In a single lifetime, there are only a few moments that can be marked as truly pivotal — and the emergence of the wunderkind AI writer ChatGPT in 2023 was one of those.
Just like the advent of the personal computer, the emergence of the Internet, the invention of the smartphone and the creation of social media, the arrival of ChatGPT has forced us to change how we think about the world.
At once terrific and terrifying, ChatGPT’s unprecedented rise, popularity — and stunning ability to do things that were once the sole purview of human beings — has shaken the very idea of what it is to be human.
Yes, we’re all still trying to get our heads around the fact that ChatGPT and AI like it is going to do more and more of our writing for us in coming years, more and more of our everyday jobs for us in coming years — and more and more of our day-to-day thinking for us in coming years.
In future decades, when the AI takeover is complete — no joke — some of us will look back and ask: How did this all begin? How did human beings — wondrous in their own right — become an asterisk to what is now the greatest power shaping the world, bit by bit?
And the answer will be: The arrival of ChatGPT in 2023.
Here are the top ten stories of 2023 in AI-generated writing that heralded that new world order:
*ChatGPT: Now Nearly 1 Billion Visitors-a-Month: AI auto-writing wonder ChatGPT continues to gobsmack the world — now clocking nearly a billion visitors every month.
Observes Stefan Katanic, CEO, Veza Digital: “The ChatGPT phenomenon spread like wildfire at the end of 2022.
“And we expect it to soon break all records of being the fastest-ever Web site to reach 1 billion monthly active users in such an incredibly short space of time.
“Debates about AI are divisive.
“But one thing we can probably all agree on is that AI is no longer the future: It is the present.”
*Consumers Win as ChatGPT Rights Ship: Avid users of ChatGPT scored a major victory last week as Sam Altman grabbed back his title of CEO of ChatGPT’s maker, OpenAI.
The definitive end to OpenAI’s short-lived power struggle — which lasted five days and transfixed AI insiders the world over — virtually guarantees ChatGPT will continue on as one of the most successful software products in human history.
Gone are worries that a prolonged ‘game-of-thrones’ at OpenAI might have seriously impeded its healthy growth — as well as the steady announcements of ChatGPT upgrades and new features that avid ChatGPT users have come to expect.
Gone, too, are worries that without Altman, a new — and much more timid OpenAI CEO — may have decided to slow down the evolution of ChatGPT so considerably that the product would ultimately be crowned, ‘Could-have-been-a-contender.’
And gone are the worries that without Altman, the 95% of employees who threatened to quit unless Altman returned would have rendered the ChatGPT-maker a hollowed-out remnant of its former self.
Instead, Altman arrives back at OpenAI — in the eyes of many — a much stronger CEO.
*50+ Companies Align Against ChatGPT: More than 50 companies — including IBM, Facebook’s parent company Meta and Oracle — have formed a coalition against ChatGPT’s maker, OpenAI.
Dubbed ‘The AI Alliance,’ the group — which also includes academic institutions — was formed to promote an open, voluntary sharing of AI research in an effort to move the tech forward in a cooperative way.
This approach differs markedly from generative AI market leader OpenAI — and similar competitors Anthropic and Cohere — which consider their research proprietary.
Observes writer Belle Lin: “The AI Alliance — whose members include Intel, Oracle, Cornell University and the National Science Foundation — said it is pooling resources to stand behind ‘open innovation and open science’ in AI.
“Its members largely support open source, an approach in which technology is shared free and draws on a history of collaboration among Big Tech, academics — and a fervent movement of independent programmers.
*Bild Waves Bye-Bye to Workers: 100+ Editorial Jobs Slashed With AI: More than a hundred workers at German tabloid Bild are looking at a pink slip tsunami, according to this piece in Futurism.
A leaked email from the business stated in part that the tabloid will “unfortunately be parting ways with colleagues who have tasks that in the digital world are performed by AI and/or automated processes,” according to writer Maggie Harrison.
Adds Harrison: “The email detailed that those who will be replaced by AI include editors, print production staff, subeditors, proofreaders and photo editors — and that these time-honored human careers will no longer exist as they do today.”
*Apocalypse Soon: Writers Already an Endangered Species, Survey Says: Nearly 70% of content marketers believe that many writers will lose their jobs to AI by 2028, according to a new survey from marketing agency BMV.
Even more chilling: 29% of those surveyed believe that all writers at their company will lose their jobs to ChatGPT and similar AI writers by 2028.
Observe BMV’s researchers: “Notably, the (survey) found that nearly 7-in-10 content marketers believe artificial intelligence will replace writers on their teams over the next five years.
“However, this group was split on whether AI will replace only junior-level writers (40%) or all of their current writers (29%).”
So much for the saccharine promise — oft-voiced by some AI evangelists — that: ‘AI is not a job threat. Instead, AI will free-up writers to engage in more creative and rewarding tasks.”
That promise is being seen by increasing numbers of writers as little more than a shiny object some AI evangelists want you to focus on as your writing job disappears.
Unless, of course, you consider flipping burgers ‘more creative and rewarding work.’
*Automated Newsroom-in-a-Box: Humans Optional: Media tech veterans from southern California are readying release of an AI tool that can continuously churn-out automatically generated news — sans human oversight.
Essentially, by employing advanced algorithms, natural language processing, data gathering and analytics, the tool — dubbed ‘WELLS’ — will be able to autonomously research, verify, and write news articles across multiple platforms at unprecedented scales, according to a press release from maker HeyWire AI.
News of the coming product launch coincides with increasing numbers of Web sites that are using AI-automated news tools to rewrite and regurgitate news found elsewhere on the Web — denigrated by some as ‘Pink Slime’ journalism.
Observes Jeffrey S. Klein, an advisor to HeyWire AI, and a former senior executive at the Los Angeles Times: “As the needs of the (news) industry have changed, and its use of technology has evolved, newsrooms must adapt and learn to use tools such as WELLS to enhance their approach to the business and remain competitive.”
Ideally, HeyWire envisions users of WELLS employing human editors to review every story produced by the AI tool before it hits the Web.
One hopes.
*Automated Opinion Writing As-a-Service: Now a Thing: Wired Reports that new tech has emerged to auto-generate tweets, articles and Web sites to counter an opposing viewpoint.
Specifically, a Web site dubbed ‘CounterCloud’ is currently churning-out text and tweets designed to discredit Russian propaganda.
There’s a lot of hand-wringing in the article over the fact that AI is being used to quash an opposing — and many might believe dangerous — Russian ‘perspective.’
But the real takeaway here is that any thinking person tracking AI writing knew long ago that it was only a matter of time before AI would be tasked to duke it out with opposing viewpoints.
More to the point: As an American, I don’t have a problem with automation designed to eviscerate anti-U.S. lies promulgated by a gangster-led political machine that masquerades as a government.
AI Power.
To the people.
*89% of Students Using ChatGPT: An astounding 89% of students readily admit using ChatGPT to help with homework, according to a new report from Study.com.
Observes writer Chris Westfall: “A brave new world is already here, with implications for cheating and plagiarism, to be sure.
“But an even deeper implication points to the very nature of learning itself, when ChatGPT has become a super-charged repository for what is perhaps the most human of all inventions: the synthesis of our language.”
Other insights from the study:
~ 48% of students admitted to using ChatGPT for an at-home test or quiz
~53% used ChatGPT to write an essay
~22% have used ChatGPT to write an outline for a paper
Observes Arvind Krishna, CEO, IBM: “I think (practical AI use) is here and now.”
*ChatGPT and the Writer: Farewell, Artistic Soul: With ChatGPT, we’ll never again know for sure if the writing we’re reading springs from the human soul — or is just a bit of machined text churned-out by a collection of chips and code.
Granted, ChatGPT is a wondrous phenomenon.
But even though works of fiction and nonfiction are generally destined to turn-out better with the use of ChatGPT and similar AI writers, there’s a spiritual robbery going on here.
*AI Everywhere: No Kidding: Responding to a new hunger for AI, some of the biggest titans in software — including Microsoft, Google and Salesforce — are coming out with new versions of their software suites that will be completely reworked by AI.
The move has been triggered by the staggering popularity of ChatGPT, the wunderkind AI chatbot from OpenAI.
As many know, the bot has stunned the world with its ability to auto-generate clear, concise, intelligent prose in response to virtually any question posed to it.
Moreover, given that ChatGPT is operated via written or spoken word, writers are uniquely positioned to reap maximum utilization of the coming AI changes from Microsoft, Google, Salesforce and others.
The reason: The better you are at writing or spoken word, the more artfully you’ll be able to manipulate the new AI-powered tools — given that optimal performance of the AI hinges on how well you use language.
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–Joe Dysart is editor of RobotWritersAI.com and a tech journalist with 20+ years experience. His work has appeared in 150+ publications, including The New York Times and the Financial Times of London.