AI is here to stay, but are we?

PAOLO KERNAHAN

WHAT ARE the chances of your Fitbit evolving into one of those sentinels from the Matrix trilogy, driving you into some dystopian, subterranean refuge?

One of the fevered dreams roiling the online world as chatter surrounding the chatbot, ChatGPT, grows louder is fear of AI assimilating people's jobs, particularly those who work in the creative fields.

From writing flawless computer code to spitting out detailed articles on complex topics, this "fledgling" AI, in just the past month, is proving to be a revolutionary force with broad applications...and implications.

So seemingly omnipotent is this interactive bot, many creative folks – copywriters, bloggers, authors – are wondering whether this is the Skynet the Terminator franchise foreshadowed. Apologies for the mixed movie references.

In some simple experimentation with ChatGPT, I asked "it" this question: “Will AI put writers, photographers and graphic designers out of business?”

Here's the first line of ChatGPT's response: “It's unlikely AI will completely replace writers, photographers and graphic designers in the near future.” It's the "in the near future" that was a bit foreboding.

ChatGPT continued: “While AI systems are becoming increasingly sophisticated and can perform many tasks previously thought to require human expertise, there are still many aspects of content creation best suited to human abilities.

"For example, AI systems may struggle to capture the nuance and creativity that are characteristic of high-quality, compelling content.

"While AI can generate content that’s difficult to distinguish from work or art produced by humans, this content is often generated using large amounts of input data and predefined rules and algorithms. As a result, it may lack the unique perspective and voice characteristic of content created by humans.”

Erm, I'd say that's a pretty nuanced response from a chatbot!

The sway AI has on our lives is nothing new. Voice-to-text features, personal assistants like Siri and Alexa and online chatbots – these have all quietly become background elves (or gremlins) in our everyday routines. Think about personalised recommendations on platforms like Amazon and Netflix which study your browsing and purchasing patterns. That's machine learning, the essence of AI.

AI has already woven itself tightly into the fabric of our lives. It's a bell that can't be unrung, nor should we wish it so. The people who will get ahead in their fields will be those who adapt AI to their advantage.

I've been using Grammarly, another manifestation of AI, to catch spelling errors and grammatical faux pas in my writing for years (if you notice any in this column, don’t look at me!). It enhances my workflow and helps me get through my writing faster.

Now, are people going to use AI to wholesale generate books, essays, art and designs without any original input or individual intellectual signature? Of course! If there's a corner, there's a human to cut it.

There are already AI-detection programmes which can sniff out content generated by "digital entities" like ChatGPT. Recently, I tried one such detection programme called Hugging Face.

First, I entered wholly AI-generated text with no original thoughts or ideas. It described it as 99.9 per cent fake. When I entered my own work, it was adjudged as 98 per cent real. These AI-detection programmes, however, like chatbots themselves, are not without flaws.

Anyone using AI to generate content or produce any form of work will need to be mindful that these programmes are out there. Like the bots, they will only improve their accuracy the more they learn and evolve. What this means is content created for websites, social media platforms and even Amazon can potentially be flagged as fake by these digital roadblocks.

Another important observation about ChatGPT is it will inevitably trigger an inestimable flood of content online. This has repercussions for anyone using content marketing to promote their business.

A further glut of online content will stretch already thin audience attention, making it even more difficult for businesses to get traction with oversubscribed eyes and ears. This reality will make the role of strategy in content marketing all the more crucial.

People who do creative work like me won't be usurped by the bots "in the near future." Going into survivalist mode and learning to live on grubs and wild berries might be premature. As with all advances in technology, we have to take the bad with the good.

The trick is to learn to use AI like ChatGPT as a tool to improve the quality and efficiency of your work. The future belongs to those who can embrace tech rather than cower in fear of it.