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Printing, counting and sliced bread

am13225

We're screwed?

Generative AI is the ultimate threat to creatives, and a densely discussed one at that. It’s faster, more articulate, with a larger bank of information. Best of all, it constantly picks up new speech patterns from the obscene amount of prompts.




They might be right.

Scepticism

Not unlike my usual self, I was skeptical when I first heard about ChatGPT, with my ego becoming slightly more pronounced through assertions such as “I don’t need it to write well”, and derivatives. Not only did I not actively use it for a while (about 6 months) but didn’t attempt to learn anything about utilising it either. In hindsight that was a pretty stupid thing to do, with minor implications however. Being the watch nerd that I am, my first prompt came about 1 month ago, asking it to write an analysis of the contribution of a particular brand (if you know, you know) to 20th century horology.


The essay was cool. It was clear, cohesive and packed a great deal of information (not referenced, but nice to have). Within 30 seconds (contingent on a half-decent prompt) I got a VERY acceptable result. It had the kind of unsubstantiated vagueness and conceptual limitation found in speculative news articles and as a result did not leave me completely satisfied. However, it was a pretty good starting point.


Disruption is cool

Disruptive innovation is not new, think printing press, calculator and sliced bread. In the grand scheme of things, they have made life significantly better through saving time and creating a greater output of whatever it is they produce. The printing press allowed the mass distribution of content (and, hence, knowledge), the calculator (and its derivatives) allowed us to alleviate the mental strain and time spent on tedious equations, allowing individuals to focus on the bigger picture. As for sliced bread, it drove the nearly universal availability of PB&J sandwiches at a significantly lower cost.

Goodbye Blue Sky

Jokes aside, I attended a panel on the future of creativity, hosted by a guy named Brad Lightcap, COO of open AI. The moderator, bluntly asked, “so, will AI steal our jobs” to which he responded that AI will keep creatives being busier than ever (increased creative output and whatnot) in the next 5 years. It was a pretty optimistic talk, significantly more than I expected, having anticipated a doomsday meeting, Armageddon welcome party or awkward last wishes (not sure which one I was rooting for).

Shine a Light

I’m fundamentally optimistic about it too, and agree with the assertions that the main competitive advantage of the future will be the effective utilisation of Generative AI.


At the end of the day, I’d rather have an accountant with a calculator than an accountant without one.

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