An experiment involving hundreds of office workers has found that artificial intelligence (AI) tools can greatly help but also hurt worker performance.
一项涉及数百名办公室员工的实验发现，人工智能 (AI) 工具可以极大地帮助员工，但也会损害员工的绩效。
AI tools designed to operate at human levels have greatly expanded in popularity over the past year. These include OpenAI’s ChatGPT, Google’s Bard and Microsoft’s AI-powered search engine Bing.
过去一年来，旨在以人类水平运行的人工智能工具越来越受欢迎。其中包括 OpenAI 的 ChatGPT、谷歌的 Bard 和微软的人工智能搜索引擎 Bing。
Such tools, also known as chatbots or “generative AI,” are computer-powered systems. They are designed to interact smoothly with humans and perform high-level writing and creative work.
此类工具也称为聊天机器人或“生成人工智能”，是计算机驱动的系统。它们旨在与人类顺利互动并执行高水平的写作和创造性工作。
In recent months, these tools have demonstrated an ability to produce high quality work. This has led some technology experts to warn that generative AI systems could end up replacing workers in many industries.
近几个月来，这些工具已经证明了产生高质量工作的能力。这导致一些技术专家警告称，生成式人工智能系统最终可能会取代许多行业的工人。
This year, researchers at Harvard Business School and other organizations carried out an experiment. It aimed to test how well AI tools could help workers perform their usual duties, or tasks. It involved more than 700 business advisors, called consultants, from Massachusetts-based Boston Consulting Group.
今年，哈佛商学院和其他组织的研究人员进行了一项实验。它的目的是测试人工智能工具如何帮助员工履行日常职责或任务。它涉及来自马萨诸塞州波士顿咨询集团的 700 多名商业顾问（称为顾问）。
Harvard Business School recently published results from the experiment in a “working paper.” The main findings suggest that AI tools like ChatGPT can greatly improve worker performance.
哈佛商学院最近在一份“工作论文”中发表了该实验的结果。主要研究结果表明，像 ChatGPT 这样的人工智能工具可以极大地提高工作人员的绩效。
For example, researchers found that, on average, workers who used OpenAI’s latest ChatGPT 4 tool completed 12 percent more tasks than non-ChatGPT users. Tasks carried out with help from the AI technology were completed 25 percent faster. And the team found the quality of work performed by consultants using ChatGPT 4 increased about 40 percent.
例如，研究人员发现，平均而言，使用 OpenAI 最新 ChatGPT 4 工具的员工比非 ChatGPT 用户多完成了 12% 的任务。在人工智能技术的帮助下执行的任务完成速度提高了 25%。该团队发现，使用 ChatGPT 4 的顾问的工作质量提高了约 40%。
Work tasks used in the study covered four main areas: creativity, analytical thinking, writing and persuasiveness. The team gave examples of worker tasks in each of these areas.
研究中使用的工作任务涵盖四个主要领域：创造力、分析思维、写作和说服力。该团队给出了每个领域的工人任务示例。
One example for creativity was: “Propose at least 10 ideas for a new shoe targeting an underserved market or sport.” For writing, consultants were asked to “write a press release with marketing copy” for a new product. To show persuasiveness, workers were told to write a letter to employees that explained why a particular product would beat competitors.
创造力的一个例子是：“针对服务不足的市场或运动，针对一款新鞋提出至少 10 个创意。”在写作方面，顾问被要求为新产品“撰写带有营销文案的新闻稿”。为了表现出说服力，员工被要求写一封信给员工，解释为什么某种特定产品会击败竞争对手。
Harvard Business School’s Fabrizio Dell’Acqua was the paper’s lead writer. He told technology website VentureBeat he thinks the results were especially important because they showed that AI tools can help even highly educated, experienced workers.
哈佛商学院的 Fabrizio Dell’Acqua 是该论文的主要作者。他告诉科技网站 VentureBeat，他认为结果特别重要，因为它们表明人工智能工具甚至可以帮助受过高等教育、经验丰富的工人。
“The fact that we could boost the performance of these highly paid, highly skilled consultants, from top, elite MBA institutions…I would say that’s really impressive ,” Dell’Acqua said.
“事实上，我们可以提高这些来自顶级精英 MBA 机构的高薪、高技能顾问的绩效……我想说，这确实令人印象深刻，”Dell'Acqua 说。
However, the paper also noted areas where the performance of consultants using ChatGPT 4 dropped. The researchers said this was especially true with tasks the AI tool was not good at completing.
然而，该论文还指出了使用 ChatGPT 4 的顾问绩效下降的领域。研究人员表示，对于人工智能工具不擅长完成的任务尤其如此。
Of tasks the AI was good at, the experiment showed it “significantly improved human performance,” the paper said . But for tasks ChatGPT 4 was not right for, “humans relied too much on the AI, and were more likely to make mistakes.”
论文称，在人工智能擅长的任务中，实验表明它“显着提高了人类的表现”。但对于 ChatGPT 4 不适合的任务，“人类过于依赖人工智能，并且更容易犯错误。”
The researchers reported that consultants who used AI for tasks it was not well equipped for “were 19 percent less likely to produce correct solutions compared to those without AI.”
研究人员报告称，使用人工智能完成其能力不足的任务的顾问“与没有使用人工智能的顾问相比，提出正确解决方案的可能性要低 19%”。
The experiment also showed how consultants used the AI tool differently to improve their work. The researchers said some workers purposely divided the tasks with some being completely carried out by the AI tool and others the workers themselves carried out completely. Other workers chose to use AI for all tasks, while “continually interacting with the technology.”
该实验还展示了顾问如何以不同的方式使用人工智能工具来改进他们的工作。研究人员表示，一些工人故意划分任务，有些完全由人工智能工具完成，有些则完全由工人自己完成。其他工人选择使用人工智能来完成所有任务，同时“不断与技术互动”。
The team suggests one of the biggest barriers to companies effectively using AI is not knowing which tasks can be completed best with the technology. Finding this out will require businesses to carry out thoughtful research and training efforts in order to find the right mix of AI and human-level work.
该团队表示，公司有效使用人工智能的最大障碍之一是不知道该技术可以最好地完成哪些任务。要找到这一点，企业需要进行深思熟虑的研究和培训工作，以便找到人工智能和人类工作的正确组合。