AI AND CHATBOTS - WILL THEY REPLACE PEOPLE??

AI and Chat GBT are the words on everyone’s lips at the moment - the whole world is either running scared thinking they will be replaced by a chatbot and the other half are so happy as they don’t have to think any more, they can feed a few words into a chatbot and a fabulous article will be written, with perfect grammar and just enough big words to seem important and in a matter of seconds a whole article is written which is 100% factually correct.

However, after you have read the tenth or twentieth article like this, you can pick it up, this has been written by a computer and not a real person, it lacks the one thing we have been taught to control all our lives, our emotions!?A chatbot does not write with any real emotion. When I think of people whose blogs I look forward to, read and enjoy like the blog written daily by Melanie Hawken for Lionesses of Africa - is this churned out by a chatbot? I don’t think so because she writes the way she speaks and reading the blog daily I feel like I am having a conversation with her.? Lori Milner who writes wonderful articles, I can hear her speaking through the articles and even Michelle Obama, in her book Becoming, she also writes exactly like she speaks - when you read what she has written it’s almost like you are having a conversation with her.

?So, the short answer is certainly NO - AI and Chatbots will speed things up there is no doubt. They are wonderful for writing copy if you must write about something like an air fryer, vacuum cleaner, or new steam oven but for those of us who have read all the books written by John Maxwell, trained with Tony Robbins, or done the Mindpower course with Robin Banks , AI, and Chat Gbts lack the raw emotion that human beings need.?We feed off each other’s emotions which is why, now that I have started my in-store networking breakfasts again, people are flocking in as people like to be with people.?

Although anyone can buy the products I sell online, my stores are still busy as there is so much more satisfaction in coming into a brick and mortar store and looking at all the different appliances, opening the fridges and imagining them being in your own kitchen and full of food, actually seeing the difference in the pictures on the TV’s,?discussing the options of the various coffee machines and tasting the coffee that comes out of them, you really can’t use all your senses online, even if you can imagine the smell of the coffee, you still won’t be able to taste it or have the satisfaction of sitting down and going through the different options.?

You need to try out the perfect couch or lie on that bed you want to buy and ensure its right for you, and you need to discuss the positioning of the air conditioner which will keep you cool in summer and warm in winter and work out the most economical result.?With load shedding, you can research all you like online but if you need to discuss a UPS, generator or solar, you will save so much time and energy (pardon the pun) by discussing the subject with a real expert!

I mean after all its your hard-earned money, and you really want to enjoy spending it, the click of “add to cart” just doesn’t do it for me, however I understand the convenience that it provides for others.

Life is not going to be easy for institutions that must keep up with AI and Chatbots.?Having recently completed a Digital Marketing course - by the time I had written my exams, passed (and still don’t have my certificate), everything I had learnt was already obsolete.?I know while I was writing my master’s I was bombarded by people approaching me to help me write it and they would ensure I would pass with flying colours - what would be the point of this - I was writing my master’s so that it would be mine!?Now having written my proposal for my PhD and submitted it to one of South Africa’s top universities, it was returned to me as my writing was too emotional, I had to resubmit with more academic speak which I have done but I found it really difficult to do as I am so passionate about my subject which is "A watertight formula specifically for African Women Entrepreneurs on how to start a business with zero or very little capital and turn it into a successful and sustainable business."?Now I know that’s a mouthful and I have fed it into a chatbot which gave me the short answer but here again I must write as I feel and not as the chatbot says - although I do feed my articles into Grammarly - just so I don’t get any rude comments on my lack of grammar and punctuation.

As soon as you are aware of chatbots and the way they write, you start to pick it up rather quickly and then, I for one, skim through the rest of the article picking up the key words that were punched in, just so that I can get the gist of the article and decide whether I am interested in reading it properly.?AI and chatbots do have their place in the modern world, we are demanding, want what we want when we want it - we are all still doing our best to deal with Generation Z when the Alpha generation is looming - this massive, growing generation which is gathering momentum by the minute - but at the end of the day - each person wants to feel like they are the only person.?After all they are the most important person in their own lives, and they want to live their life on their terms.?They still need parents and mentors to guide them, they need to feel fit and healthy but most of all they know that their mission in life is to find their purpose and at the end of the day, their purpose in life is to give it away and ensure that they leave a legacy, and that the world will be a better place after they leave.

Much Love,

Margaret Hirsch