ChatGPT, a newly released chatbot, is influencing almost every industry across the world. It was released at the end of November 2022 and had over 1 million users by December. By January, the site had nearly 13 million users per day. Since it is taking the world by storm, businesses and individuals are navigating how to use it to their advantage. ChatGPT can respond to almost any prompt, whether it be writing essays, emails or coding. It inherently sounds human-like.
Educators have been in immense fear of increases in academic integrity violations, but realistically, this is most likely a pivotal time in technological advancement. Students may be able to use it as a resource that enhances their work, instead of something that entirely does the work for them.
This is a time that is very similar to when assets like Google, YouTube, and even the online calculator were released. At that time, many academic institutions feared academic integrity, but roughly two decades later, these are tools that allow students to succeed.
The comparison between the two is uncanny. An elementary school teacher in Kentucky is encouraging students to learn about AI, instead of avoiding it (Associated Press). Fifth-grade students claim they are enjoying learning more now than before AI was a part of the lesson plan.
If businesses are able to be strategic enough, ChatGPT will be a way to help solve technical problems, therefore lowering overall costs. It has the capacity to curate marketing campaigns, act in customer service, perform research and more.
This is a double-edged sword. People may lose their jobs since a computer will be able to handle simple tasks, and eventually more complex ones. Computerization is a process that has been taking place for the past couple of decades though. On a smaller scale, this can already be seen in grocery stores: human cashiers have been replaced with self-checkout registers. Since most companies’ goals are increased profits, it is evident that ChatGPT will only further enable the process of computerization and cut business costs.
These are just a couple of ways that AI is going to be a part of our lives for decades to come. Whether we want to be using the chatbot ourselves or not, it is inevitable that each person will be touched by its implementation. With more updates being released, it is both exciting and frightening to see what kind of future we will have with advances in AI technology.
Here’s a relevant ‘conversation’ that I had with ChatGPT recently:
Me: “Do you think ChatGPT will be taking over the world soon?”
ChatGPT: “No, I do not believe that AI will be taking over the world anytime soon. While AI has made significant advances in recent years, it is still limited by the programming and data it has been trained on. AI is designed to assist humans in their tasks and help solve complex problems, but it does not have the ability to think or act independently of human control.
It is important to note that AI is not inherently good or evil; it is a tool that is only as ethical as the humans who program and use it. There are ongoing efforts to ensure that AI is developed in a responsible and ethical manner to minimize any potential negative impacts.
That being said, it is important for society to continue to monitor and regulate the development and use of AI to ensure that it is used for the benefit of humanity and does not pose a threat to our safety or autonomy.”
The chatbot seems aware that it will always need humans to continue operating. Only time will tell if this holds true.