AI has become as well known for its usefulness as it has for regularly crashing out, and with it now being used in fields like health care and criminal justice, you’d think that hiring people dedicated to making sure these models are deployed responsibly would be a top priority.
Apparently, it isn’t.
The AI industry is booming, but while exorbitant pay packages drift about for some AI talent, AI ethicists aren’t finding any work, per Inc.
AI ethics officers…
… help guide AI development and ensure the tech is used in ways that align with ethical principles and societal values, mitigating the risks and potential harm these tools pose to organizations and consumers. (Or they would if they were hired to, anyway.)
The new profession was expected to see high demand, and its importance was stressed by the World Economic Forum in 2021. Yet, many in the field are reporting a dismal job market with few opportunities.
Ethics have become an afterthought for companies racing to push out new products with little government oversight, and researchers are worried it could have major ramifications (outside of the ones we’ve already witnessed, like AI psychosis, which is a thing now).
But it’s not just AI ethicists struggling to find work
Prompt engineering, another title that was hyped up as an emerging new profession, is already nearly obsolete — if it was ever even a thing.
- North America’s prompt engineering market was valued at ~$75m with a CAGR of 33% in 2023, but Aline Lerner, the CEO of a tech recruitment company, told Fast Company that the online discussion around the role has far outweighed the actual headcount.
- Prompt engineering has largely folded into the tasks of existing professionals like machine learning engineers.
So, what about all that “AI job creation” talk?
Advocates like Jensen Huang and Mark Cuban have harped on about all the new jobs AI will create, and several outlets continue to make similar claims. But so far, while the tech has reshaped how most people work, it hasn’t produced as many roles as it has phased out.
- Google exec Mo Gawdat recently called the AI job creation narrative “100% crap.”
Still, the World Economic Forum’s 2025 Future of Jobs report estimates that by 2030, AI will displace 92m jobs but create 170m.
So, perhaps AI ethicists have yet to see their moment — we’d just hope it would come sooner.
Ai
