It seems that one of the debates surrounding AI centres on whether this technology will eliminate a large number of jobs by matching or surpassing human capabilities. Although in almost no discipline today does AI match a human expert, there are already thousands of products that integrate AI, and the number is growing daily. This is a phenomenon that has exploded in the last year with the popularisation of generative AI models, and especially with the emergence of ChatGPT, the brainchild of OpenAI.
There seems to be a more or less widespread belief that AI will sooner or later overtake humans in different disciplines, putting millions of jobs at risk. However, there is one area where AI has already outperformed humans: cost. This is much lower, in most cases, and although its performance is not equal to ours, it is already beginning to be seen to be affecting employment.
In the same way that there are products such as ready-made food or industrial clothing, which are clearly inferior in quality to their artisanal counterparts, but still dominate the market. It could be that low-cost AI-based products will take over the market, not only destroying jobs, but also lowering the quality offered.
Is mass adoption of AI leading to worse products and cheaper services, just as convenience food has? If AI never matches humans in capability, will we again have sacrificed quality for price (and millions of jobs along the way)?