Is ChatGPT the beginning of true artificial intelligence?
All I remembered about The Matrix were the camera angles and the black sunglasses. Also, “Elrond’s” nasally, drawn-out, “Mister Anderson.”
With all the hubbub around Chatgpt and AI, my husband and I decided to spend a date night watching it to determine if it was good “for its time” or “all around good.”
After not breathing for the first 45 minutes due to the suspense and eerily familiar concerns about what reality is, we decided it was “all around good.” Wow. Really, if you haven’t seen it recently, it’s worth it (as long as you don’t mind not breathing for a few hours).
One line especially gave me pause:
“We marveled at our own magnificence as we gave birth to AI.”
Is this what’s happening now?
As in favor as I am of Carrie-Anne Moss’s sassy 90’s bob and epically badass mystique, spending my days in a bathtub of goo as energy fodder for machines is a real buzz kill.
So… What is ChatGPT? How close are we to becoming energy fodder for machines?
In November 2022, OpenAI released a ChatBot that could simulate human conversation. As of January 2023, more than 13 million users used the app per day. The technology is called a Large Language Learning Model that uses statistical probabilities to predict what word comes next.
Essentially, ChatGPT is a machine that is very good at analyzing probabilities and putting words together into natural sounding sentences.
Put another way: it’s text prediction (albeit very good text prediction).
And, its accomplishments are many. It’s passed Business School, Law School, US Medical Licensure Exams, and likely more to follow.
The latest version- ChatGPT4- was trained with a massive database, allowing it more creativity, advanced reasoning, image description, fiction writing, etc. However, the mystery remains as to how exactly the machine was trained and what databases it draws information from.
It’s that issue that is causing a sharp divide in how we use this technology. For example, if Chatgpt doesn’t ‘know’ the answer to something, it will hallucinate the answer (yes, hallucinate is the actual term). All it really “knows” is the relationship between sequences of words.
What can people do that ChatGPT can’t?
While the buzz is nonstop around technology, replacing jobs, and dangers of open-form information, rest assured – humans are more valuable than we give ourselves credit for.
- Humans are very good at “If this, then that.” We learn from past experiences. It’s one of the skills that has allowed us to survive and thrive.
- Humans are very good at learning from very few examples. For example, an ER doctor used Chatgpt to diagnose his patients. His conclusion: As long as he fed it perfect information (and more than 600 words), Chatgpt gave him the correct diagnosis among 6 options half the time. “Not bad,” he says, “Then again, a 50% success rate in the context of an emergency room is also not good.” –Josh Tamayo-Sarver, PhD, MD
- Humans understand context. The way you ask a question determines what answer you get out of a machine. When humans hear something, we (typically) go to several sources to put the facts together in a way that makes sense to us. We can sort through misinformation and get to the relative truth. Context is the crux of communication, and we are very good at it.
How can we use GPT-4 to further the human experience?
Compliment and streamline content curation
Have writer’s block? Use GPT-4. It kickstarts idea generation to get you going. However, the content it writes is unlikely to be compelling or well-written. Use it as a way to kickstart idea generation and create a general outline for ideas, topics, and points that would spend you hours to think up yourself.
- Social Hashtags (although the database has only been ‘trained’ through 2021, and might be unaware of cultural events that have happened after that)
- Blog titles and keywords
- “Writing tone” suggestions and keywords for various audiences based on demographic and industry information
- Email content for drip campaigns (and even more helpful if you supply information on who the target audience is… although never put personal information in the chat)
- Outline key points for blog topics and ideate a list of topics your target audience cares about (and you can train it in your voice if you have blogs you’ve already written)
Communicate with clients from another region or country
Meeting with a colleague from another country (or another part of this one)? Use GPT-4 to gain a general understanding of cultural differences and etiquette when meeting with colleagues. If you’re feeling adventurous, it will even give you basic greetings to use.
Reader be warned: make sure you test the suggestions you get with a colleague before trying them cold. For the purpose of this article, I asked GPT-4 to give me ideas for meeting with German colleagues, sent the response to a few friends from Germany, and they said the response was ‘overall okay’ but fell flat in many areas.
Writing website and video game code
This one’s for web creators. Like content creation, it’s a starting point, not a finish line. If you’re new to HTML or have no idea what “User Experience Design (UX)” is, don’t start with this one.
General assistance and admin tasks
I recently upgraded my work computer to an Apple. I had trouble syncing my old apps (based in Windows) to the Apple OS, and I was spinning my wheels on Google trying to figure out how to sync the two. On a whim, I asked Chatgpt. I input my computer make/model/year, and the apps I was trying to connect. In seconds, I had a step-by-step approach to my exact problem, without having to sift through 100 threads of old customer support chats.
How close are we to The Matrix? Just like any new gadget, people are devising beautiful (and horrible) ways every day to use it. While Chatgpt is interesting and new, we still have a long way to go before we’re living with true Artificial Intelligence.
I can say with certainty, though, that while AI is a great tool, and has the capacity to both greatly help and hurt us in ways we can’t even imagine right now, it will never replace the value of true, human-to-human connection.
Want to learn more? Listen to Is GPT-4 the dawn of true artificial intelligence? from The Economist.
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About the Author: Allison Gustin
Allison Gustin is the founder of Pebble & Brook Marketing, an avid runner, and aspiring adventurer. She thrives on the challenge of the unknown and the power of asking the right questions. Allison believes in clearly communicated expectations and has more than 10 years of experience building and executing marketing strategies to drive growth and enhance customer loyalty.
Allison is a Reiss Motivation Profile® Master and uses The Science of Motivation® to classify customer values with engaging and dynamic marketing. She earned an MBA through the Butler University Lacy School of Business with a concentration in leadership and a BS in Public Relations from Ball State University.
