Issue Workslop: AI widens skill gaps and contaminates the data models later learn from

Summary

Deloitte warns that AI can widen skill gaps instead of closing them, a problem linked to what it calls workslop. Research reported in The Wall Street Journal suggests that AI tends to amplify differences in performance. Experienced workers use it to extend their expertise, while less skilled workers are more likely to produce outputs that look acceptable but are shallow and hide weak reasoning. Such output also slows the development of the people who produce it. Once this low-quality material enters company data, AI models start learning from it. Deloitte cautions that this contaminates training data in ways that later training cannot fully reverse.