Since Mary Shelley wrote "Frankenstein or the Modern Prometheus", humanity has maintained a discussion that still provokes the same questions: Under what ethical precepts is science guided? Mankind trying to play God, will it ultimately have detrimental consequences? Will our own creations one day turn against us? Will machines replace us? As far as this article is concerned: is artificial intelligence, such as ChatGPT, truly capable of replacing certain jobs?
Since it’s release, ChatGPT has certainly evoked some strong responses, both negative and positive. The pessimists more or less perceive this new technology as a threat, the proverbial sacred fire that Prometheus stole from the gods and gave to incompetent humans. The optimists on the other hand, see AI technology as a highly beneficial tool in automating mundane and monotonous tasks, freeing up time for humans to busy themselves with other activities. And of course, many have taken a neutral position and are waiting to see how it will all unfold.
As it is, every new technological advancement comes with possible unforeseen ramifications, but for now, let's analyze these issues for the peace of mind of many.
What is Open AI ChatGPT?
ChatGPT (Generative Pre-trained Transformer) is a chatbot programmed with artificial intelligence that specializes in language use and learning through prior training, data processing and dialogue with its users.
To put it simply, it’s a digital tool with which you can hold a “human” conversation with a computer. Through text prompts, it can provide coherent responses to almost anything you ask it, and with a slim margin of error.
What can I do with ChatGPT?
With this tool, you can do anything within the realm of text or articulated written language. The options are quite endless. From asking it to write you an office letter, to asking it to write a chapter of a book using a particular theme, genre, and even a specific author’s style.
The GPT-3 system, which is the language model designed by Open AI, has the power to write anything you ask and can even be consulted for information that you would normally do a Google search on.
Its level of automation and response capacity is so high that it’s being called upon to become the competitor and even substitute for Google. There’s even the possibility that it could one day replace journalists, content creators, marketers, writers, and other numerous trades.
How does this chatbot work and how to use it?
The tool works under learning parameters based on reinforcement, which in other words punishes or rewards the system so that it learns to do what it should do well. ChatGPT is trained through interactions and conversations with its users, further enriching its capacity for analysis and information processing.
From a technical point of view, this may all sound very complicated, but using ChatGPT is actually very simple, maybe even easier than downloading Whatsapp and talking to a person. You just have to go to the Open AI site, register (It’s not available in all countries), and just like that, you can start your conversation with it.
The generated results are dependent on the questions that are asked and how you ask them. The chat will even provide guidance if you’re struggling to articulate your questions clearly. As we mentioned before, the possibilities are numerous as you interact with an inexhaustible source of information. It can be compared to talking to someone who knows everything, but who also recognizes their difficulties in answering some things, and with the honesty of someone who knows how to say YES or NO, without disguising anything. This artificial intelligence is like the Oracle of Delphi but accessible to millions of people around the world. With that being said, let's get down to business…
What implications does ChatGPT have for today's job market?
Without a doubt, the impact for companies and workers will be enormous. Ever since the application was released, it has received both criticism and praise from various fronts and has gotten a lot of attention from all the media platforms. The primary concern is whether this technological innovation will be for better or for worse. At CazVid, we understand that there are many professions who are feeling threatened by all this.
We’re aware of the academic implications of this technology as many teachers have spoken out against it and some have even banned this chatbot in universities, schools and academies. But in the fields such as science, computer systems programming, and the business world, ChatGPT has been much more received.
Which jobs feel threatened by Chat GPT?
To feel that artificial intelligence is an existential threat is quite logical. If a machine can do everything I do, but even more efficiently, what do they need me for? These are the kinds of questions a writer or programmer might be asking, but not a construction worker or cook. The reason is obvious: ChatGPT can’t frame a house, or put together a culinary dish. We just wan’t to clarify this point in order to narrow down the concerns that not everyone feels threatened, but many people who work in other types of jobs do. Here's some examples of those who may feel a little insecure these days:
- Screenwriters
- Writers
- Programmers
- Content creators
- Marketers
- Journalists
- Accountants
- Office workers
- Thesis advisors
- Teachers
The feeling that ChatGPT is a threat is found in the positions of those who carry out activities pertaining to writing, text, ideas, creativity, calculation, and anything pertaining to articulated written language. But is it really a threat? Or could all this anxiety be a matter of collective panic unfounded by more than one analyst?
Let's see what ChatGPT itself would say about the jobs that are in danger from artificial intelligence. Here’s an example interview that was done by the specialized magazine El Economista.
CHAT GPT Response: “It is difficult to predict with certainty which jobs will be replaced in the near future, but some potential candidates could be repetitive and low-skilled jobs, such as supermarket cashiers, machine operators, bus and truck drivers, etc. Some customer service jobs could also be replaced by artificial intelligence systems and chatbots.”
-The Economist
To what extent is the chat right? And how long will it take for this to happen?
Can the artificial intelligence of GPT chat put you out of a job?
No, it cannot, and this for a very basic reason: Open AI's GPT Chat is not programmed to feel, intuit, imagine, and interpret reality with originality as the human being can interpret it. No matter how much this chatbot writes poetry, a novel, or a research text in minutes, we have something that is difficult to replace: we are the ones who are in the here and now, within a context, in a certain reality, involved in a web of relationships, processing not only data and information, but emotions, feelings, ethical codes, variables, that only our brain is capable of processing to transform our environment.
The machine is there, on a table, on a floor. It doesn't make sense of everything that surrounds it, and it won't take into account variables that are only before our eyes. You can ask him, consult him, and the chatbot will answer you even better than many specialists, but when it comes to making decisions in a specific context, also influenced by variables that only our hearts understand, then the tool will remain what it is: a source of useful information so that we are the ones who make decisions.
Let's read what this artificial intelligence says about it, taken from this article:
CHAT GPT Response: “Technology like ChatGPT does not have the capacity to completely replace the work of a journalist or a writer, since creativity, critical analysis and interpretation are human skills that are still essential in the work of generating news, analytics and content and are difficult to automate. In short, ChatGPT cannot completely replace the work of a journalist or a writer. Furthermore, teamwork and communication are necessary skills in any profession and are difficult to replicate with AI.”
-The Economist
Other examples
Do you want another example? Let's take the case of an army in a battle and that it is controlled by Artificial Intelligence. He is disciplined, programmed in millions of strategies, apt, hard, that is to say: a whole machine. Process the information in seconds and generate perfect reports. But now let's put this army to fight against another that has imagination and, above all, an infinite and valuable capacity for improvisation.
What happens when you are not programmed or trained to improvise, or when you must make impromptu decisions in less than a second to win the war? What happens if the other army goes out of the manual and improvises and surprises? History is full of these examples.
Our reality is changing, it is a dynamic fabric of variables, an infinite network of human evaluations, and in this the human mind is surprising.
On the other hand, behind the machine is the man making decisions so that the machine works or behaves in one way or another. We are the ones who decide what to do with the machine, the ones who consult for a reason, with a purpose, with a strategy.
Open AI chat is a tool
Artificial intelligence is neither good nor bad. We are the ones who give this type of technology a moral value, and we are the ones who pervert the ethical codes to use it. It is the business leaders, the employers, the bosses or directors, who have to decide if they let themselves be controlled by the decisions of a chat, or use the chat to make better decisions for themselves.
The usefulness of GPT Chat is amazing and it's true: it can perform activities for you. But this is precisely what must be understood: we must use the tool to build what we want to build, according to a need or purpose, according to a perspective, an objective of ours, and not once again leave our capacities adrift in something that he does not feel the poem even though he writes it.
Using the GPT Chat is not losing work, it is enhancing the work in our favor. If you have a robot cleaning your house, it's not to make you lazy, but to spend that time on more important tasks, on useful things that you couldn't focus on because you were cleaning the house.
At CazVid, we think that business leaders must understand that this tool can offer data to people capable enough to know how to do the best with it. It is our decision to adapt, change, evolve, and set that sail in our favor. Let GPT Chat write a letter, while you take care of scenting the office with flowers. Your boss will appreciate it.