\n<label for=\"ez-toc-cssicon-toggle-item-6a407f25ae13a\" class=\"ez-toc-cssicon-toggle-label\"><span class=\"\"><span class=\"eztoc-hide\" style=\"display:none;\">Toggle<\/span><span class=\"ez-toc-icon-toggle-span\"><svg style=\"fill: #dd3333;color:#dd3333\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" class=\"list-377408\" width=\"20px\" height=\"20px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" fill=\"none\"><path d=\"M6 6H4v2h2V6zm14 0H8v2h12V6zM4 11h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2zM4 16h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2z\" fill=\"currentColor\"><\/path><\/svg><svg style=\"fill: #dd3333;color:#dd3333\" class=\"arrow-unsorted-368013\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" width=\"10px\" height=\"10px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" version=\"1.2\" baseProfile=\"tiny\"><path d=\"M18.2 9.3l-6.2-6.3-6.2 6.3c-.2.2-.3.4-.3.7s.1.5.3.7c.2.2.4.3.7.3h11c.3 0 .5-.1.7-.3.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7zM5.8 14.7l6.2 6.3 6.2-6.3c.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7c-.2-.2-.4-.3-.7-.3h-11c-.3 0-.5.1-.7.3-.2.2-.3.5-.3.7s.1.5.3.7z\"\/><\/svg><\/span><\/span><\/label><input type=\"checkbox\"  id=\"ez-toc-cssicon-toggle-item-6a407f25ae13a\" checked aria-label=\"Toggle\" \/><nav><ul class='ez-toc-list ez-toc-list-level-1 ' ><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-1\" href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/drowning-in-digital-debt-ai-assistants-can-help-but-we-must-use-them-carefully\/#A_crushing_digital_debt\" >A crushing digital debt<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-2\" href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/drowning-in-digital-debt-ai-assistants-can-help-but-we-must-use-them-carefully\/#AI_assistants_to_the_rescue\" >AI assistants to the rescue?<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-3\" href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/drowning-in-digital-debt-ai-assistants-can-help-but-we-must-use-them-carefully\/#A_needy_assistant_that_needs_supervision\" >A needy assistant that needs supervision<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-4\" href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/drowning-in-digital-debt-ai-assistants-can-help-but-we-must-use-them-carefully\/#The_looming_ethics_problem\" >The looming ethics problem<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/nav><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"article-gallery lightGallery\">\n<div data-thumb=\"https:\/\/scx1.b-cdn.net\/csz\/news\/tmb\/2024\/man-using-smartphone.jpg\" data-src=\"https:\/\/scx2.b-cdn.net\/gfx\/news\/hires\/2024\/man-using-smartphone.jpg\" data-sub-html=\"Credit: Pixabay\/CC0 Public Domain\">\n<figure class=\"article-img\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/scx1.b-cdn.net\/csz\/news\/800a\/2024\/man-using-smartphone.jpg\" alt=\"man using smartphone\" title=\"Credit: Pixabay\/CC0 Public Domain\" width=\"800\" height=\"530\"\/><figcaption class=\"text-darken text-low-up text-truncate-js text-truncate mt-3\">\n                Credit: Pixabay\/CC0 Public Domain<br \/>\n            <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>In recent days, the &#8220;right to disconnect&#8221; has entered Australia&#8217;s legislative agenda. It refers to employees&#8217; rights to refuse unreasonable after-hours contact from their employer.<\/p>\n<section class=\"article-banner first-banner ads-336x280\"><!-- \/4988204\/Phys_Story_InText_Box --><br \/>\n      <\/section>\n<p>In a work landscape where employees are constantly available after hours thanks to smartphones and portable devices, and employers are competing in global markets and operating on tight deadlines, concerns about disconnecting from work are valid on both sides.<\/p>\n<p>Artificial intelligence (AI) assistants in the workplace are touted as a potential solution to this &#8220;availability creep.&#8221; But they may not be the silver bullet, despite what big tech wants us to think.<\/p>\n<h2><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"A_crushing_digital_debt\"><\/span>A crushing digital debt<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p>&#8220;Digital debt,&#8221; a term introduced by <a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/worklab\/work-trend-index\/will-ai-fix-work\">Microsoft in its work trend index<\/a>, fittingly describes the vast volume of communication and coordination tasks that minimally contribute to workplace productivity.<\/p>\n<p>The index surveyed 31,000 full-time <a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov\/pmc\/articles\/PMC6283975\/\">knowledge workers<\/a>\u2014people who work with ideas, rather than goods\u2014in 31 countries, including Australia, the United States, the United Kingdom, South Korea and others.<\/p>\n<p>It reveals that 57% of the average workday is spent on communications and 68% of respondents couldn&#8217;t find uninterrupted blocks of time to focus during the workday.<\/p>\n<p>The origins of digital debt can be traced back to the &#8220;productivity paradox&#8221; from the late 20th century, where <a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.standupeconomist.com\/pdf\/misc\/solow-computer-productivity.pdf\">increasing technology investments<\/a> had led to <a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/dl.acm.org\/doi\/pdf\/10.1145\/163298.163309\">decreasing workplace productivity<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>This paradox has re-emerged (and been renamed) mainly due to the abundance of data that organizations and employees have to manage in the current market.<\/p>\n<p>For communication alone, most employees are having to manage one or two email addresses, calls and chats on Zoom, Slack or Teams channels, <a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/social-mediaa\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"1\" title=\"Social Media\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">WhatsApp<\/a> and LinkedIn messaging, and multiple diaries to synchronize meetings. This is easily more than 1,000 data points every day.<\/p>\n<p>Left unattended, digital debt accrues &#8220;interest,&#8221; with damaging effects on both employee and employer. This is the tipping point at which the boundary between work and personal life blurs, and the after-dinner compulsion to tidy up the inbox sets in.<\/p>\n<h2><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"AI_assistants_to_the_rescue\"><\/span>AI assistants to the rescue?<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p>Microsoft\u2014<a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/blogs.microsoft.com\/blog\/2023\/01\/23\/microsoftandopenaiextendpartnership\/\">OpenAI&#8217;s partner of choice<\/a> for scaling up its industry-leading AI tech\u2014has somewhat conveniently used the same work trend report to position its AI assistant, Microsoft Copilot, as the bona fide solution to digital debt.<\/p>\n<p>There are obvious financial gains for big tech providing AI tools. But the capabilities of these AI assistants are fittingly at the intersection of digital debt, the deluge of data, and the right to disconnect. So, they warrant further investigation.<\/p>\n<p>In the broadest sense, generative AI (think ChatGPT) produces new and meaningful content in response to prompts from a human operator. AI assistants <a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/general\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"3\" title=\"General\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">general<\/a>ize this capability for goal-oriented complex tasks. There&#8217;s no shortage of these subscription-based services now, including Copilot, Google&#8217;s Gemini, Amazon Q, Anthropic&#8217;s Claude and others.<\/p>\n<p>An AI assistant can summarize all new emails, detect and prioritize those requiring a response, draft responses and highlight gaps that require human input. Then, the assistant can send the emails off and schedule meetings for subsequent chats.<\/p>\n<p>Among other knowledge work tasks, an AI assistant can also draft and revise text for various documents, generate graphs from data in spreadsheets, or generate images for text-heavy presentation slides.<\/p>\n<h2><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"A_needy_assistant_that_needs_supervision\"><\/span>A needy assistant that needs supervision<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p>Unfortunately, early <a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/practical365.com\/first-impressions-as-microsoft-365-copilot-reaches-ga\/\">user feedback on the technical performance<\/a> of AI assistants is lackluster.<\/p>\n<p>This is primarily because of how generative AI is trained. By learning from past data and not through lived experiences, it lacks factual knowledge of the world. This means it can&#8217;t validate the outcomes of the tasks completed.<\/p>\n<p>Therefore, the human using the AI <a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/redmondmag.com\/articles\/2023\/06\/30\/the-potential-hidden-perils-of-relying-on-microsoft-copilot.aspx\">must &#8220;peer review&#8221; all of the assistant&#8217;s output<\/a> to avoid potential errors and misrepresentations.<\/p>\n<p>In most workplaces where we are expected to &#8220;do more with less,&#8221; such needy AI assistants would create an additional layer of work. It could also easily get overlooked when time pressures kick in.<\/p>\n<h2><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"The_looming_ethics_problem\"><\/span>The looming ethics problem<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p>It is no secret AI also has an ethics problem, and this extends to AI assistants. The mediocre attitude of big tech AI providers towards transparency and governance, as demonstrated by the sacking and rehiring of the CEO of Open AI, as well as <a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.theverge.com\/2023\/3\/13\/23638823\/microsoft-ethics-society-team-responsible-ai-layoffs\">Microsoft&#8217;s layoff of its ethics team<\/a>, are further reasons to be wary of the much-hyped opportunities of generative AI.<\/p>\n<p>                                                                                                                                            There are <a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/artificialintelligenceact.eu\/\">efforts to regulate AI<\/a> based on the risks it poses, but the challenge is that the risk itself is dynamic.<\/p>\n<p>For example, menial office tasks could go horribly wrong if politically sensitive, tone deaf or workplace-inappropriate content is produced and circulated by an AI.<\/p>\n<p>Given that large AI models are likely to continue training on live data, organizations must protect their confidential and sensitive information through stringent governance and classification protocols.<\/p>\n<p>In summary, AI assistants can help ease our digital debt and provide after-hours business continuity. This could chart a course towards a right-to-disconnect landscape that is agreeable to everyone.<\/p>\n<p>But this course is riddled with challenges. They include organizational readiness, AI literacy skills, AI governance, accountability framework, mandatory peer review and cost-effective subscriptions.<\/p>\n<p>Against the mounting digital debt and deficit of work-life balance, our investment in AI must be measured and responsible, to ensure the returns are sustainable.<\/p>\n<div class=\"d-inline-block text-medium mt-4\">\n<p>                                                    Provided by<br \/>\n                                                                                                            The Conversation<br \/>\n                                                                                                                <a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" class=\"icon_open\" href=\"https:\/\/theconversation.com\"><br \/>\n                                                            <svg><use href=\"https:\/\/phys.b-cdn.net\/tmpl\/v6\/img\/svg\/sprite.svg#icon_open\" x=\"0\" y=\"0\"\/><\/svg><\/a><\/p><\/div>\n<p class=\"article-main__note mt-4\">\n                                                  This article is republished from <a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/theconversation.com\">The Conversation<\/a> under a Creative Commons license. Read the <a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/theconversation.com\/drowning-in-digital-debt-ai-assistants-can-help-but-we-must-use-them-carefully-223436\">original article<\/a>.<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/counter.theconversation.com\/content\/223436\/count.gif?distributor=republish-lightbox-advanced\" alt=\"The Conversation\" width=\"1\" height=\"1\"\/><\/p>\n<p>                                        <!-- print only --><\/p>\n<div class=\"d-none d-print-block\">\n<p>                                                <strong>Citation<\/strong>:<br \/>\n                                                Drowning in &#8216;digital debt&#8217;? AI assistants can help\u2014but we must use them carefully (2024, February 16)<br \/>\n                                                retrieved 16 February 2024<br \/>\n                                                from https:\/\/phys.org\/<a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/news\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"2\" title=\"News\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">news<\/a>\/2024-02-digital-debt-ai.html<\/p>\n<p>                                             This document is subject to copyright. Apart from any fair dealing for the purpose of private study or research, no<br \/>\n                                             part may be reproduced without the written permission. The content is provided for information purposes only.<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><script id=\"facebook-jssdk\" async=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/connect.facebook.net\/en_US\/sdk.js\"><\/script><\/p>\n<blockquote><p><strong><span style=\"color: #ff6600;\">If you liked the article, do not forget to share it with your friends. Follow us on\u00a0<span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"><a style=\"color: #ff0000;\" href=\"https:\/\/news.google.com\/publications\/CAAqBwgKMN63nwsw68G3Aw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\">Google News<\/a><\/span>\u00a0too, click on the star and choose us from your favorites.<\/span><\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>If you want to read more Like this articles, you can visit our <span style=\"color: #ff9900;\"><a style=\"color: #ff9900;\" href=\"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/science\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Science category.<\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><span style=\"color: black;\"><a style=\"color: #ff9900;\" href=\"https:\/\/phys.org\/news\/2024-02-digital-debt-ai.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Source<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Credit: Pixabay\/CC0 Public Domain In recent days, the &#8220;right to disconnect&#8221; has entered Australia&#8217;s legislative agenda. It refers to employees&#8217; rights to refuse unreasonable after-hours contact from their employer. In a work landscape where employees are constantly available after hours thanks to smartphones and portable devices, and employers are competing in global markets and operating&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":608897,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/scx2.b-cdn.net\/gfx\/news\/hires\/2024\/man-using-smartphone.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-608896","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sciencee"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/608896","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=608896"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/608896\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/608897"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=608896"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=608896"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=608896"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}