ChatGPT is the most famous example of a new kind of software called “Generative AI.” If you don’t know, “Generative AI” is, in technical computer science terms, software that will come alive, take your job, and leave you wandering the streets begging for change from autonomous vehicles who, having modeled their decision-making on millions of hours of human behavior, will avoid eye contact. It will also steal your wife.
And those are the touted benefits. There are also drawbacks. We, as a society, are coming to over-rely on ChatGPT in ways that have made us shockingly lazy, and we're all going to be worse off because of it.
For example:
Journalism
I have a friend who’s a journalist. He’s writing a series on nuclear safety. In his last article, rather than quote an actual nuclear engineer, he had ChatGPT make up the quote. Can you believe that? If he needed a quote from an expert, he should have done what he did for all his other stories, from marine biology to corporate tax reform. He should’ve asked me.
Fiction Authors
Authors are using ChatGPT to pass off AI-generated novels as their own. That goes against everything that storytelling stands for. ChatGPT will never create a novel as authentically human as when you plagiarize.
Online Dating
We use ChatGPT to manipulate our profile pictures to make us look much more attractive than we are. That is so deceptive. Be honest about how you present yourself. In my case, if I were to go on dating sites, I would feel compelled, as a matter of ethics, to use a completely un-retouched photo of myself from the '90s.
Kidnapping
Kidnappers are using ChatGPT to write untraceable ransom letters. But to be fair, ChatGPT is a big timesaver here. It must take them forever to cut out those magazine letters.
Personal Finance
Some young people, taken in by the “get rich quick” ethos of clear-sighted rationalists, are using ChatGPT to create false narratives around stocks they buy. I’m worried these kids won’t know how much work it takes to achieve a successful pyramid scheme.
Post-Secondary Education
College students are using ChatGPT to write final exams—literally minutes before they’re due. If you need to postpone an exam, do what responsible students always have done. Explain to your professor you need more time because your grandfather died again.
Primary and Secondary Education
You should see some of the work that some students are passing off as their own. It’s ridiculous. One student wrote an essay that began, “The westward expansion of the United States during the 19th century, driven by the ideology of Manifest Destiny, precipitated profound territorial, economic, and demographic transformations.” Who did this student think he was kidding? He was in the 6th grade. When I was in the 6th grade, I would have written something like, “The effect of the westward expansion in America was that America expanded west.” I mean, that was believable. The teacher flunked me, but it was believable.
Conclusion
Maybe ChatGPT can think of one.
So annoying. My grandpa always dies the night before a big exam.