Despite only becoming publicly available late last year, ChatGPT is already being utilized by some of the most powerful people in the world for their everyday work.
Developed by OpenAI, ChatGPT is an impressively advanced chatbot capable of generating text and discussions from virtually any human-offered prompt. Song lyrics in the style of favorite artists, proofreading computer code, distilling complex physics concepts into digestible summaries—ChatGPT can handle much of what users are throwing at it so far. That said, there are concerns regarding its accuracy, as well as the human labor cost required to build the program. This doesn’t seem to phase people already using the AI for day-to-day tasks, like Jeff Maggioncalda, CEO of the popular online education provider, Coursera.
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Speaking with CNN on Thursday from the World Economic Forum’s annual summit of global academics, politicians, and business leaders in Davos, Switzerland, Maggioncalda claims he’s already relying on ChatGPT as a “writing assistant and thought partner.” Among his daily tasks, the AI chat program helps him craft emails, alongside speeches “in a friendly, upbeat, authoritative tone with mixed cadence.”
Maggioncalda isn’t alone at Davos, either. According to CNN’s dispatch, ChatGPT is a hot topic among summit attendees’ minds this year, with at least one other major company’s CEO employing the bot for similar jobs like rote emails. Part of this push could stem from Microsoft, which plans to infuse OpenAI with an additional $10 billion in funding and has already announced that ChatGPT would soon be added to an “Azure OpenAI Service” business toolkit employing artificial intelligence. The suite also includes the programming assistant, Codex, as well as the buzzworthy image generator, DALL-E 2.
“I see these technologies acting as a copilot, helping people do more with less,” Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella told Davos attendees during a speech this week, according to CNN.
[Related: Popular youth mental health service faces backlash after experimenting with AI-chatbot advice.]
In the rush to adopt the most cutting-edge of AI programs, however, many worry about the unforeseen or overlooked labor and ethical consequences. Educators are already sounding the alarm at the prospect of students potentially utilizing ChatGPT to craft convincing college essays. Many employees in the computer coding, tutoring, and writing sectors have also voiced concern about the destabilizing effects of AI tools’ perceived cost-cutting shortcuts.
Meanwhile, OpenAI estimates the newest version of ChatGPT’s underlying programming, GPT-4, could come as soon as later this year.
