Who's Afraid of ChatGPT?

 Maybe a better question would be “Who Should be Afraid?” The answer is apparently “everybody.”

But fearing new technologies like this one is pointless. It’s here and it’s not going away so a better strategy is to figure out how to put it to work for you.

One of ChatGPT’s useful applications could be handling annoying tasks like preparing your resume and cover letterduring job searches. Most people have to apply for multiple jobs over weeks or months before they land something, and a robot assistant for the most menial tasks can make that process more bearable.

Creating content in other languages is another possible use of the tool. There’s already Google Translate, of course, but you combine the two in order to perfect a letter or a short report. (Or a blog post.)

There are at least nine other uses listed in one of the articles linked to below.

Meanwhile, one group that need not fear ChatGPT in its present iteration, as I’ve previously noted, is the news business. The app cannot access digital content newer than 2021, so it’s utterly useless for writing a news story.

I’m assuming its creators and competitors will address that weakness fairly soon, however, so editors can become afraid of ChatGPT if they want to join the crowd.

During all of this uproar about this new threat to originality, maybe it’s ChatGPT actually that should be the one afraid — say, of Virginia Woolf.

After all, as ChatGPT explained to me directly, “robots are not yet capable of replicating the creativity, intuition, and emotional intelligence of human workers.”

FURTHER READINGS:

• The Difference Between Speaking and Thinking —The human brain could explain why AI programs are so good at writing grammatically superb nonsense. (Atlantic)

• Could ChatGPT Do My Job? (MIT Technology Review)

• Gmail creator says ChatGPT will destroy Google's business in two years (IE)

• A.I. Like ChatGPT Is Revealing the Insidious Disease at the Heart of Our Scientific Process (Slate)

• 11 Things You Can Do With ChatGPT (MakeUseOf)

• Cheaters beware: ChatGPT maker releases AI detection tool (AP)

• DeepMind AI is as fast as humans at solving previously unseen tasks (New Scientist)

• AI Has Successfully Imitated Human Evolution—and Might Do It Even Better (Popular Mechanics)

• ChatGPT Unleashes Stock Trader Stampede for Everything AI (Bloomberg)

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