In an earlier editorial that also ran as a blog, I lamented about the increasingly uncomfortable relationship between those doing physical labor and the machines that will do it for them.

Where labor is tight, of course, automation and artificial intelligence (AI) are often offered as solutions. I noted how ChatGPT, an AI tool that with basic commands can write everything from a news report to a HACCP program, is coming on quick. A reckoning with what we find valuable in the workplace is, too.

And, well, it may be quicker than I thought. Here in the virtual Meatingplace newsroom this morning, we chatted (via Zoom messages) about a new study by the University of Pennsylvania and OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT. The research found that the jobs most vulnerable to be affected by the technology are those involving coding and writing.

The study predicts almost one in five U.S. employees could have at least half of their work tasks disrupted by ChatGPT. Goldman Sachs, meanwhile, now estimates the tech could affect 300 million full-time workers across the major economies.

Fear not, though, my meatpacking friends. A more physical labor-intensive job might just be a safe space, in this context. The study found that for tire repairers, athletes and, yes, meatpackers, as described by the Morning Brew newsletter, “ChatGPT was about as impactful as a degree in metaverse real estate management."

And so, for those of us writing about the meat industry, ChatGPT’s emergence might be more unsettling than those who work directly in the meat industry, especially in plants. In either case, what comes to the fore is what we value as people in the face of technological advances such as this.

As a close colleague wisely pointed out, we as human employees in journalism/publishing must be ready to show our value to our employers as things change. And for meatpackers, perhaps ironically, its intrinsic basis in physical labor might become its primary value — rather than a detriment.

Anyone hiring?

Meatpacking: a safe space

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