Instagram took 2.5 months to reach 1 million users
It took Spotify 5 months to reach 1 million users
After one week of launching, ChatGPT gained 1 million users…. and two months after launch, ChatGPT had 100 million active users [zdnet.com]
Tiktok took 9 months to reach 9 million users.
Just let that sit for comparison.
As Writers: – are you concerned about the exponential uptake of Artificial Intelligence and its ramifications?
What Exactly is ChatGPT?
ChatGPT is a language processing tool driven by AI technology that answers questions, and assists with tasks such as writing emails, essays, and code.
ChatGPT works via a Generative Pre-trained Transformer (GPT), a model that has been trained on a LLM (a language learning model) from vast amounts of information from the internet. This includes: websites, books and news articles. It learns the context of sequential data that has been input into the system. Meaning it tracks relationships between words from the data set it was trained on.
This application doesn’t just answer questions; ChatGPT and other generating A.I. models can describe art in detail, have philosophical conversations, create emails or sales campaigns, fix broken computer code, or improve customer support.
Currently free of charge, due to the creator’s research and feedback-collection phase, (premium access starts at $20 per month), the chatbot tool was created by OpenAI, an A.I. Research Company. A start-up that presumably controls what is input into this life-changing tool.
An art generator creates a thorny copyright issue – as apparently “billions of copyright images” were used in a training data set “without compensation or consent from the artists.” But in a fast-moving world, legislative adjustment is a slow-moving beast and prosecution for copyright infringement is complex, expensive and lengthy.
Jobs – a Lost or an Endangered Species
Do you foresee customer support writing and marketing jobs potentially disappearing?
Will A.I. be the content creator of choice when writing social media posts and advertising campaigns, or even a book?
Blogger Snow mentioned how ChatGPT and Midjourney helped Ammaar Reshi create a children’s book in a weekend. Now Reshi is creating an animated Batman video he put together using a ChatGPT generated script, images and edited voice-over and video using Adobe AI and the phone app, Motionleap.
Reshi stated:
“With any kind of new tech that is incredibly powerful, it’s somewhat threatening to people,” he said, adding: “You see people wondering, ‘Will this replace my job?’ … That concern — we shouldn’t pretend like it isn’t a serious one.”
Shudu, the “world’s first digital supermodel,” was created through artificial intelligence and has been used in a Louis Vuitton ad. While bizarre, this may or may not altogether be a bad thing for women with body image concerns – if we can separate the digital from reality.
The Implications of The Age of Artificial Intelligence
Are we seeing the dawn of an age when freelance writers become a relic, a historical job that once existed in the past, like a projectionist?
Google searches have already been superseded by ChatGPT as the tool tailors its response in human-like prose.
Human beings may be less reliable than chatbots, but they do produce original material, whereas A.I. tools are limited to the data they were trained on.
Chatbots have limited knowledge of world events after 2021 and may also occasionally produce harmful instructions or biased content, according to an OpenAI FAQ. The way you ask the question — the prompting — can have an important effect on the quality of the result.” [computerworld.com]
Although tempting to use, might our enthusiasm and potential overuse of A.I. lead to a standardisation of opinion and perspectives? If so, could this unify communities or stultify intellectual progress?
Will humans become relegated to the fringe of intellectual pursuit? Left on the shelf like a World Book Encyclopedia?
Toby Walsh, one of only 10,000 or so individuals, with a PhD in Artificial Intelligence, suggests that technology does make us lazy. Without use, our brain capability begins to shrink: for e.g. Toby considers we are one of the last generations to be able to read a map. Spatial intelligence has decreased with a lack of neural stimulation from use of GPS navigation. [And here I was blaming it on ageing!]
With technology thinking for us, might our brains shrink further?
Technology Makes Us Lazy
Who bothers composing a handwritten letter anymore? I haven’t even checked my letter box for possibly a year or more – although the M.o.t.h. does it – once a month.
When was the last time you pulled out a street directory or remembered directions? My 20-something daughter does not even know what that is.
Do you still purchase recipe books or use Google to search online?
Who remembers telephone numbers off by heart?
Do you still calculate several grocery or product purchases or the change the cashier gives you, in your head?
‘The Cat is out of the Bag’
These products will eliminate ‘artist’ as a viable career path,” a release from the Joseph Saveri law firm stated. “The thing is: …There’s no going back, so I don’t think litigation is going to stop these platforms from continuously developing and gathering up as much data as they can,” he said. “It’s going to keep happening.” [Nik Thompson]
Chatbots Are Not Perfect
But A.I. has flaws.
Blogger Sandy spoke recently about disruptive technology ad referred me to an article that suggested A.I. assistive writing tools already analyse data and produce articles using natural language generation software.
However, the article also pointed out, ‘They cannot write articles with flair, imagination, or in-depth analysis.’ They may not have made writers redundant, but they have increased the number of niche articles written. Niche articles are growing in popularity, and we are already presented with a personalised selection of ‘Your News,’ each morning on our browser ads. If the reader wants more, the trend is towards a paywall and subscription model – users-pay systems.
The article also suggested that article generating systems won’t replace writers because readers want to read opinion and analysis.
Personally, I would rather be presented with a balanced story of facts and make up my own opinion, rather than hear it from a journalist or expert. But I take their point.
Chatbots may give false information.
ChatGPT is not abreast of local news and idioms in every region, only the data that’s been input into its training. Incorrect information and graphics are therefore frequently created.
For example: type in MBRC (our local Council) and you will get something located in the USA, not Australia. Type in “Norwegian Rosemaling,” to the graphic generator and yes you will get a new piece of art, but it will look like some kind of distorted, mutant, William Morris wanna-be design – in other words, utter rubbish. The human touch is still relevant and necessary.
Writers Still Have Relevance
A.I. tools are easily confused by relatively simple, existential questions, as some IT nerds have famously posted on social media.
And as for proofreading, the human mind still retains the edge over any automated tool.
So take that, A.I.
Content thieves, not writers, may be the ones who are now redundant. (And take that: compulsive re-bloggers who do not credit original writers).
Like an encyclopedia, we may not quite ready to be left on the shelf – yet!
Something to Ponder About 