Will ChatGPT Take My Job? And Everyone Else's Job, Too?

In the last few months, I have experienced friends becoming disillusioned about how artificial intelligence (A.I.) could impact their careers. A very good friend of mine, who is a copywriter, recently woke up in a cold sweat at 4 a.m. with these concerns.

This isn’t hyperbole. In ChatGPT, OpenAI has created a seamless interactive chat experience for anyone to use for free that could almost pass the Turing Test were it not transparent about its limitations. Its ability to mimic human responses and styles to an impeccable degree has many wondering, “Will this be the thing that eventually takes my job?”

A wave of innovative and overwhelming technology.

Text generation aside, we’re already witnessing the next wave of applications from this technology, with a myriad of tools coming to the market to enhance content creation. Here are a few examples: RunwayML’s A.I. Magic Tools is a video and image editing suite that uses predictive modeling to facilitate media editing. Synthesia A.I. Video Creation is a slightly eerie automated video generation suite that uses synthetic actors and voiceovers to create an introductory video for brands. Content Automation A.I. is a full-service consultancy for creating brand-aligned copy at scale.

These tools are examples of A.I. They complete a specific task well using A.I. While automating that specific task might make an aspect of your day easier, it’s not artificial general intelligence (AGI). AGI is a machine’s ability to complete any task a human can to a human-quality threshold, or perhaps higher. So while we’re seeing the first glimpses of machines completing certain tasks, we’re still some way away from AGI.

ChatGPT is the beginning of a new generation of A.I. language models.

ChatGPT is OpenAI’s most advanced model to date and goes further in mimicking human intelligence than we’ve previously seen. It’s been marketed very effectively and is accessible to everyone, not just developers. Its proliferation and popularity have spawned a new surge of technology that is causing fear in some cases.

Is that fear justified? I think so, and I’m not the only one. That said, much as the computer changed how businesses operated after decades of pen and paper at desks, automation from learned machines will change how we use computers. That should be embraced, but it’s understandable that most might not see it that way.

Because many of us are happy with our current job and the stability it provides, there’s reasonable resistance to anything that might shatter this existence, and ChatGPT is the spark that could. Even though human input will still be essential in many sectors, the ability to write and mimic styles of all kinds, as well as generate anything from code to equations and recipes in a wide variety of languages, is causing concerns that it could not only revolutionize but also disrupt multiple industries.

So, what should we do about it?

As a Millennial, I spent many holidays teaching my parents how to use certain aspects of technology. They’re smart people but they are a product of a generation that didn’t grow up with laptops and smartphones. When a new technology comes to market, a significant gap can exist between the immediate adoption of that technology for one group but difficulty in adopting it for another.

With A.I. advancements, we’re seeing a similar shift. A new generation that is comfortable in their positions is being put under pressure to adapt to technology that will undoubtedly change their jobs.

The reality is that we live in a system where increasingly, innovating is critical to flourishing. The arrival of A.I. technology will render some jobs obsolete. We need to take all these challenges into account and be ready to adapt.

How can you innovate to make yourself better skilled and give yourself more financial autonomy? How can companies, especially agencies, provide training and support to help creatives and marketers better understand and adapt to this technology? If you take anything away from reading this it should be to take action and avoid lethargy.

Start by learning how you can apply A.I. technology to your particular role. What I suggest you do is:

• Use ChatGPT. Play with it daily—what can it do to make your work life easier? Dive into the world of A.I. tools. Explore how you can apply them to your day-to-day.
• Be honest about your business or career and consider conducting a SWOT analysis or something similar to identify the primary weaknesses that could be affected by A.I.
• Consider how the technology applies to your day-to-day. For example, if you’re a copywriter, you might want to consider transitioning to a copyeditor skillset now due to the likelihood that you’ll be editing more machine copy in the future.
• For entrepreneurs, consider building that personal brand and/or business you’ve been holding off on. Do you see an opportunity in the market to automate with A.I. and can you create a minimum viable product and monetize it?
• For agencies and companies in general, it is possible to reduce these obstacles and ensure a smoother transition by providing training and support to help employees better understand and adapt to A.I. tools.

No industry is immune to disruptive forces—be it from a pandemic or automation, we’re all susceptible. Assess the impact artificial intelligence will have on your business and make some plans for how to mitigate it. Those that do will soon find themselves much more at ease in the face of any A.I.-based anxiety.