The Opportunity in the Avalanche: ChatGPT and the age of Vulnerability

With the emergence of ultra-realistic conversational AI like ChatGPT, the world seems to be losing its mind. People are asking it to write songs and poetry, school districts and universities are banning it to keep students from having ChatGPT write entire essays for them, and some folks are afraid that the AI will take their jobs.

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But the real scary part is that ChatGPT will “drive the cost of bullshit to zero” as Gary Marcus, the emeritus professor of psychology and neuroscience at NYU, said while he was on the Ezra Klein show. And that’s terrifying - a sea of AI generated disinformation and AI search engine optimized marketing drivel invading our newsfeeds. Based on the fact that Chat GPT can’t distinguish what is real and what is not, once that disinformation makes it into the data models it will propagate ad nauseam. There’s a lot to be anxious about.

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So, sure - the way we work is about to change in a very big way. But where ChatGPT has the ability to disrupt and change the way we work, we are still going to have jobs.. In fact, I believe it will usher in a new age of vulnerability, authenticity, and human connection. More importantly, conversational AI will force us, as well as enable us, to become better as storytellers.

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After all, ChatGPT can't replace our soul. It can't tell us how we feel or write in a way that allows others to connect with us.

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Nick Cave, the songwriter and singer, who upon reading a "song" written in his style by an AI, called it a "grotesque mockery of what it is to be human." He’s right.?At best, ChatGPT is a milktoast writer.?So what we have to look forward to is an avalanche of boring, uninspired content coming at us ALL THE TIME, and an explosion of information (and frightening disinformation) that will make us all skeptics and unlikely to engage with AI created content.?It will be so easy for anyone to publish content.?But because of this, our standard for what information we choose to consume will rise dramatically.?

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And that is the opportunity of conversational AI tools like ChatGPT: using these as tools, not to do the writing for us, but to facilitate our ability to write and think.?Writers like Octavia Butler (Kindred,) Andy Weir (The Martian,) and Zadie Smith (White Teeth) took months if not years to painstakingly research their brilliant books.?Now, you and I, along with ChatGPT, can generate a book’s worth of research in a fraction of the time - what will we do with it?

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The information we produce with AI will no longer be all that relevant or interesting.?Data and information will no longer be the currency of our attention.?In its place, I believe will be our ability to be vulnerable, to be curious, to authentically connect with others.?Not based on what we know, but what we believe.?

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With the explosion of information, authenticity and vulnerability will become the new currency. In a world where information is ubiquitous, it will be more important than ever to be authentic and vulnerable in the stories we tell and share. We can use ChatGPT to help us research and verify information, but what WE have to say about that information and how we present it will be the important part. It's up to us to infuse our stories with a strong sense of self, of who we are, to make them truly stand out and be noticed.?Storylines will become more nuanced, complex and interesting.?

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We have the opportunity to become even better storyteller. We can use ChatGPT to our advantage and raise the bar for emotional intelligence and vulnerability.?

?And who knows, perhaps we can get back to, you know, talking to each other?

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About the author - Peter Laughter – I walked away from a 25 year entrepreneurial career in the recruiting and staffing industry because recruiting is f*cked. I founded True Bearing to reinventing recruiting using purpose, values, and culture as the currency companies can use to supercharge referrals and cultivate pipelines of rockstar talent.??