Bill Conrad's Blog - Posts Tagged "the-future"
Company Fires 60 Strong Writing Team
I came across this news article:
https://www.techspot.com/news/103535-...
The article stated that a company developed a seasoned writing team to promote their product by writing blog posts. All was good until they laid the writers in favor of an AI generator (like ChatGPT). The only people left were editors who had to tidy up the blog entries, so they looked like a human had written them.
Should I be angry? Hey! They fired a bunch of fellow writers! Not cool! The truth is that this story did not surprise me at all, and I felt no emotion. Why?
A friend (who is not a computer expert) developed ChatGPT scripts to do his entire job. He takes the company’s latest reports and writes blog posts, emails, and tweets. Plus, he spots issues and recommends improvements. ChatGPT allows him to do a day’s work in minutes. And the result? His bosses are very pleased, but he would get fired in a heartbeat if they knew what was going on.
ChatGPT is the perfect program to do what those 60 people were doing. Take boring company junk and turn it into enticing blog posts. The people reading the blog will see the latest company news in an easy-to-read format.
What about those who got fired? I am sure they were creative and talented people who were proud of their words. They had families dependent on their income, and I know these writers were angry for being laid off. Yet, this is not the first time a new technology has led to job loss.
I recall a story by my former coworker who passed away in the mid-90s. She was an incredibly talented database programmer hired to upgrade a large retail store chain’s inventory/ordering/payroll/accounting system. This contract job replaced giant mainframes with smaller but more powerful modern software and hardware. She developed a relational database and Windows program that allows quick interaction. Her system replaced a vastly outdated text file database and thousands of dumb terminals.
This effort took six months, and the results were fantastic for the employees, customers, and company profit. Yet, before the upgrade, the company had a four-story building with 120 employees, several mainframes, and one entire floor dedicated to nine-track tapes. (Remember those “high tech” computer scenes in old movies where the two tapes spun back and forth? They are nine-tracks.) Imagine the size of their electricity bill.
The entire building was replaced with a single programmer (to maintain the system and add features) and a single modern server. I am sure those 120 people were spitting nails upset at losing their jobs. This speech from the excellent movie “Other People’s Money” sums up their situation:
https://www.americanrhetoric.com/Movi...
Could these employees see layoffs coming? The 2015 documentary “All Things Must Pass” described the downfall of Tower Records. Nobody at Tower saw a future where people could download music, yet the millions of people downloading music certainly saw the future.
If the Tower Records employees or management had applied any effort, they could have predicted their job loss. “Hey, look at this. People can download music. Time to update my resume.”
Well, what about me? Programs like ChatGPT are getting more powerful every day. You know my book, Interviewing Immortality? (Please download a copy!) I bet if you gave ChatGPT the summary, it could write a story just as well. Girrr. I must admit, this is a true statement.
Want proof? I have read several books that were clearly written with ChatGPT, and here are two examples:
ChatGPT for Writers by Saif Hussaini
AI Mastery Trilogy by Andrew Hinton
What ticked me off was that in the book summary/blurb, the author made no mention that ChatGPT wrote their creation. I have seen enough ChatGPT-generated content to recognize its writing style and have a spoiler alert. You will soon have the same magical ability. Want proof?
Way back when books were not printed, scribes copied them. Then, the printing press was invented. The result was unflattering because printed letters were square and not created by humans. Boo! Try harder. Then, the typewriter was invented. If you received a letter, it was clear that it was not printed; a typewriter made it. Boo! I want the neatness of a printing press.
Then, the computer was invented, and people wrote letters using a word processor and printer. Boo! Look right here. The font changed. I want to read a letter created on a typewriter.
ChatGPT has already invaded our lives. Are you talking/emailing/chatting with a real person? ChatGPT or some other AI is taking your fast-food orders, calling you on the phone, answering your technical questions, providing limitless entertainment, or conning you out of your hard-earned money.
Yet, I remind you that this is just the beginning. Remember the invention of the IBM PC in the late 70s? Yes, there were many issues, but with some developments, we now have today’s astounding smartphones, gaming PCs, internet service providers, and thousands of AI computers chugging away.
We figured out the IBM PC and will figure out ChatGPT. This means that, like in the 20s, when people figured out they were reading a typed letter, people will learn to recognize when they are not interacting with a human.
Will those 60 people be hired back? Probably not, but the arm will swing the other way. The company that fired those 60 people will soon have upset customers. “This blog is pure AI. I’m not shopping here.”
What does it all mean? If you see a future where AI will take your job, it might be time to update your resume. Also, it is now essential to recognize AI-generated content. Fortunately, I will be here to provide you with AI-free content.
PS, I got a spam message today for a service that uses AI to generate blogs. “100% original content” It made me laugh.
You’re the best -Bill
July 17, 2024
https://www.techspot.com/news/103535-...
The article stated that a company developed a seasoned writing team to promote their product by writing blog posts. All was good until they laid the writers in favor of an AI generator (like ChatGPT). The only people left were editors who had to tidy up the blog entries, so they looked like a human had written them.
Should I be angry? Hey! They fired a bunch of fellow writers! Not cool! The truth is that this story did not surprise me at all, and I felt no emotion. Why?
A friend (who is not a computer expert) developed ChatGPT scripts to do his entire job. He takes the company’s latest reports and writes blog posts, emails, and tweets. Plus, he spots issues and recommends improvements. ChatGPT allows him to do a day’s work in minutes. And the result? His bosses are very pleased, but he would get fired in a heartbeat if they knew what was going on.
ChatGPT is the perfect program to do what those 60 people were doing. Take boring company junk and turn it into enticing blog posts. The people reading the blog will see the latest company news in an easy-to-read format.
What about those who got fired? I am sure they were creative and talented people who were proud of their words. They had families dependent on their income, and I know these writers were angry for being laid off. Yet, this is not the first time a new technology has led to job loss.
I recall a story by my former coworker who passed away in the mid-90s. She was an incredibly talented database programmer hired to upgrade a large retail store chain’s inventory/ordering/payroll/accounting system. This contract job replaced giant mainframes with smaller but more powerful modern software and hardware. She developed a relational database and Windows program that allows quick interaction. Her system replaced a vastly outdated text file database and thousands of dumb terminals.
This effort took six months, and the results were fantastic for the employees, customers, and company profit. Yet, before the upgrade, the company had a four-story building with 120 employees, several mainframes, and one entire floor dedicated to nine-track tapes. (Remember those “high tech” computer scenes in old movies where the two tapes spun back and forth? They are nine-tracks.) Imagine the size of their electricity bill.
The entire building was replaced with a single programmer (to maintain the system and add features) and a single modern server. I am sure those 120 people were spitting nails upset at losing their jobs. This speech from the excellent movie “Other People’s Money” sums up their situation:
https://www.americanrhetoric.com/Movi...
Could these employees see layoffs coming? The 2015 documentary “All Things Must Pass” described the downfall of Tower Records. Nobody at Tower saw a future where people could download music, yet the millions of people downloading music certainly saw the future.
If the Tower Records employees or management had applied any effort, they could have predicted their job loss. “Hey, look at this. People can download music. Time to update my resume.”
Well, what about me? Programs like ChatGPT are getting more powerful every day. You know my book, Interviewing Immortality? (Please download a copy!) I bet if you gave ChatGPT the summary, it could write a story just as well. Girrr. I must admit, this is a true statement.
Want proof? I have read several books that were clearly written with ChatGPT, and here are two examples:
ChatGPT for Writers by Saif Hussaini
AI Mastery Trilogy by Andrew Hinton
What ticked me off was that in the book summary/blurb, the author made no mention that ChatGPT wrote their creation. I have seen enough ChatGPT-generated content to recognize its writing style and have a spoiler alert. You will soon have the same magical ability. Want proof?
Way back when books were not printed, scribes copied them. Then, the printing press was invented. The result was unflattering because printed letters were square and not created by humans. Boo! Try harder. Then, the typewriter was invented. If you received a letter, it was clear that it was not printed; a typewriter made it. Boo! I want the neatness of a printing press.
Then, the computer was invented, and people wrote letters using a word processor and printer. Boo! Look right here. The font changed. I want to read a letter created on a typewriter.
ChatGPT has already invaded our lives. Are you talking/emailing/chatting with a real person? ChatGPT or some other AI is taking your fast-food orders, calling you on the phone, answering your technical questions, providing limitless entertainment, or conning you out of your hard-earned money.
Yet, I remind you that this is just the beginning. Remember the invention of the IBM PC in the late 70s? Yes, there were many issues, but with some developments, we now have today’s astounding smartphones, gaming PCs, internet service providers, and thousands of AI computers chugging away.
We figured out the IBM PC and will figure out ChatGPT. This means that, like in the 20s, when people figured out they were reading a typed letter, people will learn to recognize when they are not interacting with a human.
Will those 60 people be hired back? Probably not, but the arm will swing the other way. The company that fired those 60 people will soon have upset customers. “This blog is pure AI. I’m not shopping here.”
What does it all mean? If you see a future where AI will take your job, it might be time to update your resume. Also, it is now essential to recognize AI-generated content. Fortunately, I will be here to provide you with AI-free content.
PS, I got a spam message today for a service that uses AI to generate blogs. “100% original content” It made me laugh.
You’re the best -Bill
July 17, 2024
