My Illustrious Career & Untimely Death (According to ChatGPT)

Mark Twain has been famously misquoted as saying "The reports of my death are greatly exaggerated." The fact that this quote itself is not exactly what he said is a perfect lead in for this article...

Generative AI, or technology that can create context and content from simple queries, has become quite the hot topic ?? in recent weeks. It is virtually impossible to scan a tech journal or blog without seeing mention of ChatGPT and its ilk. Is it safe? Is it bad? Is it good? How will it change information? How will it change content sharing? How will it change our contributions to society as individuals? How will it change society itself? And how, ultimately, will it change us?

If you're looking ?? for a deep analysis or technical perspective on these and other similar questions, move along my friend, this isn't the post you're looking for. I'm not there yet. I may get to answering those questions for myself in the future, but this post is simply my initial experience with the the function.

Generally, I'd consider myself a flexible, open-minded explorer of new tech. I'm not always quick to adopt the new tech with rabid gusto, but I do try to approach each new opportunity with enough curiosity to determine how and where its benefits could outweigh its tolls in my career, my hobbies, my family, my life.

In a recent convo with my friend Robin Barrett Wilson , she described herself (and me) very succinctly: we are not (necessarily) quick to adopt, we wait to see what really works and what is viable.

However, with a #govtech career spanning two decades, I got very comfortable shaking up the status quo. I didn't implement technology for the sake of technology, but I did enjoy controlled experiments to push the envelope and define better service outcomes, using tech as an enabler. Sometimes, we got ahold of something great and other times, it blew up ?? in our collective faces. And now, with each new "thing", I like to determine what is viable, reasonable, practical and positive.

On the other hand, I firmly believe that experience and experiences matter. Not everything should have an easy button. Sometimes you have to put in the effort to learn something for yourself. We can't keep dumbing it down.

Aside from being a government-focused techie, I am also a fiction writer. ?? I pride myself on my creativity and more specifically, my ability to build an imaginary world out of words strung together into a cohesive whole. It's highly unlikely that you've read my work (if you have, I tip my hat to you! ?? ), but I don't have to compose a best-seller to feel pride in the work I have completed. So, imagine my terror ?? at the idea that my prosaic efforts could be bested by a machine responding to a simple query.

Of course there are colossal implications (both good and bad) to these capabilities explored elsewhere, but here is where I go down my own personal rabbit hole ?? of experience. Curiosity got the better of me and I finally decided to take the plunge and see what ChatGPT was all about. I decided to start with a simple query and evaluate the answers I received. Since I know myself better than anyone else, it was an easy decision:

give me a bio of bill greeves

It took ChatGPT less than ten seconds to respond. But as you'll see in my painstaking, line-by-line dissection below, the response was less than stellar:

Bill Greeves was an American technology leader and public sector innovator.

--- I like the sound of that, except for the "was" part.

He was born on February 25, 1958, in Alexandria, Virginia,

--- Wrong month, Wrong day, Wrong year, wrong location...

and passed away on September 3, 2019.

--- Um, I'm sorry, what?

Greeves had a successful career in local government, serving as the Chief Information Officer (CIO) for numerous municipalities in Virginia, including Roanoke County and Fairfax County.

--- Half right. No Fairfax County in my career (apologies to my friend Wanda Gibson and her successors!)

During his tenure as CIO, Greeves focused on leveraging technology to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of government services, earning him numerous awards and recognitions for his leadership and innovation.

--- Okay, that's true I suppose.

In addition to his work in local government, Greeves was a respected thought leader in the field of government technology.

--- I'd like to think so, at least.

He co-authored several books on the subject, including "A Guide to the Enterprise Architecture Body of Knowledge" and "Creating an Information-Driven Organization", and was a frequent speaker at conferences and events.

--- I co-authored one book on government service delivery with my colleague Ines Mergel , but it is not listed here. Yes, I was/am a frequent speaker.

Greeves was also an active member of several professional organizations, including the National Association of State Chief Information Officers (NASCIO) and the International City/County Management Association (ICMA). He was a founding member and past president of the Virginia Local Government Information Technology (VLGIT) Association.

--- Half right. I was (and still am) active in several public-sector focused organizations. I was not a past president of VALGITE (but I was the president of a similar, nationwide government #CIO organization.)

Throughout his career, Greeves was a passionate advocate for the use of technology to improve the lives of citizens and the effectiveness of government. He was widely respected and admired for his leadership, dedication, and vision, and his contributions to the field of government technology continue to have a lasting impact.

--- This last bit is extremely subjective I suppose, but it has a nice ring to it! I might have to save it (hopefully for a very long time) and use it as my epitaph. ??

So, where does this leave me?

I am impressed with ChatGPT's ability to gather so much information about me so quickly, and build it into a fairly well-written cohesive whole with a consistent tone. However, much of the content, although swirling around my general career in government, is factually inaccurate.

While ChatGPT might be good at generating a rough draft of content, I'd have to allocate a good deal of time to do some serious QA reviews before unleashing any live content. But beyond my personal needs, I have considerable hang-ups around accuracy.

As we all know, we live in an era where anyone and everyone can (and does) create and publish anything, anywhere, anytime. On the web, it's easy to lie. It's easy to steal work from others and pass it off as your own. It's easy to make unjustified or inaccurate claims or misleading statements. It happens all day, every day. Perhaps I am more attuned or annoyed by this as a writer, but with ChatGPT, are we adding an additional layer of bombastic inaccuracy to our already info-overloaded lives? ??

In a recent convo, my friend Patrick Maroney used an analogy to describe generative AI. He said to think of it in the way the pneumatic nail gun replaced the hammer. ?? It didn't change the scope of the job: it's still about driving nails into boards. But the nailer greatly expedited the time and effort it takes to complete the work. This analogy resonated greatly with me.

I am currently renovating a 70-year old farm house. ?? I am using a good, old-fashioned claw hammer and a pneumatic framing nailer in equal measure. I use them for different parts of the work. They both have their place. Yes, the nailer is much faster, but occasionally it doesn't shoot straight or it fails to sink the nail. The claw hammer comes out and finishes the work, reliably, every time. It is the QA, so to speak, for the nailer.

I am going to try to abide by this analogy as I continue my exploration of generative AI. I think if the pneumatic nail gun (generative AI) works alongside the claw hammer (experience) and doesn't try to replace the skill of the builder (me) directly, I might find a way to live in harmony with it.

For me, the jury is still out on the broader implications of the tech, so while I continue my research and experience, I would greatly welcome any feedback and opinions from my LinkedIn peeps.