t’s hard to remember life without smartphones. Yet research has found that these pocket devices are increasingly being considered as an extension of oneself, meaning that they are rarely more than an arm’s length away. In fact, our readily available devices are responsible for how we communicate, enable business and leisure, and stay connected to the world.
Well, just like smartphones changed the way we live and work, we are at the precipice of another massive and life changing shift—this time driven by artificial intelligence (AI). Enter ChatGPT.
ChatGPT is the fasting growing web platform ever. The AI chatbot model has become insanely popular in just a matter of months—way faster than any preceding platform. It has trended faster than Snapchat, TikTok or Instagram ever did, with more than 100 million users in its first year of availability, generating 1.8 billion visitors per month.
Defining our future with AI
ChatGPT is a natural language processing tool driven by AI technology, and it is one of many platforms that is available to the public (alternatives exist, such as Google’s Bard and Microsoft’s Bing Chatbot). After one use, users can instantly recognize the benefits and transformative changes it makes to the way we live, work, think, communicate and study. For good, and even for bad.
When it comes to benefits, ChatGPT has no shortage: It offers enhanced efficiency, enabling users to access information and resources within seconds, and can assist with tasks such as research, fact-checking, and generating ideas—saving time and effort. The other glory of ChatGPT is its’ 24/7 availability, meaning that unlike a human counterpart, it is available round the clock, for whatever you need, wherever you are.
Yet with these technological advancements, we must also acknowledge the potential damaging impacts AI can have on our lives, as well as employees’ and students’ ingenuity and creativity. Here in this piece, I will explore the fundamental question: is ChatGPT good for humanity, or not?
AI-volutionizing the workplace
Many of ChatGPT’s benefits derive from its ability to understand natural language and have a written conversation with users (ones that mimic human interaction). The system can answer questions about nearly any subject with authority and even understand a customer’s intent.
This comes in handy when put into the hands of employees across a wide range of businesses and industries. Here are a top few for consideration:
1. Cost savings: One of the most persuasive benefits of chatbots for any business is that it is cost efficient. For example, chatbots have become useful allies to customer service teams and helping to improve customer support results. In fact, McKinsey found that AI technologies could deliver up to $1 trillion of additional value each year, of which revamped customer service accounts for a significant portion. Additionally, bots have the ability to flexibility scale to meet the needs of peak periods without extra cost.
2. Improved CX: Chatbots provide immediate and 24/7 customer support, enhancing customer satisfaction by addressing queries and issues promptly. They can handle a high volume of inquiries simultaneously, reducing customer wait times and automating mundane tasks.
3. Language translation: ChatGPT and similar models offer multilingual support, making it accessible to users around the globe and removing language barriers/facilitating communication and collaboration.
4. Data collection and analysis: Chatbots can gather valuable data on customer interactions, preferences, and behavior. This data can be analyzed to gain insights into customer needs, identify trends, and make informed business decisions that help to improve products, services, and marketing strategies.
5. Lead generation and sales support: ChatGPT can automate much of the lead generation process by engaging with customers, providing product information, and guiding them through the sales process. They can qualify leads, capture contact information, and even facilitate transactions, leading to increased conversions and revenue.
There are some big concerns to consider regarding how much employers allow their employees to use the technology as well:
1. Security vulnerabilities: Such new technologies lack encryption, privacy and sufficient protocols and training for employees, which can lead to accidental leak of customer data or sensitive information.
2. Bias and inaccuracy. Bloomberg Law reports that then employees obtain information from a source like ChatGPT in connection with their work, it can lead to significant issues later on for employees and their employers. Plus, still in this early phase of AI, CNN stated that this technology can be racist, sexist and still quite creepy.
3. Mundane and repetitive. While AI can be seen as a replacement for many tasks that traditionally take a lot of brain power and time, it’s pretty evident when something was produced in ChatGPT. For example, it was a helpful resource in pulling this blog together, but I’d never leave the actual writing to a bot! The technology still has a long way to go before it can evoke human emotion or thought into writing and other certain projects—although it is great at performing tasks like writing routine letters and emails, generating simple reports, and creating presentations.
Graduating to a higher intelligence: AI in education
Educators have already been using some products powered by artificial intelligence to teach or to help with logistics for years. Yet nearly half of these same educators—in a EdWeek Research Center Survey—claim to be worried that AI would have a negative or very negative impact on teaching and learning in the next five years.
The reality is: AI is changing education. And it is becoming students most steady study partner. Our younger generations have a different relationship with AI, one that’s more advantageous than we give them credit for. There are numerous benefits to ChatGPT for students, including:
1. Personalized learning: ChatGPT can provide individualized learning experiences by adapting to a user’s level of understanding and offer tailored explanations, practice questions, and feedback.
2. Assists students with disabilities: Chatbots can be a valuable tool for students with disabilities, such as visual impairments or dyslexia. It can convert text into speech, provide audio descriptions, or assist with proofreading.
3. Study support: One of the most valuable features of ChatGPT is its ability to provide study support to students. These AI models can provide personalized guidance to identify areas where one needs to improve certain skills, and provide you with resources to do so.
4. Time management: This is a crucial, yet challenging, skill for students to master, but with chatbots, students are given useful tools to manage time more effectively by helping to set and achieve goals and track progress overtime.
However, while education needs to fully embrace a future with AI, it is essential to acknowledge the potential negative impacts on students’ ingenuity and creativity:
4. Overreliance: The ease of obtaining information from ChatGPT may discourage students from engaging in critical thinking and independent problem-solving. Relying too heavily on the model’s responses is a quick way to hinder creativity and originality.
5. Lack of cognitive engagement: Engaging in meaningful discussions fosters intellectual growth and the exploration of diverse perspectives. It might limit opportunities for meaningful engagement, reducing cognitive stimulation and the development of communication skills.
6. Misuse and misinformation: While ChatGPT is trained on vast amounts of data, an amount that grows at an unimaginable rate, it can still generate inaccurate or biased responses. Students who solely rely on ChatGPT may unknowingly absorb and propagate misinformation, undermining their academic integrity.
7. Reduced collaboration: Traditional classroom or workplace settings promote social interaction and teamwork. Even dreaded Zoom meetings offers these things. Chatbots might lead to decreased human-to-human interaction, hindering the development of interpersonal skills crucial for future professional environments.
Like it or not, the future is AI-driven
With the many pros and cons of chatbots being discovered and debated, there is a consensus that the world is forever changes: The era of intelligent cloud-enabled AI is here, and tech giants are making a huge push for their mass market adoption. This adoption extends beyond working and studying; it is quickly penetrating the public sphere for its day-to-day applications.
For example, say you are obsessed with the coral reef. AI can help plan a travel itinerary to one of the best reefs in the world in seconds, complete with a timeline of activities to fill your time, places to lodge right next to the water and best places to eat for dinner with a gluten allergy—not to mention the best times to travel during the year that fit within your schedule.
Another personal usage of chatbots can be used to streamline your personal services such as fitness, diet, health, or day-to-day activities. Every fitness goal requires a different set of workout plans and a nutrition diet to be followed—and with AI, you can easily tailor any meal plan, grocery list, workout strategy, and more based on your current stats and future goals.
So…is ChatGPT good or bad?
Well, the answer is not so black and white. It really depends on how we utilize it. More importantly, it will continue to evolve, and get more powerful as it grows (and as our understanding of it grows). Using it wisely is the prescription we have for current day workplace, education and personal use. Further, it is our responsibility to use it wisely.
To mitigate these negative impacts and increase the positive impacts, we should use #chatgpt as a complementary tool rather than a sole source of information. Encouraging critical thinking, emphasizing creative problem-solving, and fostering face-to-face discussions will help maintain the balance between leveraging technology and nurturing individuality and originality.
