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What if AI just makes us work harder?
Employees have reported increased momentum, but also a feeling of having more to do.
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One study found tech workers felt that generative AI was making them dramatically more productive but they also felt driven to do more, risking burnout.
PHOTO: ADAM GLANZMAN/NYTIMES
Tim Harford
In a recent column about the paradox of work, I recalled the immortal Douglas Adams joke about working conditions: The hours are good, but “most of the actual minutes are pretty lousy”. The joke is back already – and generative AI has flipped the script.
Academics at UC Berkeley’s Haas School of Business have been doing ethnographic research into how technology workers are using generative AI. Some will tell you that ethnographic business research is both the worst kind of business research and the worst kind of ethnography, but I admit to a soft spot for this stuff. What the researchers found was the opposite of Adams’ morose Vogon guard: The minutes are amazing but the hours are terrible.
