In December 2022 I walked into the office here at BPE towers and made a bold statement; “ChatGPT will change the world”. My colleagues looked at me like they normally do on a Monday morning; with confusion, curiosity and as always…sympathy. Only this time, I was right.
The meteoric rise of ChatGPT, the revolutionary new A.I platform, has taken the world by storm. In a mere two months, the platform has amassed over 100 million users – a feat that has never been seen before (for the record it took Instagram just under 3 years to reach that target, with Facebook taking even longer).
So what exactly is ChatGPT?
On a basic level, ChatGPT is a new artificial intelligence (AI) technology that can generate natural human-like conversations and outputs. Think about the chat-bot that pops up in your banking website to assist you, but one that actually understands human input. That is a very basic explanation, but it is more than that…much more.
What are its uses?
The developer of ChatGPT, OpenAI, have a number of tools available, the uses of which are almost infinite. You will, however likely limit such use, certainly from a business perspective, to assist in your day to day tasks at work.
ChatGPT itself gives examples of being able to assist in Sales and marketing, HR Support, project management and streamlining communication in a business environment, however savvy companies are also using it to draft social media content, blogs and website coding.
You can of course use the platform to assist in your private life as well, whether that is writing a letter to your local MP to complain about potholes in your road, or asking it to draft an alternative ending to Love Actually, which I may or may not have done over Christmas (spoiler: it is even more slushy than the original ending).
Can you give a real life example of its use in a business setting?
Sure, let’s say you are an HR Director and you are prepping a line manager to chair their first disciplinary meeting. You can use ChatGPT to stage a mock interview to train the manager. An example of such is contained below;
How worried should we be about our jobs?
ChatGPT says no;
So straight from the (robotic) horse’s mouth, no it cannot replace HR yet. However, OpenAI and ChatGPT will continue to evolve over the next few weeks, months, and years. In the past few weeks, technology publications have been reporting that Microsoft are already looking at ways to integrate the software into Outlook, meaning that AI will continue to learn and understand your writing style, eventually offering a fully drafted response for you before you can even have a chance to read the email.
Now, take into consideration a scenario where a company can upload all company policies and ask questions of ChatGPT in relation to a specific scenario;
Whilst ChatGPT may not be confident enough yet to replace HR and legal, It certainly may reduce the need for the same.
It is clear that the rise of ChatGPT is nothing short of remarkable. Its unique features, such as its ability to send and receive messages, assist in day to day tasks, and streamlining work processes have made it an instant hit.
With all the praise of the service, it does have its limitations and there continues to be questions and concerns. For example, it currently cannot connect to the internet to search up to date information and therefore any answers provided is limited to events prior to September 2021. Further, inputting confidential information to the service, something that OpenAi and ChatGPT have warned against is still a big issue, with limited data on what the data will be sued for and where the servers are based.
What is clear is that should a complete in-house service be introduced then the sky(net) is the limit for the platform and we have seen major law firms in the UK signing up to the platform in the past few days, a sign that things are moving in the right direction in terms of privacy and security.
So that is OpenAi and ChatGPT in a nutshell. A product that, in my humble opinion, will revolutionise our private and work lives immensely. And if you think that this is just another fad that will blow over in time….. OpenAI drafted this article for me in under 10 minutes.
These notes have been prepared for the purpose of articles only. They should not be regarded as a substitute for taking legal advice.
