AI Is Not Evergreen
This is not an “evergreen” post. By evergreen, I mean timeless. Always relevant and fresh. Not time-sensitive.
This will likely be the first of many posts about AI and its implications for communication in the coming years, given how quickly it is evolving.
AI has been around longer than you might think. Perhaps the first artificially intelligent robot was the Tin Man in the Wizard of Oz, way back in 1939.
Seriously, AI has been on the minds of scientists and science fiction writers for decades. The 2001 Steven Spielberg film about an android boy searching for meaning put AI in the everyday lexicon, while Arnold Schwarzenegger’s cyborg assassin in James Cameron’s Terminator could strike fear of AI even in the non-existent heart of the Tin Man.
Programming and coding have been around since antiquity in some form, as humans created step-by-step procedures for solving problems, but each line of coded instructions was generated by a person. Until now. Today’s algorithms use automated decision-making and reasoning.
Since OpenAI released ChatGPT last November, interest and speculation around these “large language models” has rapidly increased. Humans may have crossed a threshold with this new, smarter AI that is already taking on a life of its own. In this revolutionary transitional phase, it doesn’t understand what it is saying or doing and it definitely isn’t very concerned with accuracy.
In May, a New York lawyer submitted a brief that ChatGPT helped him write, which cited six non-existent judicial decisions.
AI recognizes patterns in tons of text, allowing it to write and have conversations. We hope it remains friendly and doesn’t run away or take us over, but one can’t help but worry about existential risks. You feed it the Internet and it learns on its own – complete with all the hate speech, disinformation, and cynicism – and you’re bound to get some of it back with your requests.
We’re used to auto-complete with search terms, but ChatGPT goes way beyond finishing what you’re typing. You can prompt it to write a wedding toast in the style of a pirate, describe what it’s like to be terminated from your job by Abraham Lincoln, or write a Maya Angelou poem from the POV of a Martian:
In crimson hues of Martian morn,
A tale unfolds, of worlds reborn.
Across the vast celestial plane,
A soul awakes, devoid of stain.
With every step, I claim my space,
In Martian realms, a sacred chase.
To forge anew, and redefine,
What it means to be wholly mine.
The echoes of ancestral cry,
Unite with whispers from the sky.
In Martian heart, a cosmic beat,
Ignites the flame, my soul's retreat.
For I am more than flesh and bone,
A cosmic seed, forever sown.
A Martian poet, ever strong,
I sing my truth, in Martian song.
While these experiments are fun, we can go deeper. Try asking it to write a brief summary of the positive and negative effects of using Slack in the workplace based on organizational psychology theories and it details four positive and four negative effects, followed by this summary:
Organizational psychology theories shed light on the positive and negative impacts of using Slack as a communication and collaboration tool. While it offers benefits such as efficient communication and enhanced teamwork, it also presents challenges like information overload and reduced face-to-face interaction. Organizations should be mindful of these factors and establish guidelines and norms to optimize Slack usage, fostering effective communication, collaboration, and well-being among employees.
Will AI replace comm-u-ni-ca-tors? Maybe some. Someday. But not you. Stay on top of it, embrace its tremendous potential, and use it as a tool to make you better – like a calculator or Grammar Girl.
More to come.
And, no, I didn’t have ChatGPT write this post.
