Who’s afraid of AI?

If you have any presence in the digital world, then you would have heard of ChatGPT. The natural language processing (NLP) technology has taken the world by storm. The generative AI is doing it all; from writing love letters to becoming CEO of a youth organisation! Its ability to generate content from text to images and even code, has also spooked the world of advertisers, content creators and marketers. But is there a reason to be scared of ChatGPT?

Our world, as it is today, is not untouched by Artificial Intelligence (AI). We rely directly and indirectly on AI for business and marketing, and data analytics. AI tells us our shopping preference, prompts us to visit destinations, and often reminds us with advertisements what our minds thought and hearts desired. But a direct threat from OpenAI’s ChatGPT has alarmed marketers and content creators. Coming at the heels of the global excitement surrounding the Microsoft-based chatbot, Google too announced a rival conversational AI service, Bard (cleverly named after renowned English playwright William Shakespeare). But will using Bard make you write like Shakespeare? Umm…no. Could ChatGPT lead to job losses? Not more than what’s already underway. Is tech taking over the world? Yes and no.

Have you ever pondered how technological innovation, that’s disrupting all walks of life, stays inactive in the sectors of content and marketing? Surely this day was coming. Services such as Grammarly and Canva had threatened to rob copywriters and graphic designers of jobs when they were launched, as have other services from time to time. The truth is that tech innovations are always imminent. As AI bots revolutionise the Internet, the astute marketer will find a way to imbibe the innovations and use it to human advantage. Human intelligence will always prove to be a necessary companion to the ease and speed provided by AI.

A recent survey by antivirus software company, McAfee noted that 78 per cent Indians were unable to tell a human love letter from a ChatGPT-generated one. The company believes that this could lead to a greater number of people falling prey to online scams facilitated by the misuse of tools such as ChatGPT. It would serve us well to refrain from sharing any personal, banking, or sensitive information over text, phone or video call, or email. Remember that tech enables scammers too; therefore, becoming more vigilant would be beneficial. Understandably, there is a need for a new tool that would help distinguish between AI and human written text — OpenAI is already working on it.

Given the frenzy over ChatGPT, I tried it too. It’s still early days to say with finality how well ChatGPT will work on a daily basis but I found the content generated by it to be repetitive, lacking depth, and quite banal for my purposes. I’m sure that as AI evolves and picks up language styles and content needs, the final copy would be more accurate and closer to the desired outcome. But writers, marketers, journalists, and so on need not fear tech. If anything, they should look at this as an opportunity to upskill, and devote time and effort to improve one’s own abilities. Use AI to do the grunt work while you come on as the expert with the nuanced, personalised touch. But you know who should be wary? The lazy, copy-paste content creators, writers, and journalists who refuse to ideate or think of newer kinds of content. There will always be a place for human efforts because no AI can offer that unique perspective or ideas that a human marketer, customer service executive, or teacher brings. Give your employer, clients, or readers a reason to retain you because human touch and human intelligence will always be irreplaceable.

(This column is NOT generated by ChatGPT)

The writer is an author and media entrepreneur. Views expressed are personal