“I’m Not Just the Code that I Generate”: Tech Workers, Tacit Knowledge, and Generative AI

• In Event: Organizations, Occupations, and Work Section Roundtables
  In Refereed Roundtable (90 minute): Table 24: High-status Occupations and Technological Change

Abstract

Following the introduction of ChatGPT and other generative AI tools in 2022, there has been a great deal of speculation and concern about how these new technologies will affect workers, especially in professional occupations. This article draws on interviews with 57 tech workers conducted between 2022 and 2024 to examine how they think the introduction of generative AI tools will shape work in their industry and beyond. Many of these workers predicted that generative AI would bring about significant changes in how work is done. Some were optimistic, expecting generative AI to increase productivity and efficiency in the workplace. Many others had concerns about automation and job loss across the workforce. When it came to their own jobs, however, most were confident that AI could not automate their particular roles. This was true of workers in a wide variety of positions, ranging from software engineering to customer service. While some researchers may assume that these workers are naïve about the capabilities of AI tools, we instead argue that workers occupy a unique epistemic position from which to recognize the limits of AI and possess tacit knowledge of their roles that cannot be easily automated.

Authors

• Sigrid Willa Luhr, University of Illinois-Chicago

• Marni Fritz, University of Illinois-Chicago

• Victoria Brockett, University of Illinois-Chicago

• Fructoso Miguel Basaldua, University of Illinois-Chicago