How ChatGPT AI Will Disrupt Everything
See why ChatGPT already has 1 million users in just 5 days and the ways it’s being used to take over coding, content writing, marketing, and more.
What is ChatGPT?
Conversational AI (Artificial Intelligence) is here and its name is ChatGPT.
The ChatGPT app is part of OpenAI, which is the non-profit AI research lab founded in 2015 by investors Elon Musk and Sam Altman, among others. FYI, Elon left the board in 2018.
The popular AI image generator, DALL-E is also part of OpenAI.
ChatGPT is considered a Conversational AI apps because you can simply type in what you want to create and the AI can understand and deliver it. DALL-E is considered a Generative AI because it generates/renders an image based on a description. Neither of these definitions are exclusive or exhaustive and there is a LOT of crossover.
What can ChatGPT Create?
ChatGPT can generate anything that can be delivered as text.
Examples include:
- Functional code in any computer language
- Apps to calculate calorie intake and burn
- Poetry/Lyrics
- Marketing plan
- Essays
- Website copy, both articles and sales pages
This is far from an exhaustive list of what AI can do.
Streaming Intelligence
My favorite futurist, Sinead Bovell, describes ChatGPT this way:
“The way we stream the Internet, we will soon be streaming intelligence.”
Will ChatGPT Replace Google?
Yes, and no.
When you enter a question into Google search, it may give you an answer in the top snippet, if it has high certainty that it can deliver the correct answer.
Or, it may feature what it believes to be the most authoritative source for that answer in that snippet box as a quotation and link from a website.
But Google also still gives you multiple other sources where you might find the answer, such as videos and other text-based sites.
It’s then up to you to visit those resources and decide for yourself what the best answer is for your query.
If it’s a “how-to” type thing, sometimes seeing another human do it on video is the only way to go. AI can’t do that yet.
On the other hand, ChatGPT spits out one answer – with authority – as if that is the only right answer.
I’m already hearing folks say not to use it for topics you have no understanding or experience with, as you will have no way to vet if the information is correct or not.
So, search engines will be impacted by ChatGPT, but not replaced.
Will ChatGPT Replace Human Content Creation?
For the last 2 years AI content creation from many sources has already had a significant impact on human content creation.
In fact, AI-spun articles are all over the Internet now – so much so that Google released an algorithm in mid 2022 to de-rank sites filled with AI content. And it backfired.
The fact is, some AI generated content is written so well now that Google de-ranked sites that were poorly written by human authors.
And teachers are having an insanely hard time discerning whether essays were written by students or AI generators.
In fact, I’ve already seen videos where folks are asking ChatGPT for an essay on a topic, and once produced, asking it to scrub the content for plagiarism. In other words, folks are already learning how to use AI to write content that cannot be detected as AI generated.
My own site clients are using AI content generation tools to spit out fresh ideas on their niche topic. It’s a fantastic way to kick start your inspiration after you’ve already written 200 articles on the same topic.
Will ChatGPT Replace Coders?
I very seriously doubt it.
While ChatGPT can generate functional code in any coding language, it can’t handle coding at scale, especially if there are complex integrations.
Plus, while ChatGPT can generate functional code, it can’t check it against security vulnerabilities or test for all use cases.
But, coding AI apps are a great way for coders to learn.
Plus, coding AI apps are a fantastic way for established coders to augment their coding schedule to speed up a project.
Should I Use ChatGPT?
Here’s what I asked myself about using AI generators – “What would I like to hire an assistant to do for my business that I struggle with doing myself?”
I’m not a graphic artist. It takes me hours to create featured images for blog posts that are in the least bit “eye-catching”.
Yet I can go onto DALL-E and type in the type of graphic I want and in just a few seconds one is spit out that is way better than what I could have ever created.
It’s for a blog post. And this is definitely not something I want to spend money to hire out, or spend time budget struggling with making myself.
Disruptive but Limited
I believe ChatGPT will be VERY disruptive, but won’t replace humans.
Here’s why I think that.
I’m a multi-instrumentalist. Many years ago I was also a jingle composer with airplay in 14 countries.
All of the commercial makers wanted instrumental music right up until the novelty of synthesizers took hold. That novelty lasted about a decade. And then the pendulum swung back to a desire for “real” instruments again. I was able to produce music, all by myself, no matter what the producers wanted the whole time.
But the thing is, sampled instruments played on a synthesizer sound VERY real now.
Listen to any TV or radio commercial. I’d lay down money that you never once wondered if the instruments in that music were artificial or real. And I’d lay even more money down that you can’t tell if the music composition itself was AI or human generated. I know that because I did formula writing for jingles – it’s all math. That’s pretty easy stuff for a computer to generate.
But, AI can’t put the soul into music. Some humans can’t either, especially some that strive to be technically perfect. So, there’s that.
Here’s the difference in a nutshell.
- Go to a Karaoke bar. That backing track was likely generated entirely on computer/synthesizers.
- Go to any nightclub on Broadway in downtown Nashville. You’ll see a live band on stage.
Both “bands” are totally acceptable for the experience the bar patrons want to have. Synths didn’t replace humans.
And while I would use DALL-E to generate a blog post image, branding is something I would hire a qualified professional to do. It’s about emotion and how a logo makes folks feel when they see it.
Some day I might try AI generated content on a topic to kick-start an idea. But for the site and news tips I deliver on BlogAid, there is no way AI knows what is important for MY readers to hear. It’s not just about facts. It’s about culling through all the hype and noise and delivering the info my readers want.
What Do You Think About ChatGPT?
Have you tried it yet? Over 1 million people have in just the first week after its launch.
What do you think about it?
What do you think about this level of AI in general?
Let us know in the comments.
I haven’t tried it yet, but I have been reading about it. Fascinating to hear your take on it! Thank you MaAnna!
Folks are comparing this to other tech that changed how humans behave, like Facebook for social, Netflix for streaming, and iPhone for always connected. Will be interesting to see how it plays out.
In an interesting coincidence, I read this post right before my daughter’s boyfriend came over talking about this very thing. He has access to it, so we had an interesting conversation about potential uses and limitations. I brought up what you’d said about not using it for things you didn’t have a good depth of knowledge on, so we decided to test it out on our various areas of expertise…
After a few fits and starts figuring out a command it could follow well* it spit out a blog post on medicinal mushrooms that pretty much blew my mind. It certainly passed muster for a basic overview. Then we had it cite references and man, I can see how that would be useful to me as a blogger and content creator! I’ve got a blog post in mind using this info to help teach people how to evaluate sources and where/whom they learn from. How do you know who’s an expert and all that.
I picked the medicinal mushroom topic because I knew there’d been a TON written about it (because it generates bank for many people) and the AI would likely have a lot of source material to pull from. It certainly did, and it read like every big vendor’s blog posts and informational sales pages. There’s only so many ways you can write up and teach the same information before it all starts sounding similar. I think the art and added value comes from the creator who can take that summary (or even in-depth) information and tell the reader or listener why it should matter to *them* in particular.
It’s all very interesting! I’m not sure how it would do on topics that don’t have as much written about them, but it’s certainly a potential source for a lot of ideas. The biggest benefit I see for me? I tend to get lost in the minutiae of the outline and formatting to begin with and consequently have a hard time getting to the meat of the post before I run out of writing time, which is actually what I like doing best. This AI could take a good stab at creating that framework in a second or two and I could start from there!
Thanks for this timely post.
Krista
*(The most common question I get with my blog is “What’s this mushroom. Can I eat it?” Of course the AI it couldn’t do anything with that – can’t upload a picture yet. Definitely can’t handle every question and situation, but it already has a vast amount of information.)
Wow, Krista!! That certainly was a good check of the info they are pulling from.
That also makes me wonder if the AI is only fed info that is publicly available on the internet opposed to what we can find in books.