AI's Impact on Job Market Remains a Mystery, But Rise of Internet May Have Some Clues

As  artificial intelligence continues to advance, there has been growing concerns that AI will replace millions of jobs. In the video above, Wes Cummins, CEO, Applied Digital, joined TheStreet's J.D. Durkin to discuss how the new technology will reshape industries and the future of work.

Full Video Transcript Below:

J.D. DURKIN: Of course, AI is everywhere. We talk about generative artificial intelligence. Its skyrocketing mentions in earnings calls. Talk to me about your take, about how you think AI is looking to impact or maybe disrupt a bit of the current job market?

WES CUMMINS: Yeah, I think it's obviously yet to be seen. There's going to be some job functions that the current generation of AI can definitely improve or replace, but you know, I think there was this same type of concern back when, you know, the Internet happened. Any kind of step up in tech there's been a concern. And I think everything we have seen from those is that there's actually job creation and not net job loss. So yet to be seen. But that's been the case so far.

J.D. DURKIN: Outside of job creation or job loss. What are some of the other more significant impacts that you expect AI to have?

WES CUMMINS: There are some really obvious ones, you know, as far as like graphics, marketing graphics, really simple things like that. I think you're going to see, you know, you've seen apps like in the Midjourney that has 20 million users, you know, maybe more. I always mistakenly call that an app because if you ever use Midjourney, the only way to use it is through their Discord Channel. So in its a text, a video app or you know, everyone knows chatGPT, right? So like easier to write marketing pitches, easier write a lot of things. So people are using it to respond to emails. But the use case I think is going to accelerate as people figure out how to use these tools. But there are some really simple ones, you know, like I kind of always make a joke that, that, that I think one of the maybe one of the first jobs to go was like Internet clothing models because you could just use, you know, Midjourney to to generate that or a different maybe Adobe's going to do it or or you know, stability or someone like that.

J.D. DURKIN: So you're telling me my future career as an Internet clothing model might be at risk?

WES CUMMINS: It could very well be at risk.

J.D. DURKIN: I was looking to have it as like kind of a side hustle of being a journalist. Is there anything in the current AI conversation that you think people are kind of missing as you see it in the headlines?

WES CUMMINS: Yeah, I think the biggest part is, AI is a big change. We're seeing it in our business. It's a really big change on what you need as far as computing power. Obviously, everyone's seen it in Nvidia  (NVDA) - Get Free Report stock but as far as computing power and the way that compute is deployed. So really specifically in the business that we're in, you know, your data center builds need to be very different than they were. But I think maybe one of the misperceptions I think people think that AI you know, it is somewhat software based, but it's much more computing intensive. And so you see a lot less software coders and a lot more, you know, compute power deploy just massive amounts of compute power.

J.D. DURKIN: Are there dangers to AI that are not being talked about? At least that you're willing to talk about?

WES CUMMINS: I mean, to sort of answer that question very directly. There clearly are dangers, but are they being talked about enough? I think they're being talked about exhaustively.