Deskilling

A cartoon. In the centre is an office chair. To the right of the chair, the office worker is kneeling on the floor in front of it holding on the handles. To the left of the chair a robotic arm is holding the back of the chair and dragging the chair towards it.

There are concerns that an increasing reliance and use of GenAI tools may lead to a lack of skills amongst individuals and workers.

This may affect the ability of people and organisations to evaluate and check the outputs of these tools, or to identify when a system has gone wrong or made an error (see the later section on the ‘human in the loop’).

It could also lead to an over-reliance on a small number of corporate entities to deliver key services.

Finally, it could limit the critical interpretation skills which are essential in the knowledge economy.

Activity icon Risk and concerns

Timing: Allow 5 minutes
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Next, we will consider one of the additional risks that Francine highlighted – the risk of bias within the tool and its outputs.

Digital divide

Session 2: Bias, societal and environmental concerns – 90 minutes