Narayana Murthy Says He Uses ChatGPT, Claims AI Will 'Create Jobs': WATCH VIDEO

Artificial intelligence (AI) is on a relentless growth streak with no downturn in sight. As big tech companies like OpenAI continue to roll out newer and smarter versions of AI models, questions abound. Will AI guzzle up jobs? Here’s what Narayana Murthy has to say.

Contrary to popular concerns about job displacement, the billionaire co-founder of Infosys, N.R. Narayana Murthy, expressed a sanguine view on AI’s potential. Highlighting the technology’s game-changing power and capacity to drive growth within the software industry, he spoke about his personal adoption of AI tools at an event.

'Used ChatGPT To Draft Speeches And Lectures'

Murthy admitted that he utilises OpenAI’s ChatGPT for drafting speeches and preparing for lectures.

“Earlier…it would take…about 25-30 hours to prepare a lecture…but with ChatGPT…in a matter of five hours, I could improve the draft,” Murthy said, underscoring how this generative AI tool has overhauled his preparation process with a five-fold increase in his personal productivity.

Further, he noted, “What I found in using ChatGPT for my speeches was the following: the smartness is in providing the requirement definition for my speech. The smartness is in asking the right question.”

Drawing from this, he offered a reassuring perspective about AI’s impact on employment: “This whole fear that technology will take away jobs is not right. It will create a different kind of job.”

'AI Will Improve Industry Growth Rate'

Murthy believes AI will enable professionals to take on more complex and demanding challenges. “So, what will happen in the future is our programmers and analysts will become smarter and smarter in defining better and better requirements, more complex requirements. They will solve bigger problems, more complex problems. So, I am very positive about how AI will only enhance the growth rate of our industry,” he said.

Murthy emphasised that AI should be viewed as an augmentative tool, capable of complementing human capabilities, rather than just replacing them. He believes that if leaders strategically integrate AI to improve quality and productivity, the software industry’s growth will accelerate.

Recounting his career’s initial years, when he built reusable code skeletons in the late 1970s, Murthy noted that AI now empowers programmers to automate scores of similar frameworks.

“Once the skeletons are produced by AI, then it becomes extremely easy for the mass programmer, for the large number of programmers, to produce high-quality code, high-quality programs,” he added.

Drawing a parallel with initial opposition from union strikes to computers in Britain’s banking sector in the 1970s, Murthy recalled how dialogue between union leaders and experts calmed the nerves among people. It was explained that computers would enhance productivity, allow employees to complete work efficiently and improve their work-life balance.

With this paradigm shift, he noted, jobs in the banking sector multiplied by a factor of 40x to 50x in both the UK and the US. He holds expectations for AI to do the same in this century.