- An updated version of OpenAI’s chatbot, ChatGPT, was launched on November 30th.
- The chatter about the new technology goes beyond the business world, impressing and irritating the users.
- While the long-term impact of the technology remains to be seen, people are finding creative ways to use it.
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It’s safe to say that ChatGPT causes havoc.
OpenAI’s AI chatbot has only been around for two months and has already amassed more than a million users.
Launched on November 30, the chatbot has impressed – and upset – many different people. The chatter about the new technology has spread far beyond the business world, even managing to provoke the scorn of award-winning songwriter Nick Cave.
ChatGPT has already been compared to the launch of the iPhone and the crypto boom, but while the long-term impact of the technology remains to be seen, people are already finding creative ways to use it.
From job seekers to competing tech companies and academics, here are some of the people feeling the heat of ChatGPT.
‘Red alert’ for search engines
OpenAI’s chatbot, and Microsoft’s reported plans to invest $10 billion in it after a previous $1 billion investment, has been heralded by some as a major threat to traditional search engines and appears to have unsettled Google.
In December, Google management issued a “Code Red” amid the launch of ChatGPT, according to The New York Times. The outlet reported that the conversational chatbot sparked concerns about the future of Google’s search engine.
Microsoft is reportedly planning to launch a Bing feature that includes the technology behind ChatGPT. The feature, which aims to give users answers to some searches instead of just showing relevant links, could show up by the end of March, The Information reported.
AI experts, search experts, and current and former Google employees told Insider’s Tom Dotan that ChatGPT is unlikely to be a replacement for Google search at this time due to concerns about the inaccurate answers.
academic anxiety
ChatGPT can also write pretty good essays and pass some exams, skills that have made some academics nervous.
While some teachers are more positive about the development, seeing the technology as a time-saver tool or an extension of mainstream AI programs like Grammarly, others aren’t as enthusiastic.
Two philosophy professors told Insider they’ve caught students trying to pass off AI-generated content as their own. They say they are concerned the bot’s output will be harder to catch and that AI plagiarism is difficult to prove within current academic rules.
A job seeker’s best friend
Cover letters are hated by job seekers almost everywhere. ChatGPT might provide a way to bypass the tedious task.
I asked ChatGPT to write my cover letters and sent them to hiring managers to see what they thought. I fed the bot some real job descriptions and a few short sentences about my made-up experiences to generate the letters.
The hiring managers were very impressed and both said they would most likely go ahead with a screening call for at least one of the letters. They said the letters lacked personality and suggested job seekers use the chatbot more as a starting point.
Uninspired creatives
Award-winning songwriter and musician Nick Cave was unfazed by ChatGPT. He called a ChatGPT song written in his style “a grotesque mockery of what it means to be human” and dismissed it as “bullshit” in his newsletter.
Cave said he lacked enthusiasm for the new technology, calling the AI-generated song “a grotesque mockery of what it means to be human.”
The musician isn’t the only creative person grappling with the new technology. Ammaar Reshi, a design manager at a fintech company, found himself in the middle of a heated debate about AI and the creative industries after using ChatGPT alongside AI art program Midjourney to write and illustrate a children’s book.
Artists took to Twitter to accuse him of stealing their works while readers took aim at the quality of the story. “The writing is stiff and has no voice at all,” wrote one Amazon reviewer.