Is AI Replacing Me?

ChatGPT ChatGPT ChatGPT ChatGPT ChatGPT ChatGPT ChatGPT

ChatGPT and AI

ChatGPT Sucks!

It's ridiculous. It's cool. It's amazing and so human!

Uh-oh. I see a lot of jobs being replaced with this!

So this newsletter was going to be bi-weekly. I wrapped 2022, keeping an eye on ChatGPT as it rolled out and was getting some use. But it was not going to be something I even addressed. It would take time to roll out and gain traction, right?

Right??!!??

Ok, so it was basically overnight. And my dabbling turned into full-on deep dive. It had to. And the more I tinkered, the more I didn't know what to say in the newsletter.

To me, this one tool ... or more actually, our reaction to and use of this one tool, is going to shape not just 2023 but our lifetimes. I know I know...yet another person using hyperbole to make it a talking point.

But I am serious.

I've seen mainframes become midrange become mini-computers. I was there when PCs started coming out. When the first Mac hit the market. My Texas Instruments TI-99/4A is still in my parents' house. I saw personal computing happen. I saw mobile computing happen. I saw wireless happen.

I saw AI thrown about, which was called by its full name in the 80's: "Artificial Intelligence". It was on the cover of the Association of Computing Machinery every other issue (the "ACM"...any geeks out there remember that!?) Computing was not powerful enough for the idea. But today we have all the pieces.

ChatGPT came out for play in November. Of 2022. As in like 4 months ago. That's insane adoption. Unheard of. I'm sure you have seen the chart on the news.

And people are "getting it". They are using it. They are helping define the dataset it uses. They are looking at replacing jobs with it. After only 4 months.

Back in the 80's it was the same mantras about jobs being lost, robots taking over the world, a robot never doing as well as a human, etc. Back then we had the Cold War and we had no internet. We got our ideas shared via magazines and periodicals. It was choppy at best. Our imaginations ran wild.

Now we have the entire internet, and documents scanned in from the turn of the century to help us find our ancestors (which my uncle and I did...story for another day...but it wasn't possible until these days). We can find every writing, every opinion, every theory we want about AI.

I have a lot to say on this topic of AI and its impact on the future of ... well... everything. And I will have a lot to say over this year about it. I hope you will follow this journey with me!

So let me first tackle the elephant in the room...a funny visual for sure -- will AI replace my job or yours?

No. Yes. Maybe. It depends.

The right question is actually - should I care if AI replaces my job?

You see, we are adopting this new tool. That, is happening. Which is part of the bigger picture of AI. AI is not new. Good tools like Jasper have been around a lot longer. AI has been in some other tools for quite some time. The whole thing is not new at all. This tool is new.

But the ADOPTION and EXCITEMENT is taking off. And it is not just neural network geeks anymore. Not just data scientists or comp sci majors anymore. It is Jimmy Freaking Fallon. It is online business coaches. It is financial advisors. It is authors and playwrights. It is artists and machine shop owners.

It. Is. INNOVATION!

1. "The ordinary 'horseless carriage' is at present a luxury for the wealthy; and although its price will probably fall in the future, it will never, of course, come into as common use as the bicycle." - Literary Digest, 1899.
2. "I predict that the automobile will fail – miserably fail – because it has no future." - Henry Ford's financial backer, Horace Rackham, in 1903.
3. "The automobilist will be quite as glad to take advantage of a good road as the bicyclist or the driver of a horse vehicle, and it is to be hoped that the abominable and dangerous nuisance known as the horseless carriage will be sternly checked before the good roads movement has been ruined by it." - The Saturday Evening Post, 1899.

(Got those quotes from ChatGPT by the way.)

What happened to the people that shoed horses for travel? Or to the people who made straps for the horses? Or those who sold the damn horses?? Did they stop the nuisances called "horseless carriages" to keep those jobs?

How many Ford Motor Company employees have there been since 1903? (Ask Google if you prefer)

We are in a time of change. Radical change. Upheaval change. Painful change. But change like this is not something to fear. It is something to take advantage of learning!

Fear of AI downplays your innate and unique gifts and talents. Getting to know AI and what it can be used for...especially at the very beginning of its adoption...can put you in a position of extreme productivity, growth, and security, as you will be among the first to do so. Use your gifts and talents to shape the future instead of worrying about losing what you currently have.

If you are a copywriter, for example, you can either push back on social media about the crappy, generic, blah copy that ChatGPT spits out, so you can hold yourself up in a better light in comparison....or you can learn how to make better ChatGPT prompts to get better results out of the tool. From there you can show people the way. You can tweak their prompts so they get better results. You can become a prompt copywriter/engineer. You show your unique skills and talents, and lead the way for other copywriters to show theirs.

THAT is the future we are heading into.

I see the excited innovation in the group of No Code founders I mix with. I see it in the online coaches and copywriters I know. I see it in the people who have decided to see how to find the edges of the tool...push it to its limits...see where it falls down and makes mistakes.

I see it in me.

I have changed some core business processes, and even how I code software! Yup, after over 30 years of programming experience, I have several times in the last 6 weeks gone to ChatGPT to program some things for me. Sometimes it is to solve a problem, sometimes it is just to do the tedious 60 lines of code in one routine I don't feel like typing myself.

And I hope to see this future-embracing from you, too. Drop a reply into this newsletter. Or make a social post and tag me in it. I'm excited for this time in our history. New things, new ideas, people innovating. It is a great time to be caught up in the middle of it...

If you'd like me to speak on your podcast, or at a summit or other event, just contact me at [email protected].

If you are looking to see how ChatGPT or any other software or tool can be automated and integrated with your business, contact me at [email protected] or DM me and let's talk about what you are excited about doing! Maybe I can help!