Chat GPT is a popular technological trend in the current marketplace. The focus of this discussion is to clarify what Chat GPT is and examine its impact on society.
Chat GPT is a technology that is rapidly gaining popularity worldwide. It has gained mainstream adoption and attracts significant attention from mass media and TV shows. The question that arises is whether Chat GPT is beneficial to society. It is worth examining whether Chat GPT can enhance our personal and business lives or potentially undermine our success.
So what I want to do today is talk about how Chat GPT and other aspects of OpenAI affect society both for better and for worse.
What is Chat GPT
First, it’s important to understand what Chat GPT is. It’s a form of regenerative artificial intelligence that enables engagement, learning, and teaching. In the past, people used search engines like Google to find articles that answered their questions. However, regenerative AI thinks more like a human and provides direct answers. Currently, most Chat GPT interactions are textual. But, modern AI use cases integrate textual aspects with visual ones. For instance, Doll E allows you to describe the kind of picture you want to create using text, and it generates an impressionist version of it. Similarly, Microsoft’s Copilot creates a PowerPoint slide or Excel spreadsheet as per your input. These examples showcase how AI technologies like Chat GPT can enhance people’s efficiency.
Impact On Work As We Know It
One of the most exciting and significant aspects of Chat GPT and open AI is their impact on the world of work. Although technology has always disrupted the workforce, Chat GPT is doing so in a unique way. It revolutionizes the way we engage with our work, particularly with mundane tasks like data entry and spreadsheet creation that are currently done manually. In theory, Chat GPT and open AI can automate these tasks. The possibilities for Chat GPT are endless, with numerous potential impacts on our jobs. It’s important to recognize that while technology has always affected jobs, Chat GPT and open AI have the potential to significantly disrupt and change people’s work lives.
Loss of Jobs?
Given the impact of Chat GPT on the workforce, the question is whether it will result in job loss and what its societal impact will be. Chat GPT has the power to make organizations more effective, but it also has the potential to eliminate jobs. This threat is not new, as technology has always created this fear. While robots replaced some jobs, they also created new ones, and the same could happen with Chat GPT.
Some believe that Chat GPT could eliminate up to 50% of the labor force, especially impacting the least educated workers, leading to unforeseen societal problems. Leaders such as Elon Musk, Bill Gates, and the CEO of OpenAI are calling for a six-month hold on AI development, citing its profound impact on humans and society. This shows that we need to stop and think about the consequences of AI before moving forward with OpenAI technologies. While Chat GPT has potential benefits, we don’t fully understand its downsides yet.
Data Privacy and Security
Another potential dark side of Chat GPT relates to data privacy and security. There have already been instances of individuals within organizations using confidential information for analysis by feeding it to open AI like Chat GPT to do their jobs, which may seem reasonable on the surface. However, this action makes confidential information public domain because it becomes part of the OpenAI model. Many organizations have not fully embraced this technology or understood the big impact it could have on data privacy and security. Additionally, at the consumer level, what happens to our personal information when we use Chat GPT? For instance, if we ask Chat GPT to fill out a form requiring personal confidential identification, such as our passport number or social security number, who ensures that our data is secure? These are just some of the open-ended questions we have yet to resolve, and most organizations and individuals have not fully thought through what it means for them.
In addition to data privacy and security concerns, there are also questions around the ethics of Chat GPT. For instance, is it considered cheating if a student uses Chat GPT to help write a paper or do research that they would have done manually in the past? Or if an employee uses Chat GPT to automate parts of their job that they are being paid to do, is that cheating or wrong? There are many unanswered questions regarding various components and aspects of Chat GPT, but these are some things to consider as we think about the future of OpenAI and Chat GPT.
Impact on Digital Transformations
One of the biggest questions I have as a digital transformation consultant and leader of a consulting firm is the impact that Chat GPT will have on digital transformations. Chat GPT is a new technology that can help automate businesses and improve operations, as well as speed up the rate at which we go through digital transformation.
Chat GPT can help automate the development of code and configurations using AI models like OpenAI, potentially eliminating the need for outsourcing. However, the human disruption caused by this technology could offset any benefit to digital transformation automation. Humans may react negatively to the automation of their jobs, more so than with previous technologies.
While we can use Chat GPT and OpenAI to automate some of the digital transformation, it will also create human disruptions that will take longer to resolve. One question I have is how business technology and enterprise technology providers and vendors will integrate Chat GPT and OpenAI models into their workflows and functions to improve capabilities.
If you are looking to strategize an upcoming transformation or are looking at selecting an ERP system, we would love to give you some insights. Please contact me for more information eric.kimberling@thirdstage-consulting.com
