Is ChatGPT Your Replacement? Or Your Bitch?

I think about ChatGPT the way I think about the microwave.

It was a revolution in how we cook. It made cooking some things easier and faster and not bad. But it didn't stop people from becoming good cooks and great chefs. Those are just as valued, if not more so, than when the microwave was invented.

Great writing comes from having talent — and personal experiences and perspectives gained from those experiences. LLMs (Large Language Models like ChatGPT) don't even understand what they are writing. They are just doing math over letters. Like raw junior writers, they can spew out a lot of stuff - even sometimes accidentally generate an idea that inspires the seasoned to turn it into greatness.

I think this is where they can be helpful. Also, in generating “okay” content at scale or things that are more boilerplate (box scores, annual reports, etc.) Then again, some investors pay thousands of dollars to own a share of Berkshire Hathaway stock just so they can get Warren Buffett’s truly insightful, entertaining, and educational annual report.

I once took a computer programming class from a teacher who would ask students how they would go about coding a certain thing. Almost always, a student would start writing code. And the teacher would say “NO”. The first thing to do is to figure out what you want a dumb computer to do. Then, you can tell it what to do by turning that thinking into code (i.e., “the Prompt”). If you think about ChatGPT and MidJourney, it's a lot like that as well. It’s a great writer or artist’s assistant. So I’m leaning “Bitch”:) You?