From loud whispers to a plethora of social media posts, Chat GPT has made a dramatic entrance into the new year. With millions of users benefiting from its functions, it’s likely that it is here to stay. So what exactly is Chat GPT and how will it impact the working world?
The organization OpenAI, launched Chat GPT in November 2022. This chatbot was produced by the language model Generative Pretrained Transformer 3 (GPT-3), consisting of 175B parameters. A language model is a tool utilized to predict the rest of the words in a sequence. To improve the probability of this, GPT-3 was trained with approximately 570 GB of data, originating from sources such as books or Wikipedia. Compared to the previous language models produced, GPT-3 has the largest number of parameters, enabling the model to execute actions such as producing articles, generating code and explaining complex concepts in layman terms. It is no surprise that Chat GPT has caught the eyes of many as it satisfies a range of uses. Even though the model assists users with tasks such as fixing coding errors or producing sales pitches, it has also evoked fear within employees. If Chat GPT can perform the tasks that make us employable, aren’t we rendered idle?
An important factor contributing to workplace motivation is the enjoyment of work itself and achievement. With specific tasks being replaced by artificial intelligence (AI), employees may feel detached from their work, and hence their sense of achievement is non-existent. The intrinsic motivations of being within a specific vocation will be replaced. The use of AI within the workplace can be beneficial to us, but we must create a divide to prevent elements of our work that we enjoy from being stripped from us. We can see this being applied in New York, where the education department banned Chat GPT across all public schools. If students are to rely on this tool for their academic work, the process of developing critical thinking or research skills is hindered. The same concept can be applied to industries such as consulting. If we were to utilize Chat GPT to produce business strategies for specific firms, it reduces our engagement with the task. As a consequence, the skills required by our vocations fail to reach their potential. Furthermore, there are many aspects that are overlooked by technology which can only come from human input.
Chat GPT may seem to resemble the Grim Reaper of jobs, but how we implement AI into the business environment is completely in our control. In fact, it is inescapable that we live in a society growing reliant on artificial intelligence. But the path towards harmonious coexistence is being established. For example, AI technologies have heavily benefited the financial sector. Over the past decades, banks have continued to evolve by incorporating technology to meet their business aims such as boosting revenues by the personalization of customer services. For language models such as Chat GPT, we can learn to work alongside them by not fully trusting their intuition. Chat GPT itself has been trained on databases which include online forums consisting of fake news of conspiracy theories. We must continue to trust our intuition. Though simpler tasks can be accelerated by using Chat GPT, the bulk of work that gives us a sense of achievement should be fully under our reigns.
We are unlikely to face a world without AI, we can only control how we choose to use these technological advancements. Overtime, as we adjust to using these devices, we can come closer to drawing the lines between AI and our work. It is up to us to find a balance without disrupting the motivators that currently exist in the working world. This does beg the question about further AI advancements. If Chat GPT was able to be produced to represent human-like responses, and execute a variety of functions, who says that an even better technology won’t be created?
