AI – Will It Be The Status Quo of Content Creation?

Unlike any of the recent disruptions that seemingly came out of nowhere, AI or artificial intelligence has been slowly but surely looming in our horizon.

I created an article 4 years ago, titled Artificial Intelligence: The Future of Content Creation. And as they say, the future is now. AI is now top of mind, because ChatGPT is here to change the game. But will it really change the game?

The short answer is yes. But it will be the status quo in a different way than you think.

Not A Replacement But For Empowerment

ChatGPT, like any other innovations out there, is just a tool. I’m using “just” not to denigrate its capabilities but to identify it as it really is.

I think people overestimate what ChatGPT’s role is. Sure, it CAN replace a lot of creative jobs and there are marked performance uplifts on things such as Podcast Titles.

Here’s a Twitter thread from Gael Breton, co-founder of AuthorityHacker.

However, it’s not a replacement but a tool for empowerment.

One Twitter user responded, “You mean your ex-staff?”

Breton responded that ChatGPT is a tool to empower staff, not replace them.

Think about it like this. You are paying a person for a mowing service regularly to trim your lawn manually. They don’t use powered tools because they are a cheaper service. The only problem is it takes them a whole day to finish up your lawn.

Then you see a weed whacker for sale. You bought it and now you can mow your own lawn for half a day, instead of paying someone to do it for you for the whole day. And that is the main difference.

If you decide to replace your employees with AI, it will be you who will be doing the job ultimately.

Not A Job-Killer But a Job Description Changer

Here’s another scenario. Let’s say that I’m a professional painter. I paint homes for a living using just a paint brush and paint roller.

If I bought a robot that can paint for me and the people that contact me for paint jobs still want my service, am I still a professional painter or should I change my business card?

It’s fair to say that I’m still a professional painter, even if I have different tools because I still achieve the same things needed for me in order to fulfill a job.

Same thing with the jobs that are going to be affected with AI like ChatGPT. Writers will still be needed to provide content. It’s just that now, part of the writing process is understanding how to use AI to our advantage.

Can Be a Business Killer

Tools like ChatGPT will make good businesses great and bad businesses out. The reply from Gael’s tweet earlier confirms that businesses do think about replacing human intelligence with artificial intelligence.

Some businesses think that replacing people with AI is better because it significantly lowers down the cost of production, leading to higher margins. That is one way of driving profits, but that, in my opinion, is just an impulsive bet that can ultimately lead a business to failure.

If you play Texas Hold’em Poker, that is like being dealt with a pair of Jacks then you immediately go all in. Though it’s already a high card, you will still get beaten by lower cards in the hole if they get a straight, a flush, or even just a 3 of a kind.

It’s best to see the flop, the turn, and the river first. See how your competitors will react. Be mindful of the table. You might not win big on a slower kind of play, but at least you still keep your chips. Same thing with AI.

Sure, ChatGPT is a revolutionary innovation that can change how we do things moving forward. But you don’t have to go all-in.

Watch what the market does, learn the new innovation, and see if you can incorporate it into your workflow.

From Faster Outputs to Better Outputs

Tools make your job faster, but it doesn’t necessarily make the output better by default. It’s up to the tool user how they can make their outputs better.

Let’s say you have a worker who manually saws through wood to make table legs. Who can’t just hand him a chainsaw to replace his hand saw and expect immediate, better results.

As all tools go, people need time to learn it to really know its value. If we take ChatGPT as it is, then we are not just limiting its potential, we are also limiting the benefits it can give to us.

ChatGPT is already a great way to make the outputs faster. However, in order for the output to be better, personalization should be applied.

In driving, going fast is very easy to learn. The more pressure you apply in your pedal, the faster you go.. What’s really important in driving is knowing when to apply the breaks. And to put the analogy into extremes, scientifically, it’s not really the speed that kills people. It’s the sudden stop.

So in order to make the speed potential of ChatGPT beneficial, we should learn its limitations and apply our own tweaks to it.

This is Not ChatGPT’s Final Form Yet

There are a lot of limitations of ChatGPT such as using uncommon phrases that can be detected by other AI.

But there are 2 concerns that we should be addressing right now. First, do we just accept that it is already great or do we really understand its potential?

A good software program isn’t finished because it keeps improving. If it doesn’t it eventually becomes obsolete. Think about the newspapers, radio, and television. Because there were no notable jumps in innovation, it’s becoming more and more obsolete.

So I think we should understand that ChatGPT is great, but already has some things that it can be worked on. But fully integrating it into the workflow, is only limiting its capabilities and the benefits we get from it.

It’s a great idea to try and understand it first. Again, don’t go immediately all-in.

The second concern is do we really need to expand its capabilities?

Humans are adaptable species and we are driven by the constant push of innovation. So the answer is mostly yes. But necessity is the mother of invention. And it’s a valid question to ask if we really need it.

Take Control of Technology Before It Controls Us

Of course, most people may have seen Terminator and the dangers of technology so most people are careful. But that’s not the real threat of AI.

It’s how we place our systems around it.

There are a lot of conspiracies about Big Tech and how it uses algorithms to control our thoughts and actions. It might be happening, but for me the more logical explanation of how Big Tech became so big is because we refused to control it.

It was supposed to just be a communication platform, yet we still keep adding things into it. Now, it’s entertainment, news, and even business transactions.

And I saw we, because the users just accepted all the changes instead of stepping back, observing its effects, and drawing a conclusion based on that.

I think today is very crucial to our future. Because ChatGPT and all the others are going to change the status quo of most of the things we are doing now.

And the way we should understand and control it now determines if it’s going to change the world for the better or for worse.

We are on the spearhead of this innovation. The bleeding edge of technology. If we’re not careful, we will be hurt.