Job van der Voort, CEO of Remote, has disclosed that his company uses AI to search through information in its databases on a daily basis. Remote help businesses employ people globally by managing payroll, benefits, compliance, and taxes.
AI “gives you superpowers,” van der Voort said. “It’s crazy powerful.” He added
Though businesses have been using AI for years, the November release of OpenAI’s ChatGPT heralded a new era of so-called generative AI, which generates text and images based on prompts.
Google has also unveiled Bard, its own generative AI, while Microsoft has launched an AI-powered version of Bing.
Students have used generative AI platforms like these to write essays, news outlets to publish articles, and job seekers to craft resumes.
Some companies have warned their employees against using generative AI to help them with their jobs, with Amazon telling employees not to share confidential information with ChatGPT.
The platform has been taken offline in Italy, and Elon Musk and Steve Wozniak, among others, have signed an open letter calling for a six-month moratorium on advanced AI development.
Van der Voort believes AI will “is going to transform every single business going forward, I think without any exception,” Van der Voort said.
“This technology will change every business and all of our business in the most meaningful way possible.”
Remote, he said, had created an internal AI bot using company databases that employees could use to get information about sick pay in Ireland or sabbatical leave policies in Tanzania, for example, which they could then share with clients. It saves staff time and makes their work more accurate, according to van der Voort.
The bot also informs staff when it doesn’t know the answer, rather than making one up, which van der Voort believes can be a problem with these types of models.
Van der Voort, who has a neuroscience background, was one of the first employees of software company GitLab and later became its VP of product. He began establishing Remote in 2019, and it was valued at more than $3 billion last year.
