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Microsoft Copilot and Google Gemini are advertised as AI-powered productivity tools.
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But Ethan Mollick, a leading AI expert, has a more cynical view of the products.
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Copilot automates middle management, while Gemini makes supervision easier, he told WSJ.
Microsoft and Google introduced their own AI-powered productivity tools last year, touting them as products that could revolutionize the way people work.
But a leading AI expert thinks differently.
Ethan Mollick, professor of management at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of Business, has been tapped by the White House, JP Morgan, Google and many others for his insights into artificial intelligence.
In an interview with The Wall Street Journal, Mollick said that Microsoft’s Copilot and Google Gemini are just tools that will make the lives of employers and managers easier – and not in a good way.
He called Copilot, Microsoft’s AI chatbot integrated into the company’s productivity software such as Teams, Outlook and Office, “dangerous” because it “automates middle management in the worst possible way.”
The Journal doesn’t elaborate on Mollick’s point, but Microsoft is promoting Copilot as a way for managers to communicate with employees by generating work updates and summarizing key points from meetings.
Google Gemini, which can analyze videos, could give employers the ability to monitor white-collar workers in a similar way that Amazon tracks its workers, he told the Journal.
Microsoft and Google did not respond to a request for comment sent outside regular business hours.
Microsoft and Google have even said that their respective AI models will change the workspace.
In a blog post, Microsoft wrote that Copilot “turns everyone into a manager,” allowing employees to write emails in the right tone or analyze data sets.
In a February blog, a Google Cloud partner also wrote that Gemini for Google Workspace is a “game-changing tool” that can help with email composition, project planning, and data management.
The two companies’ investments in AI and the integration of the model into their existing productivity tools seem to be paying off for now. In their most recent quarterly results, Microsoft and Alphabet, Google’s parent company, reported profits of $21.9 billion and $23.7 billion, respectively.
The companies’ leaders both say AI gives them a performance boost.
“Microsoft Copilot and Copilot Stack are orchestrating a new era of AI transformation, driving better business outcomes across every role and industry,” said Satya Nadella, CEO of Microsoft, in a press release.
Mollick may be cynical about AI as a productivity tool, but the professor has a largely positive view of AI as a whole and considers himself a “rational optimist,” according to the Journal.
“There is no large-scale, general-purpose technology that doesn’t have pros and cons, and part of my message is that we now have the freedom of choice to label certain things as bad,” he told the Journal. “And we have to do that.”
Mollick did not respond to a request for comment sent outside regular business hours.
Read the original article on Business Insider