Things of Internet: The awesome power of ChatGPT
There have been a few times I said “Holy shit!” out aloud this year.
Once was when I heard Polyphia’s Playing God, which is on its way to topping my year-end list.
Another time was when I had a grilled cheese sandwich my wife made.
But most recently, it was when I saw what OpenAI’s newest toy could do.
ChatGPT: AI-powered text conversations
OpenAI is an AI laboratory whose founders include Sam Altman (Y Combinator) and Elon Musk (genius, man-child). They've developed AI models whose public proofs of concept have done some staggering things over the last few years.
GPT-2 and GPT-3 were two such models that could provide human-like text. *Cue: Writers worrying about their jobs*
Then, last year, came DALL-E, which would basically give image outputs for a prompt. *Cue: Designers worrying about their jobs*
Then, last week, came ChatGPT which pretty much has everyone worrying about their jobs.
It's quite freaky and I am not qualified to explain it, so let's just have a look at a few things it can do.
It can write Seinfeld scripts about bubble-sort algorithms:
It could write and debug code:
It could do the same in the style of a gangster movie:
Give you custom medical advice:
I myself tried it, and while it was mostly just decent, it absolutely nailed Anthony Soprano complaining to his therapist about Pink Floyd:
There are lots of articles out there about ChatGPT: a mixture of compilation of examples and awe of its novelty, just like when DALL-E2 came onto the scene with AI-generated art. It's still very early days, but it's worth thinking about what all this means.
Nothing's going to die - yet: Having observed the tech space for a few years now, I've learnt to take any "this is going to kill {platform} / {jobs}" predictions with a pinch of salt. Sure, some specific examples above might show ChatGPT doing a better job than Google, and DALLE2 might make generating an image easier than hiring a junior designer - but neither are going away anytime soon. These shifts take time, the AI models are still imperfect, and importantly there will always be human oversight. If anything, roles will evolve. What a senior "designer" does might change to writing the right prompt for AI and applying human judgement to the output. I'm excited about the kinds of jobs that could come up, rather than worry about those that could be lost.
Expect new genres and art forms: We already have competitions using AI art. It's exciting to think about what more could come up with generative text and video. Democratised video learning for underserved communities, tailored in their language? A video game environment optimised for individual players? Perhaps I could finally stop whining about Oasis not reuniting, and just run a model that cranks out a new AI-generated tune. It sounds strange saying it now, but if you rewind to the history of recorded music and video, each new medium/format was looked upon with scepticism and fear - yes, even sheet music at one point of time. This new era of AI might just unleash another level of creativity and human pleasure. There will be institutional acceptance too - NFTs are already making it to traditional museums.
Optimsitically, I'd say the human touch is going to become even more valuable: In an age of everything being automated, actual human services are more valuable. In an era where anyone can generate art using AI, an actual designer's work becomes more valuable (the good ones, that is - the others will upskill or find something else to do). I might the temporarily satisfied with the Oasis song an AI gives me, but nothing will beat the pleasure of seeing Noel and Liam together again on stage (please universe make it happen). While AI will do a lot of the gruntwork, humans will still be needed to come uip with ideas, close deals, and dream up new things to do. AI at the end of the day, is a tool.
It's worth remembering that AI trains on data. Tools like GPT3 and ChatGPT have trained on a lot of publicly available data.
Philosophically, it's interesting to think that the output of these tools is just an extension of what is already out there - ie, things humans have created. An AI might be able to make a Sopranos script, but it's unlikely to create a pathbreaking series like that in the first place.
For now, let's sit at awe and wonder what machines can do. Machines and algorithms that we as a species have built!
I highly recommend you fool around with ChatGPT. Enjoy.
The updates section
Amazon has a new drone for 30-minute deliveries in the US. Meanwhile in India, it's paring back investments and experiments like Academy and Food.
Brazilians are flocking to Koo as an alternative to Twitter.
Speaking of a Twitter exodus, it's lost half of its top 100 advertisers (wonder why - especially since Elon's been nice enough to personally call CEOs to berate them). Most high-profile is Apple, who might kick the app off its platform. But no worries, Muskolytes will just move to Elon's proposed new phone. What a joke this guy is.
But hey, one positive outcome is that the rest of the tech industry has high-quality ex-Twitter talent to hire.
India is now the largest smartwatch market out there (I still fiercly hold on to my analog!)
Airbnb is running a program to help tenants sublet. Another win from this company whose innovation and thinking I am constantly impressed by.
The eRupee is kicking off. (Will write about this more later)
Whatsapp finally unveils an official way to message yourself.
Netflix is still keen on gaming (analyst Ben Evans says it should consider picking up Activision Blizzard if the Microsoft deal is blocked by EU/US regulators).
In case you're wondering why I haven't been posting updates about the whole FTX crash - it's partially because I don't understand it, but mostly because I don't care. For those who do, I think Matt Levine's newsletters will do a great (and hilarious) job of breaking it down.
The reads section
Big Tech is cutting several new product lines, as a slowdown looms. The article rightly says: "Device cuts are all about belt-tightening, but they also may reflect a saturated gadget market that was overdue for some culling."
A surprising (for me) case in point: Voice tech. Despite their ubiquity, the likes of Siri and Alexa don't make too much revenue. Amazon in particular is scaling its investment back.
It's not all gloom and layoffs in tech, though. Cloud is booming, and becoming more specialised. Amazon, for example, just announced a new supply chain solution.
Cloudtech is being used in Czech breweries to save money. Fascinating!
A good read about going hi-touch rather than hi-tech.
Not digital per se, but on the power of having a good brand, with one of the most famous examples that exist - Red Bull.
Plug: The origin stories of famous rock songs
I run a short-format podcast called The Origin of Things. For 2 seasons (50 episodes), I gave the origins of famous brands. Dramatised stories, where I reveal the name of the brand only at the end. It was a nice guessing game for the listener. Over time, it built a small following. And now, Season 3 has started. This time, I'm turning my focus to a passion of mine - rock music.
Over the next 25 weeks, I'll give you (in 10 minutes or less) the origin stories of some of the most famous rock/pop songs of all time. It was a total labour of love doing this, and I hope you join me, especially if you like the kind of music I do :)
Spotify | Google Podcasts | Apple Podcasts
I came across this
A company that encourages kids to read more by inserting illustrations of their real-life pets into the story. Read about Two Tails Story Co here and see the site (US, of course) here.
Some more fun ChatGPT stuff? Sure!
Not ChatGPT, but close enough:
Enough AI! This is supposed to be a marketing newsletter. Show me something on the intersection of social media marketing, The World Cup and brand sass
See you next week
With more things from the internet. Don't worry, this newsletter will always be written by a human!
Chuck