John Danaher and Sven Nyholm have argued that automation, especially of the sort powered by artificial intelligence, poses a threat to meaningful work by diminishing the chances for meaning-conferring workplace achievement, what they call “achievement gaps”. In this paper, I argue that Danaher and Nyholm’s achievement gap thesis suffers from an ambiguity. The weak version of the thesis holds that automation may result in the appearance of achievement gaps, whereas the strong version holds that automation may result on balance loss (...) in possibilities for workplace achievements, i.e., in the appearance of an overall gappier work landscape. Against the strong version of the achievement gap thesis, I characterize situations where automation may result in boons to meaning-conferring workplace achievements: the appearance of what I call achievement spread and achievement swaps. Nevertheless, Danaher and Nyholm are right to worry about some uses of automation whereby human workers become subservient to AI. But these situations are better framed, I argue, as autonomy gaps rather than achievement gaps. (shrink)

Does the rise of artificial intelligence pose a threat to human sources of meaning? While much ink has been spilled on how AI could undercut meaningful human work, John Danaher has raised the stakes by claiming that AI could “sever” human beings from non-work-related sources of meaning—specifically, those related to intellectual and moral goods. Against this view, I argue that his suggestion that AI poses a threat to these areas of meaningful activity is overstated. Self-transformative activities pose a hard limit (...) to AI’s impingement on meaningful human activities. Contra Danaher, I suggest that a wider range of sources for meaning will continue to exist in a world dominated by AI. (shrink)

Nowadays artificial intelligence is gaining popularity and brings changes into everyday lives and business. Latest research outline various options and challenges related to the implementation of artificial intelligence in different fields. It is obvious that its adoption will have a notable significant impact on certain industries. However, it also requires complete understanding and awareness of main constraints and benefits. The aim of the present research is to find out the possibilities of adoption of the artificial intelligence in accounting industry in (...) case of Estonia and its impact on the role of the accountant in the future. The main research question focuses on whether Estonian accountants are aware of the new opportunities related to the implementation of artificial intelligence and their openness to these challenges. Authors conducted a survey among Estonian accounting professionals and the results revealed limited knowledge, with people being aware of the meaning but having little or no idea about the basic components of artificial intelligence and wide range of a potential application. During the research, it became obvious that only few companies in Estonia are already using artificial intelligence: among the main reasons of non-adoption are lack of experience, lack of qualified professionals and the general complexity. Authors believe that the results of this study provide a starting point for companies involved in providing various modern technical support for accounting industry and may contribute to the raising awareness and further development of active successful adoption of artificial intelligence in Estonia. (shrink)