“How can I become the same as Arnold Schwarzenegger?”

How can I become a YouTuber? What skills do I need to become an electrical engineer? And what do I do with a degree in water management? These are examples of questions that interested parties can now ask “Career information” of the Employment Service (AMS). The AMS’s partners are the IT service provider Good Guys and the Federal Computing Center, and we are working on this “ChatGPT” from OpenAI, a system that is based on artificial intelligence (AI) and was trained in preparation with information regarding job profiles and training requirements in Austria.

“We are the first European employment service to offer a customer application based on ChatGPT”said AMS Austria board member Johannes Kopf today, Wednesday, at the presentation of the program, which can be found at www.ams.at/berufsinformat. Questions about training opportunities and career profiles can be asked there: “The big advantage is that there are quick answers and further links with more information”said AMS board member Petra Draxl. There is also information regarding earning potential. Legal information and answers to questions regarding unemployment benefits, employment permits, red-white-red cards and the like are not provided: in this regard, the questioners would be referred to the responsible authorities.

Questions are possible not only in German, but in various languages. The professional informant can also ask questions: Kopf and Draxl demonstrated this with the question “How can I become the same as Arnold Schwarzenegger?” – here the system asks the counter question as to whether you are interested in a career as a politician, actor or bodybuilder. This is how a conversation can develop.

According to Draxl, the target groups for the offer are, on the one hand, AMS advisors who often have to give answers quickly, for example when talking to students. However, individual consultations would remain important: “A machine will never be able to recognize which topic makes your eyes shine. This requires personal advice”. The career information is also intended for teachers in career orientation and for anyone interested: the focus is particularly on young people. “They often come to consultations without any concrete ideas”said Head. It’s about teasing out what suits someone – even with the question “I am a professional in the game Minecraft. Will this help me choose a career?”

The launch was preceded by a three-month trial period. According to AMS, the costs so far amount to around 300,000 euros.