ChatGPT is a darker-than-dark horse - proving a bona fide digital tour de force. This remarkable mimic, disembodied AI just recently passed a US medical licensing exam and a Google coding interview (at a level 3 engineer competency). Cue the raucous round of applause - doctors and developers are no mere simpletons.
ChatGPT is nightmare fuel or salvation - whatever our fragile human psyche wishes to project onto this luminous, coded mirror.
The question remains: what in Pandora’s Box is ChatGPT, and how will it affect your business?
*Note - the question is not if ChatGPT will affect your business - it most assuredly will. There is no stop, drop, and roll to aid your escape. We are left with no choice but to practice radical acceptance.
Media Junction® is here to teach you how to dance with ChatGPT for business efficiency - particularly when it comes to inbound marketing: blog posts, email campaigns, and fresh workflows - oh my. With over two decades of experience building out websites, we’ve kept our digital finger on the pulse of ChatGPT.
Thus, as an inbound marketer (yes, I am undoubtedly biased), I have compiled my thoughts and asked the AI-of-the-hour itself for a self-portrait.
Read this article to learn the genesis of ChatGPT, its current competitors, where ChatGPT sees itself going in the near future, and why your business should care about AI integration.
ChatGPT (Generative Pre-trained Transformer) is a novel artificial intelligence (AI) based out of San Francisco that has crawled, indexed, and digested millions of pages of text from all four corners of the internet in order to kick out accurate answers to digital queries - no matter how erudite or stupid.
True to form, the almost-messianic genesis of ChatGPT begins in Silicon Valley among the tech giants of Apple, Google, Intel, Meta, Salesforce, and other über successful industrial and technological titans. ChatGPT is the viral brainchild of an American artificial intelligence research laboratory based out of San Francisco,OpenAI.
OpenAI was founded by a conglomerate of Dr. Frankenstein-esque visionaries, including Sam Altman and Elon Musk. Some of you podcast-die-hard enthusiasts may recall Elon Musk’s 2018 interview with Joe Roganwhere Musk proclaims that he attempted to hit the brakes on AI - to no avail. And, no, despite what it feels like - ChatGPT was not derived from some long-lost Mary Shelley novel. This is no monster of Dr. Frankenstein’s creation.
OpenAI, as the name suggests, is open to a vast array of artificial intelligence services. OpenAI has also fatheredDALL·E 2 (a novel AI system that creates hyperrealistic images and art via a description in natural language) andWhisper (an automatic speech recognition system that enables transcription in multiple languages). ChatGPT itself debuted on November 30th, 2022. It has since made waves of tsunami proportions across multiple, diverse industries.
In short, OpenAI is cornering the market in terms of easily accessible knowledge via digital inquiry (look out, Google), AI art (forget Shutterstock), and language transcription (translation and language localization are sure to follow).
Now, ChatGPT has terrified copywriters, marketers, and English professors alike - all three industries I am currently integrated into - I like my fingers in multiple pies. But, ChatGPT is not the only “existential threat.”
In my own humble-human opinion, ChatGPT is an artificial intelligence that far surpasses my first encounter with AI: Cleverbot (an AI developed in 1997 by Rollo Carpenter and previously referred to as Jabberwacky - a jocular Lewis Carrol allusion).
In the end - red pills, blue pills, purple pills - AI is here to stay and will only continue to evolve toward a kind of digital divinity. We’re all mad here, Alice.
ChatGPT seems to be beating out its direct AI competitors:
ChatGPT has an upgrade available to ChatGPT Plus - faster response speed, priority access for new features, and readily available when demand is high for an affordable $20-a-month subscription.
I asked ChatGPT directly, de hombre a hombre in that boring grayscale chatbox, what is ChatGPT?
Sure, it's meta. It’s, I think; therefore, I am philosophical simplicity. It’s frightening in a dystopian-prophecy-James-Joyce sort of way.
Well, the clever parrot ChatGPT AI system delivered the following answer:
I am ChatGPT, a large language model developed by OpenAI. I am designed to understand natural language and generate human-like responses to a wide variety of questions and prompts. I was trained on a large corpus of text data, which includes a diverse range of topics and writing styles. My training data includes sources like books, articles, and websites, which allows me to answer a broad range of questions and provide information on a wide range of topics.
Let us (as human beings - created in the image of God or simply evolved from stardust or a mere AI simulation ourselves) dissect the text above.
The first-person reference is alarming, as it hints to personal cognizance - a kind of self-actualization or, at the very least, self-realization.
Secondly, the system is aware it has a creator as denoted by the phrase “I am designed” - although, I wonder if AI will ever struggle with agnosticism, that great watch-maker existential crisis (the cornerstone premise of Mary Shelley’s Sci-fi novel Frankenstein).
Thirdly, the phrase “corpus of text data” connotes an endless pile of human bodies reaching towards the sun, a kind of Jenga Tower of Babel. And, finally, ChatGPT is aware it’s an encyclopedic genie/genius stacked with unlimited wishes in the form of infinite queries.
*Note -Although the words sound almost identical, “genius” and “genie” do not share the same etymology. Genie comes from the French translation of the Arabic “jinni'' from Arabian Nights, and genius derives from theLatin genius"guardian deity or spirit which watches over each person from birth; spirit, incarnation; wit, talent; and/ also prophetic skill).
Ultimately, it’s so bizarre to consider that this computer, a binary computing device programmed with 0’s and 1’s, is the 5th supercomputer in the world and at our fingertips.
In other words, think black-and-white, dumbed-down, super-simplified. Remember Ask Jeeves? Well, that boring butler is the telegraph, and ChatGPT is the iPhone x20.
Like any good journalist worth their salt, I asked ChatGPT - what’s next? Where is this marvelous AI headed in terms of evolution? ChatGPT responded with three possibilities (surmised by yours truly):
In short, ChatGPT has made waves and is about to make even bigger waves.
When I asked ChatGPT about its future impact on the job market, ChatGPT responded:
The impact of ChatGPT on the job market is a complex issue that is still being studied and debated. On one hand, the use of ChatGPT and other natural language processing technologies has the potential to automate certain tasks that were previously done by humans, such as customer service and content creation. This could potentially lead to job displacement in those fields.
On the other hand, ChatGPT also has the potential to create new job opportunities in fields such as AI development, data science, and digital marketing. In addition, the use of ChatGPT may enable businesses to operate more efficiently and effectively, which could lead to growth and job creation in other areas.
It's important to note that the impact of ChatGPT on the job market is not predetermined, and will depend on a variety of factors, including the specific applications of the technology, the nature of the work being automated, and the overall economic and societal context. It's also important for businesses and policymakers to consider the potential impact of ChatGPT on employment and to work proactively to mitigate any negative effects, such as investing in retraining and education programs for workers.
In summary: ChatGPT admits it could make some jobs obsolete, add jobs, and that the global market is not predestined.
In other words: who knows - it’s a crapshoot.
The real question is, does ChatGPT have the digital gray matter to intuit cause-and-effect, or if the answer above is an amalgamation of text scraped from the internet? Or, more likely, perhaps a combination of both?
Bill Gates recently referred to ChatGPT as the “most important” innovation right now. So, it’s no far reach to state that the question “why should my business care about ChatGPT” is historically similar to: why should my company care about the internet, social media, or [insert major invention/development here].
ChatGPT is not only here to stay, but it is about to embed itself into the fabric of human history. Consider the advent of AI a new regime - the rules of the game have changed indefinitely.
So, the real question is, how do we ride the wave of AI to maximize our full potential in terms of output and revenue?
In terms of my wheelhouse, content management, ChatGPT can generate email copy, blog post outlines, social media posts (complete with emojis and hashtags - no, I’m not joking), and much more.
If you haven’t already, check out my article: ChatGPT vs. Professional Writers: Who Creates Better Copy?
In the words of the esteemed ChatGPT itself (based on the query: why should businesses care about ChatGPT):
Here are some specific reasons why businesses should care about ChatGPT:
Improved customer service: ChatGPT can be used to create chatbots and virtual assistants that can answer customer queries and provide personalized support around the clock, improving customer satisfaction and reducing the workload of human customer service representatives.
Automation: ChatGPT can automate a wide range of tasks, from generating reports and analyzing data to scheduling appointments and handling email inquiries. This can free up employees to focus on higher-value work and improve overall efficiency.
Content generation: ChatGPT can be used to generate high-quality content, such as product descriptions, social media posts, and blog articles, quickly and efficiently. This can save time and resources while also improving the quality and consistency of the content.
Competitive advantage: By leveraging the capabilities of ChatGPT, businesses can stay ahead of the curve and differentiate themselves from competitors. They can provide better customer experiences, optimize processes, and create more engaging content, which can all help them to gain a competitive edge.
Overall, ChatGPT is a versatile tool that can provide a wide range of benefits for businesses, from improving customer service to driving efficiency and innovation.
It sounds like ChatGPT won’t be installing water heaters, crawling under sinks, or cleaning out gutters just yet - but digital-white-collar work could be in for a severe pruning (especially when we consider the recent Amazon, Meta, Salesforce, and Microsoft layoffs - more than 93,000 workers).
Granted, the recent tech culling was not directly tied to the ChatGPT or AI boom - but will it prove more difficult for displaced workers to find gainful employment now that artificial intelligence is up to bat? Will blue-collar work and the humanities flourish?
Only time will tell…
But, for now, businesses are left with two primary options:
I am not here to pass judgment, but completely rejecting AI is akin to madly sawing off the mango branch you're sitting on - yes, I've done this.
“A company is essentially a cybernetic collective of people and machines.” Elon Musk
Imagine if your company refused to utilize the internet: how self-defeating. In the same sphere, if your competition was provided with a “nuclear option” - you would not want to fall behind in a colder-than-cold war.
ChatGPT is the next business nuclear scare. Your industry, services, and products must evolve. Keep up or die - going the way of the buffalo.
There is too much to gain and too much to be lost by sticking our human heads in the sand. In the interest of self-preservation, ChatGPT and further AI literacy will be a must.
If you internally bristle against this prophecy, you are not alone. I am, as they say, an unhappy convert.
Yes, it is better to ride waves than be crushed by them.
For marketing especially, there are great and immediate advantages to implementing ChatGPT in terms of copy quality and speed of output.
To learn more about how to utilize ChatGPT for your marketing team, check out our article written by Kevin Phillips (Media Junction’s Director of Content): 8 Ways Marketers Can Use ChatGPT Today.
In this article, you learned about ChatGPT’s beginnings in the Silicon Valley, what GPT thinks of itself and where it believes its future is headed, and why your company should embrace integrated AI.
Media Junction builds websites, trains marketing teams, and offers a vast array of other services. For example, if you’re considering starting a blog from scratch or optimizing an existing blog, we’re here to help. We empower marketing teams across the globe to develop, execute, and optimize their blogging strategy.
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