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The latest sensation in technology is ChatGPT, a highly advanced conversational bot, which was unveiled by OpenAI last November and is said to be revolutionising the interface been humans and machines. It is capable of responding to users’ needs and questions, and it searches large databases to find answers and to create responses which are almost human. It is said to be the best artificial intelligence (AI) product created yet. Microsoft is integrating the bot with its search engine, Bing, and with other products. Google’s recent attempt at launching a similar tool, called Bard, blew in its face. The company will have to come up with something better. Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates has said that the coming of ChatGPT is as significant as the invention of the internet itself. His view, as that of many others, is that its ability to understand content will change the world. As any disruptive technology does, it has given rise to both expectations and concerns.
ChatGPT has shown a glimpse of its abilities in many fields and that is impressive. It can write essays in examinations and for any other purposes the way a well-informed student would write, write poetry as Shakespeare would, do computer codes and legal briefs and documents, compose music and play games. That is about a big range of human abilities and activities. It has generated concern over its impact on the education system and on society and economy.
It is feared that it will enable students to pass their exams without learning and will seriously affect critical thinking and problem-solving skills. The New York education authorities have blocked access to ChatGPT in their networks because they think plagiarism will increase with it. There are concerns over the possibility of loss of jobs and of changes in social and economic relations. While many think that ChatGPT can pass off as human, there is also a view that it can be identified as bot work because it lacks the human touch in essential ways.
While the concerns are real, they will not stop ChatGPT in its tracks. All new technologies have produced apprehensions and fears about changes but none of them has been abandoned because of them. Rules, regulations and practices in many areas of life will have to catch up with the new technologies and give way to new norms and styles of living. We can adapt to them and evolve accordingly, as we have done in the past and created cultures and civilisations that internalise them. ChatGPT may have brought the future closer, and we will have to work with it and its successors. We will still find ways to remain human.