ChatGPT can perform data analysis at fraction of human cost: Study

SINGAPORE: The cost of OpenAI's GPT-4 is just 0.45 per cent of hiring a senior data analyst who earns around $90,000 annually, or 0.71 per cent of a junior-level employee, a study has revealed.

Using large language models (LLM) like GPT-4, that powers ChatGPT, in data analysis costs less than 1 per cent of hiring a human analyst while turning in comparable performances, according to researchers from Damo Academy, the research arm of Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba Group, and Singapore's Nanyang Technological University.

The study highlights the potential threat to job security amid increased adoption of generative artificial intelligence (AI), reports South China Morning Post.

The experiments showed that GPT-4 is also much faster than humans in completing the tasks.

"GPT-4 can also beat an entry-level human analyst in terms of performance, which was evaluated through a range of metrics including the correctness and fluency in charts and the insights they produced," the report elaborated.

In some cases, the AI model managed to surpass the human data analysts in terms of the correctness of the figures and analysis.

"However, GPT-4 fell behind humans in terms of showing correct data in graphs, as well as presentation and formatting in some cases," the results showed.

Despite errors with some figures, GPT-4 could still generate correct analysis, the study added.

According to global investment bank Goldman Sachs, nearly 300 million jobs could be lost to AI in the future.

A global economics research report from Goldman Sachs predicted that AI could automate 25 per cent of the entire labour market but can automate 46 per cent of tasks in administrative jobs, 44 per cent of legal jobs, and 37 per cent of architecture and engineering professions.