ChatGPT: How AI Could Change Our Future

By now, most people have heard of ChatGPT, the AI chatbot that’s turning heads and making waves. Search engines like Google and Bing have taken steps to add their own AI chatbot features to stay competitive, and the US government is even beginning to take notice. To some, ChatGPT, and other programs like it, are part of a long-awaited revolution that will streamline all aspects of life. To others, these AI programs are a scourge to workers, and promise to take away millions of jobs that people need to survive.

While ChatGPT isn’t exactly Skynet, it does bring up some interesting questions about how it can benefit, or damage, society. Many worry that creative industries, such as writing, content creation, and even art, will see major disruptions within the next few years. There’s a legitimate concern that the majority of art, media, and content will be machine generated sooner rather than later. But how likely is that reality?

It’s important to acknowledge that these AI chatbots are extremely powerful, easy to use, and easy to abuse. There have already been several instances of high school and college students using ChatGPT to write essays for them. That said, the text generated by these chatbots, especially for academic purposes, is usually quite boring and uninspired. This is because of how ChatGPT’s AI learns.

As Yves Bergquist, Director of the “AI & Neuroscience in Media” Project at the Entertainment Technology Center, explains in his most recent presentation, “ChatGPT – A Hype-Free Primer”: ChatGPT uses a Natural Language Processing method known as a Large Language Model. Essentially, through a combination of human reinforcement and an unreal amount of text, ChatGPT can accurately guess and assemble words, sentences, and paragraphs that are grammatically correct based on a given prompt. This means that ChatGPT isn’t exactly “writing” as much as it’s guessing what you want with eerie accuracy. Some AI programs are doing similar things with images and even videos!

However, these programs are far from perfect. For example, even though they know a lot of things, they can’t know everything. Some information in a ChatGPT text might be inaccurate and AI images are all over the place. Additionally, everything from text to video is extremely simple when generated by an AI. This makes them good for writing emails, basic copy, or social posts, but means they are lacking in other areas. ChatGPT, for example, can’t write a film script that holds any narrative weight since it lacks the capacity for nuance or subtext.

In short, ChatGPT and other AI programs will probably play a huge role in the future when it comes to simple tasks. That said, artists and other creatives shouldn’t be concerned about losing their jobs anytime soon. Even when AI programs do get better at making content, the enjoyment of said content is extremely subjective. Most people enjoy media that reflects their personal experiences or the experiences of others. Since these programs can’t have human experiences, they will always be one step behind human content creators. Of course, if an AI program makes some content you really enjoy, there’s nothing wrong with that. As the technology improves, the content it makes will improve as well.