Fasten your AI Seatbelts
I’ve written a few posts on different platforms about my latest preoccupation and rabbit hole escape, ChatGPT, and imagine there will be more. I will persist in writing about it, even though I have a tendency to mess up the last three letters in the name.
For those of you who may have missed the early posts, ChatGPT (in its own words) is…
A conversational language model developed by OpenAI. It is a variant of the popular GPT-3 language model that has been trained specifically for generating human-like text in a chat-like setting. It is able to generate responses to a given prompt that are contextually relevant and coherent, making it useful for a variety of applications such as virtual assistants and chatbots. Because of its ability to generate human-like text, ChatGPT is seen as an important development in the field of natural language processing and has the potential to improve the user experience of many applications that rely on language generation. There are some great examples HERE of potential use cases.
Over thirty years ago, I remember standing in the offices of Bolt Beranek and Newman (one of the architects of the Internet) and being blown away by a demonstration of an early web browser…”Now we’re connected to a computer in this building, and if I click here, we’re connected to one in Germany, and if I click again, we’re connected in Japan…” and thinking “OMG, I don’t understand this, but this is something BIG.” That was my reaction when my son pointed me in the direction of ChatGPT.
A friend of mine far more knowledgable about tech than me put his thoughts about ChatGPT this way…
I think folks still have no idea how big this is going to be and how soon it is coming. This is internet/smartphone/cloud big and it is coming much faster than most folks realize.
Vast changes for knowledge workers - what will 90% of the writers (of all kinds, including journalists, analysts, bloggers, poets, songwriters, authors…), editors, counselors, psychiatrists, marketers, paralegals, lawyers, software developers, tech writers, sysadmins, product managers and so many more folks do when they are replaced by AI that is just flat out better than them?
What happens to kids when there can’t be any more take home tests or homework? Same goes for teachers - heresy, people will say, but vast reductions are coming.
For years I think we have thought robots will replace blue collar workers, but it turns out that is much harder and more costly than making software to replace white collar ones.
Radical changes are coming in the next year or two; this is not far off science fiction as these models will advance far quicker than we expect. I expect that what we see today is no where near state of the art, this stuff is probably a year old already, compare it to what we knew about publicly a year ago and expect the next jump to be 10x the last one.
And if you don’t believe in reaching conclusions by anecdote (a pretty sound practice), how about some data about the ChatGPT tidal wave? Per askwonder.com (and with a shout-out to Chrissy Carroll for pointing me in this direction), consider these “How long did it take to get to 1 million users?” comparisons:
How long it took companies to reach 1 million users:
Netflix - 3.5 years
Facebook - 10 months
Spotify - 5 months
Instagram - 2.5 months
ChatGPT - 5 DAYS
For my MER audience, just for fun, here’s how ChatGPT parses the age old debate of, “What’s the difference between records management and information management and data governance and information governance?”
Records management is the systematic process of managing the creation, maintenance, use, and disposal of records. The goal of records management is to ensure that an organization's records are properly created, organized, and preserved, and that they are easily accessible when needed.
Information management is the practice of organizing, storing, and safeguarding the information that an organization generates and uses. This includes both physical records (e.g., paper documents) and digital information (e.g., emails, databases).
Data governance is the process of establishing policies, procedures, and standards for the management of data within an organization. It involves ensuring that data is accurate, complete, and consistent, and that it is used in a way that complies with relevant laws and regulations.
Information governance is a broader term that encompasses data governance and other related practices, such as records management, information security, and privacy. Information governance is concerned with the management of all types of information within an organization, including both structured data (e.g., databases) and unstructured data (e.g., documents, emails). It involves establishing policies, procedures, and standards for the creation, use, and disposal of all types of information, with the goal of ensuring that the organization's information assets are properly managed and protected.
An on a lighter note to close, here is how ChatGPT responded to my request to create a poem about grandparents in iambic pentameter. (Truth be told, I don’t remember from HS 9th grade English — let’s just say this was “many” years ago — what “iambic pentameter” actually is, but I do recall it was some sort of poetry term.)
Grandparents, oh how sweet you are
Your love for us is like a shining star
A guiding light, a beacon bright
Showing us the way, day and night
Your wisdom, it is vast and deep
A treasure trove of secrets to keep
Your stories, they are full of grace
A rich tapestry, a proud legacy to trace
Your kindness, it knows no bounds
It lifts us up, when we are down
Your hugs, they are warm and true
A reminder of the love we share, me and you
Oh grandparents, how we cherish you
A gift from heaven, a blessing true
Forever in our hearts, you'll stay
A guiding light, to light our way.
Action Item - Meanwhile, registration is now open for MER 2023. Make your plans NOW.
Great job available - If you’re looking for a new gig, I got wind this week of a good one. I know this company and they are really smart people. The description follows - ping me on email if you would like more info….
Company X is growing its team and needs a dynamic, strategic Product Marketing Director with experience specifically working with records management, records classification and records archiving software. You’ll be turning product concepts into tools, materials, presentations, speaking engagements that support expanding sales and partner teams globally, and help communicate the benefits of our business to diverse audiences across multiple industries.
Last call - to buy my book, Immigrant Secrets, with holiday discounting and in time for the holidays for that hard-to-buy-for records manager, archivist or historical fiction fan.
And if I don’t do a post next week - have a very restful and peaceful holiday season.