I recently started writing and performing standup comedy as a hobby. This was in part to boost my creative human skills against the onslaught of generative A.I. (I’ve also taken up metalworking and sculpture for similar reasons.)

A.I. will only get better and more convincing at every form of spoken/written communication, including the “last frontier” of humor. No doubt, soon A.I. will also be combined with 3D printing to make museum-worthy metal sculpture.

As that all sinks in, I’ll keep working on my human game while making the most of A.I. tools. 

#human #ai #skynet

Ah, the breathless headlines are here. A mere 7 months after its launch, ChatGPT is being declared almost dead.

This in today’s Washington Post:
ChatGPT loses users for first time, shaking faith in AI revolution

Turns out in June site traffic to ChatGPT dropped 9.7 percent. When success is measured only in exponential growth, then a nearly 10 percent drop is… bad, yes. In reality, as the novelty wears off the power of models like ChatGPT will only grow. And before we know it, the technology will silently seep into the background and we’ll one day wonder what writing was…

ChatGPT took their jobs. Now they walk dogs and fix air conditioners.

In this WaPo story, Olivia and Eric are just two early casualties of the ChatGPT revolution that’s coming for writing jobs. Today, companies that are ok settling for lower quality writing will rely on ChatGPT and other AI tools vs pay an hourly rate for slower, albeit higher quality, human writing.

And I feel for anyone who loses their job. But let’s 1) not denigrate walking dogs and fixing ACs, and 2) take these anecdotes as a Sign of Things To Come. Because if your job today is writing – your job’s days are numbered.

As Olivia in this story succinctly and eloquently puts it: “People are looking for the cheapest solution, and that’s not a person — that’s a robot.”

Writers – know your enemy. Keep writing while building those skills that AI can’t (yet) match.

It should come as a surprise to exactly no one that the big tech companies creating AI chatbots prioritize first-mover advantage over the possibly of irrevocably damaging human society.

As recounted in this NY Times article, both Microsoft and Google threw their storied ethics out the window the second OpenAI dropped ChatGPT on the world.

Heck, Microsoft said it out loud in its own 10-K filing last year:

“Some AI scenarios present ethical issues. If we enable or offer AI solutions that are controversial because of their impact on human rights, privacy, employment, or other social, economic, or political issues, we may experience brand or reputational harm.”

Microsoft 10-K filing, June 2022

Crikey.