I’m going to lose my job to an AI – ChatGPT does an hour of my work in seconds
ONE reporter has expressed concern about his job after an AI-powered chatbot generates an article in seconds.
Henry Williams, a freelance writer from London, thinks ChatGPT, a natural language chatbot powered by artificial intelligence, is going to steal his job.
Developed by tech company OpenAI, ChatGPT can complete many tasks in seconds, including writing essays, poems, and even complex code.
Williams tested the advanced software by giving it an article topic similar to the one he had been covering: "What is payment gateway?"
After entering the prompt, Williams quickly got a response from the chatbot – and it was "impressive," he writes in an article for The Guardian.
He noted that while the tone was a bit inhuman and the structure resembled an academic essay, the key points, the grammar, and the syntax were on point.
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And after a bit of sprucing up, it was just as good as other sponsored content articles out there.
"My amusement quickly turned to horror: it had taken ChatGPT roughly 30 seconds to create, for free, an article that I charged £500 for," Williams said.
"The artificial intelligence software is by no means perfect – yet. For businesses that rely on churning out reams of fresh copy, however, it’s a no-brainer, isn’t it?"
While OpenAI says the software still has limitations, it will become better, Williams notes – a sentiment shared by many AI experts.
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ChatGPT can already "replicate the writing styles of different authors" and "even be trained to mimic the tone and voice of a particular brand or organization," Williams says.
The freelancer writer then pointed out the obvious, saying that "if a company can improve its bottom line by cutting costs in its supply chain, it will."
"Any sentimental attachment to human-created content is sure to be quickly overridden, I suspect, by the economic argument," he added.
"After all, AI is super-fast labor that doesn’t eat, sleep, complain, or take holidays."
Williams predicts that in the near future, writers and editors will still be needed, but fewer of them.
He believes that a human will prompt the AI chatbots to generate copy, and only step in to fact-check, edit and approve.
"But how long before the model learns to spot commercial opportunities, generate ideas, and put perfect content live without any human involvement?" Williams asked.
OpenAI launched ChatGPT on November 30, 2022, and since then has been the topic of many debates.
One of the latest controversies surrounding the new technology is students using it to cheat in school.
Peter Laffin, the founder of Crush the College Essay and writing coach, told Fox News: "The introduction of new artificial intelligence technologies into schools that enables students to auto-generate essays has the capacity to blow up our entire writing education curriculum."
Laffin added that while this will be a problem on all levels of education, he believes that younger students and inner-city students are particularly at risk.
"The more easily available this is for younger students, the more problems this will create," Laffin said to Fox News.
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That's because younger students will neither learn nor be able to grasp the material as they continue their education.
To tackle the crisis, Laffin recommends that teachers move away from traditional teaching models and find more innovative assignments for students.