ChatGPT is the latest buzzword – even my 90-something grandma has been asking me about it.
I’m dead serious here.
Just last week, I read about a hundred hot takes on social media about GPT-3 taking over our jobs and corrupting our children. While I’m a big fan of not doing homework, I have also read reports of some website editors being scammed by writers that submitted AI-generated writing as their own work.
Now that’s way more serious than having a robot do a math assignment in your place.
What is ChatGPT
Properly explaining this concept would require a level of machine learning understanding that I do not have yet. So, I’ll do it using simple terms.
It’s a computer program that understands human language and is able to generate human-like responses to various questions. It’s trained on massive datasets, so you can pretty much use it to explore or converse about any topic imaginable. It gets scary creative at times as well.
Should ChatGPT Be Used for Work?
As you might have already guessed, the answer is both yes and no.
I already mentioned writers using ChatGPT to trick their employers and getting paid for doing virtually nothing, but the same has been happening in other industries as well. Artists, developers, and even marketing specialists have been caught red handed.
Personally, I believe having an AI doing something for you and taking credit is absolutely deplorable and you should never accept payment for something like that.
Even if what’s generated is of the highest possible quality, there’s a person on the other side who was tricked into paying for something they could’ve done themselves in two seconds.
That being said, integrating language models into workspace can be extremely beneficial when everyone involved is in the know.
How ChatGPT Improves Productivity
I often look at something I’ve done (not the writing) and think to myself ‘Wow, this could have been done by a monkey.’
Repetitive Tasks
Pretty much any job I’ve ever worked at has had a set of excruciating repetitive tasks that I had to do complete at least once a week. If I had the AI tools back then, my life would have been a whole lot less miserable. Case in point: why not allow your employees to feel less miserable as well?
If they use AI to generate reports, write spreadsheet formulas, or handle simple data entry, they’ll be happier and more creative when doing assignments that actually require them to use their brains.
Of course, you can’t just replace someone by an AI, because each employee would have to check their robo-work for any mistakes. But, it would take a lot less time than doing the entire thing manually.
No More Human-Error
We just talked about humans checking up on AI, but could it be implemented otherwise?
A writer can ask the AI to check for any grammar errors and typos. Someone doing data entry can ask the AI to go over a spreadsheet and find any incorrectly filled cells. You could even be extra brave and ask it to check for any suspicious wording in a legal document.
I tested the last one by adding a very out-of-place clause to a contract I had and it worked.
So, there’s another way to make better use of your employee’s time. Instead of triple-checking their work with their eyeballs bulging out, they can go home a few minutes earlier. Again, this goes a very long way when it comes to increasing productivity.
Improved Problem-Solving Capacity
If you have a whole room full of people who simply can’t find a solution to your problem, would it hurt to have an AI generate some possible solutions?
Worst case scenario, it mentions a number of things you already thought of and decided against. Best case scenario? Your new robot friend suggests something that your team hasn’t thought of and you can move forward with a new plan.
While I firmly believe there will never be an AI able to match the intellectual capabilities of any human being, you need to consider our own limitations. We’re prone to creating echo chambers and thinking *inside* the box once we’ve been stuck solving a single problem for too long.
The AI will instead dig through millions of solutions that have been discussed on the internet and possibly find something that your team can use.
Instead of banging your heads against your giant conference room desk, you can now happily move forward with a plan of action.
Why Would Anyone Ban ChatGPT Then?!
If your employees get into the habit of using AI to do their work instead of them, you are both in for a bad time. Their idea of a bad time is getting fired, and yours is suffering tremendous financial losses.
Artificial intelligence is artificial. It cannot handle more complex tasks on its own. Whatever your company niche is, someone will eventually decide to be a smartass and get their work done by an AI. The longer it takes you to figure them out, the more potential damage they can do.
To counteract this, tools have already been created that can determine whether something was written by a language based model or a human. I would start using these immediately if I employed any writers.
Furthermore, I’d put some pressure on my managers to check work more diligently and look for any mistakes that might have been caused by a robot but not by a human being.
For now, this is all you can do.
Do I (The Writer) Use ChatGPT?
Yes. *audience gasps in shock*
While I’ve never used AI to generate a single sentence, it’s quite helpful when I run into a writer’s block on a tight deadline. I open the app and ask the robot to give me some ideas on a particular topic.
Since the data it has is collected from all over the internet, it enables me to see some unique perspectives and touch on topics I would have forgotten about otherwise.
Overall, I am sure that if there is a tool that can make humans work less for the same rewards, they are going to find a way to exploit it. Instead of making AI taboo and being cheated by employees, companies should be smart about integrating it into their workspaces as a tool that boosts efficiency.
Alex Popovic
Alex has a decade of experience working for cutting edge digital marketing and finance companies spearheading multiple remote teams. SEO is his specialty, but he is also a cryptocurrency veteran. He spends too much of his time playing FPL and fancies himself a writer, although his first novel is yet to be published.
