AI services like OpenAI's ChatGPT have been pitched for potential productivity gains, but their effect has been to make people work more while benefiting less from their labor.

In a research paper titled "AI and the Extended Workday: Productivity, Contracting Efficiency, and Distribution of Rents," economists Wei Jiang (Emory), Junyoung Park (Auburn), Rachel (Jiqiu) Xiao (Fordham), and Shen Zhang (Seton Hall) set out to examine how occupational exposure to AI affects work time.

"When...ChatGPT came along, we were all very mesmerized by how powerful it is, how much work it does," said Wei Jiang, professor of finance at Emory University, in a phone interview with The Register. "So we, like other people, anticipated if AI is doing our work, we can work less. And I just find myself actually

See Full Page