The pros and cons of artificial intellligence

When ChatGPT was first released in November of 2022, I was nervous. I'd seen the Terminator films and giving a computer the ability to learn from us seemed like a pretty big risk. With a little coaxing, my friends explained to me how it wasn't that much different from the algorithms that search engines use. "Every time you use Google to look something up that information is being collected about you," I was reminded. Still, I didn't have a good feeling about it.

Fast forward to today nearly two years later, and I've had the opportunity to use it in my work when copywriting. I've found it significantly lacking in emotional language, understanding double entendres, humor or puns that are powerful ways to connect with people in a meaningful way. If you want to create genuine relationships with your audience, ChatGPT (and most language-learning A.I. models) will likely fall short. 

Can ChatGPT learn all the colloquialisms, dialects, idioms, and jargon for each specific region of the world? We'll have to wait and see. 

Where ChatGPT does seem to be most helpful is in organizing information logically, as well as assisting with brainstorming topics and ideas. If you like things to be the same all the time, you'll probably like it's predictable output.

Another danger of A.I. (outside of ChatGPT) is how it is being used by scammers to replicate legitimate communications and social media posts. Cybersecurity issues are at an all-time high with believable phishing emails, smishing texts, and what appears to be celebrity-endorsed promotional scam bait videos. 

As we move full-steam ahead in the world of artificial intelligence, it does create a great deal of anxiety for those who work in industries that could seemingly be replaced. But most people will learn quickly, that A.I. doesn't have a soul and can therefore not capture the depth (or grammatical errors I've discovered) that a human being can. 

Pros: Great for helping organize our thoughts and ideas.
Cons: Terrible at understanding the depth of the creative human mind (plus a tool for manipulation by those bad actors looking to take advantage of the misinformed).

Like Uncle Ben said to Peter Parker, "...with great power, comes great responsibility." Here's to shaping A.I. to be a powerful tool for good.