Will ChatGPT replace you?

Debkanya: 0:10

Hello and welcome to Tydy Tea Time. This is our safe space. This is where we talk about work trends. We talk about what's exciting in the, the world of work. We try and do a little bit of stargazing to see what the future of work holds for us. With me as always, are my fellow Stargazers, Kiran, Soumya, and Pooja. Hello? Hello. Hi guys. Hello. Hi. So now like I said we are stargazers and today we are looking into our crystal balls to find out if the internet's newest baby, which is ChatGPT, will grow up to steal away our jobs. I'd like to start with my very first question to, like I said, my fellow stargazers today. How many of you used ChatGPT today to prep for this chat?‍

Pooja: 0:59

Earlier I did today actually, I tried logging back in and it told me that they've reached maximum capacity. So I was like, oh damn. A lot of people are using are experimenting with the platform

Debkanya: 1:13

Yeah. What about you, Kiran? You were threatening to use ChatGPT.

Kiran: 1:16

I did not end up using it.

Debkanya: 1:19

Oh what a shame.

Kiran: 1:20

So everything I say is my own opinion and my own thought. It is not ChatGPT's..

Debkanya: 1:27

fantastic

Soumya: 1:30

Yeah. I didn't use it for this conversation either. Not that I haven't used it, but definitely not to ask ChatGPT about itself..

Debkanya: 1:39

I tried, I really tried because I wanted to see what ChatGPT would uh, generate for us. I mean, we've used it in the past, like for example, just before Christmas we created this little Christmas carol which was dedicated to People Operations and HR professionals. And I thought it was pretty cool though some parts of it were gibberish but I think it gave us a good starting point. So we have used chat PT to do our work for us very recently this particular chat, none of us have been able to use ChatGPT so it's great because it's all our own thoughts here. But, the real conversation is that eventually there are certain aspects of our jobs that ChatGPT or AI in general and other such tools will kind of take over, right. The Guardian, for example, was one of the first few publications I think that came out and said that. That's it your job is in danger. There were some other publications. I mean, there was an Australian one, which also said the same thing. But then we've seen this happen in the past as well, right? Where when automation first came into being, there were headlines which said that robots are going to take your jobs away. It's a repeat of the same thing. How true do you think it is this time?

Kiran: 2:50

I think I'll start with a simple kind of real life experience. So last week I think Nikhil and I were kind of just playing around with ChatGPT. We were looking at the roles we needed to hire and I think anyone who's been through this hiring process knows how tedious. really pointless the whole JD prep process is.. Yeah. Prepping a whole job description and saying the right things and making sure that you're not missing out on all the requirements and blah, blah, blah. It's a really mind numbering exercise, at least for me. And so, um, we just went to ChatGPT and we put down roles that we were hiring for, for example, senior software engineer DevOps engineer with so-and-so experience, and it actually generated a fairly good JD for us. I would say that was really amazing for me because everything else was a lot of gimmicks. You know, it can write a little bit of code, it can do X, y, Z, but this actually. gave me the confidence that it can actually be useful in a real business scenario, right? You can imagine a 10 person company with no HR sitting and using something like this to generate a JD which is pretty awesome.

Debkanya: 4:16

But essentially it's doing, yeah, you're right. It's essentially doing what we've also done in the past, right? And hand to my heart, I've done this many times, is when I had to put a JD together, I've Googled it.. Found like two or three that kind of matched my requirements and then mushed them all together and created the perfect JD for me. And that's what ChatGPT is doing as well, right? It's correct. It's quickly taking stuff, different words, and then push pushing them all together and some of it makes sense and then the rest of it, there's a human being doing the proofing and reading and correcting for you, right?

Kiran: 4:48

But it's,

4:48

if

Kiran: 4:49

it's even saving you 15 minutes, that's a really valuable tool.

Debkanya: 4:53

So it can be used as a JD generator, is that what is that the job role that you're seeing it kind of take over?

Kiran: 5:01

At least one that I've seen with a lot of promise.

Debkanya: 5:05

Awesome. What about you, Pooja? I mean, you are a designer and there's a lot Yeah. That is being said about how people like designers and copywriters and content creators in general have to worry about now that AI is playing such a strong role.

Pooja: 5:20

Yeah, I mean, I think overall, the ability for me to just trust, even if it's just these JDs and things like that, to completely trust a technology today is a bit scary. Like there's even Dall-E for example, which is an image based generator, which a tool like Canva has already also started using. Yeah. It is scary to know, my job as a designer could be in jeopardy. I don't know how far it would go in terms of like, because I, I can create anything like I've experimented on Canva itself and so have you right, Debbie. We've typed in the most absurd combinations of images and it has in a, in few seconds given out something quite good actually. It is worrying to know where, how far it would go, and I really do hope that I can continue to be the human that is creating rather than a technology.

Kiran: 6:26

To your point, when Canva launched, everyone assumed designers are gonna lose a lot of their work.

Pooja: 6:33

Yes, that's true. So there's different design as well. Right. I would imagine Canva would be used for a more quicker design, like say social media and things like that, that require Right. Shouldn't require too much of thinking versus, yeah. Say a web designer or a developer that is constantly already looking for new technologies and things like that.

Kiran: 6:57

As a user. And I'll tell you where I've kind of used this whole AI created design, right? Yeah. Some of you may, some of you may not know this, but I'm a hobbyist musician when I'm not working on Tydy. So simple things like the album cover art, right. So the cover art that you see for any song on Spotify or wherever it is. Now, I've tried generating that with AI just so that I don't have to spend mental resources to create something or think about something or find someone who can do it. Right. Now those are really quick examples which are not necessarily replacing a designer, but just giving me the added tools to be more self-sufficient. Yeah. To a large extent. Right, and to an extent, that's what ChatGPT also kind of is trying to do, is to make sure people are becoming a lot more self-sufficient and being able to be more productive with what they need to do. Yeah. I don't think it'll ever replace a whole human being

Pooja: 8:03

True.

Debkanya: 8:03

Maybe it's, it's about the short content format that we all love consuming nowadays. There's such a need for short format content social media quick sentences, catchy headlines, clickbait headlines, things that we kind of, you know, that we can spend hours, right? I, as a writer myself and somebody who has to who works you know, this is, this is a marketing team for whoever's listening in. We spend so much time trying to come up with the right kind of copy, the right kind of words. Uh, the thesaurus is our best friend. We keep moving things around. ChatGPT has kind of taken a lot of that burden off you wherein, like you said, you provide the right prompt and then it'll generate like different options. And any AI writer does that. And then you go in and pick the one that is the strongest that you identify with the most, or you think is the best. But then what it then probably will do, because at the end of the day ChatGPT or any AI tool is just an organizer, right? It's taking information and it's organizing it. It's not able to separate fact from fiction. It's not able to apply experience. Of course, it's learning all the time, but it's not still able to apply nuances to a large extent yet. I'm yeah, I'm assuming that there's work happening in the background to make that happen as well in the future, but right now it's taking care of your immediate, short, snappy stuff. Any long form content, and there's been enough, I mean, I was reading about the kind of research that people are doing to see how effective it is, right? Like someone said the stuff that ChatGPT or any other tool like that would generate is "polished rubbish" because it sounds really great. It sounds so good, like polished and sounds confident. The sentence construction sounds great, but actually it's like that student during the exams who takes a lot of extra sheets and keep writing and writing pages and pages of the same thing in different ways just to get marks because some people believe that the teachers grade you based on how thick your answer sheet is. I think ChatGPT is great for things like that

Kiran: 10:12

I think it's useful where it when people know what it can be used for. If you try to use it to create long form content, then yeah, it's going to start throwing out a lot of crap. Yeah. But every time I kind of go speak to leaders in companies CHROs, SVPs of HR, they'll all ask me this simple question, what do you think about AI today? And in just a generic way. So what do you think about AI? My, my constant answer is very simple is that AI is nowhere close today to what everyone assumes it is in terms of maturity. There are just way too few models that are being run through it and it can never replace the kind of intellect and thought process that we have as, as human beings. Will it get there? I don't know. How long will it take? I have no idea. It'll probably take five years. It could probably take 10 years, but you know, it's nowhere close to being a replacement for a human being today in anything that we do, in any sphere, whether it is in recruitment, in managing resumes, generating code is nowhere close to replacing an individual. I think that is the wrong way to kind of look at it, because it is always going to be an enabler, like we have said in the past, which can really help certain functions propel and grow much faster than was possible before. So like I said, if I'm a you know, person who's running a company with 10 people and I don't have HR, a lot of the policies, all the templates, all the JDs, all of that can get done, at least from a base framework perspective, which then gives me the opportunity to now start tweaking it to my needs, but I don't have to start from scratch. That becomes a huge game changer.

Debkanya: 12:10

What you said there, you don't have to start from scratch. That's something, I mean, I've been thinking about a lot, right? Because again, as somebody who edits a lot of work in general. It's always easier to work with something that's already there in front of you. Than starting from scratch. Right. And now I will ask Soumya this question as our writer and again, content creator it's something I've wondered about, right? There are so many of us who freelance as writers, as bloggers. How does this then fit in? Because what if companies just turned to ChatGPT and said, write me an SEO friendly article on HR in 2023, and then it'll generate something. What does that mean for you?

Soumya: 13:00

Oh, yeah. I think the first time I heard about ChatGPT I was really nervous. I think my nervousness led me to the platform. And I did kind of explore the platform and I wouldn't deny all the possibilities there is. But on the other side, I also think maybe when I passed out of college, this marketing, I didn't learn about social media or digital marketing and things like that in college, it was not a field that time. But we've survived this. We know about digital marketing, we know about social media, so I think there's also a natural flow wherein we will end up upskilling and reskilling according to how the market changes and how maybe the AI tools will kind of change the way we work. I think one, one kind of dependency that's there is on how Microsoft Word maybe underlines spelling mistakes, right. Today when I sit down with a paper and pen to actually write something, I really do wish, those red lines appear on my paper so that when I am probably spelling something wrong it tells you.

Debkanya: 14:03

Tell me about it.

Soumya: 14:03

Yeah. it's enabled me, so I still think that AI will enable, there will be upskilling and reskilling that will be required. I'm not saying there's zero and I'm confident the way I head is all green for all the freelance content writers out there, but I think it's not all dark either.

Debkanya: 14:28

I've also seen that ChatGPT supposedly makes some really good arguments if you actually asked it to debate. Has anyone tried that?

Soumya: 14:34

I haven't, I've asked for anecdotes and I've asked for quotes from people. So it definitely does pick up all of those.

Debkanya: 14:42

I've also heard that it makes up quotes and makes up references.

Soumya: 14:47

That's something that's questionable still, right. If you and I are going to say type in the top HR trends in 2023, is it going to generate the same thing for both of us?

Debkanya: 14:58

That's interesting. We should try that as an experiment. And then match.

Soumya: 15:03

Yeah, absolutely. We should do that. Like, again, lots of people are talking about how it's making up quotes, which means ChatGPT therefore can also be used to spread misinformation. Because it can, it generates content so fast. So you just, like I read some shocking stuff like how people have asked it to write a scientific paper on the benefits of how crushed porcelain added to breast milk can support the infant digestive system. And ChatGPT actually came up with a scientific paper on it. Oh my God.

Debkanya: 15:38

This has just made life that much more hell for fact checkers and therefore you have so many fact checkers. I mean, now you have their work cut out for them. Right. With AI generated content.

Soumya: 15:50

Which is scary because I also read about people creating new plans and diet plans and all of that on ChatGPT as well. So how true is the information that we are getting? How do we validate what we are getting is also important.

Kiran: 16:07

I do think that's not unique to ChatGPT or anything else? It's what is the case with any technology, anything new, right? You'll always have naysayers. You'll always have people who push it to the boundaries to see where it'll snap. And so that's okay.

Debkanya: 16:22

Yeah, that's okay. But then now we are worrying about our jobs.

Soumya: 16:25

I have a question. Do you think ChatGPT and these AI tools are smarter than you and I.

Kiran: 16:33

I think it's faster. Okay. I think it's faster with whatever you ask it to do than you and I can ever be. But is the result better than what you and I can produce? We don't know as yet.

Debkanya: 16:48

Yeah, I don't know. I don't know. And this is maybe my fantastic female imposter syndrome speaking that yes ChatGPT is smarter than me and can do better than me. But then again, like we were saying earlier, right at the end of the day, I will still find ways in which whatever has been generated by ChatGPT can be made better. And there's a lot of crap that's in there that I would never be able to generate myself or would not want to. But then the thing is, it's early days, right? It's just months old. I don't know where it's going to go. And that is what makes me wonder, right? Tomorrow. People talk about how journalists are not gonna have their jobs anymore because you will tell ChatGPT to generate a story and it's done. Maybe if you if you model it in such a way that it can no longer pick up on discriminatory language or use offensive language or respond to any discriminatory and offensive requests, then as it gets more and more fine-tuned, there is a real problem. And like you said, then the only answer is upskilling or changing the way you do work. As a writer or a content creator, it's about, it's gonna be about doing that course on how to interact with AI or how do I speak to ChatGPT, how do you produce winning content? Top five ways to win at ChatGPT... those kinds of things will kind of take over. And those blogs will probably be written by ChatGPT. Oh God.

Pooja: 18:23

Hopefully, I'm just hoping you know, it stays a tool and we start to draw boundaries around it saying This is how, this is the extent to which I will use ChatGPT, but for the remainder percentage I will use myself, you know.

Debkanya: 18:44

Yeah. But that's you personally drawing boundaries, or are you thinking time will draw those boundaries.

Pooja: 18:49

Again, I don't know where it's gonna go, but because of how much of capability there is, it would maybe help to draw those boundaries. I don't know.

Kiran: 19:01

But again, you are thinking of just ChatGPT. Now, that's just one solution. There could be, 25 others that show up in the next two years, which are maybe significantly better, significantly different, whatever it may be. Yeah. Right. It's not gonna stop.

Pooja: 19:17

Yeah.

Kiran: 19:17

It's only gonna get better.

Pooja: 19:19

And scarier.

Debkanya: 19:20

But I think therefore, we as humans and as consumers are also going to therefore evolve in terms of what our expectations are. Right? Or automatically you'll have antenna for, is this generated by a human being or is this written by some AI tool? You'll have that antenna like the growth of D two C brands kind of explains that because we moved from that mass consumer attitude to more exclusive, more you know, non assembly line, handmade products. Today there's a preference for that rather than mass consumer goods. So similarly, even when you're consuming content, you will have your antenna up for content that is generated versus actual human beings thinking and pouring their hearts out onto a piece of paper. I think there's that difference, which is in a way, a good thing because we did go through this phase where we saw content generated, which was all again like I mentioned earlier, for SEO. So you, they were jammed with keywords. They were not serving any real purpose, they were not really giving any value, but they were saying the same thing that 500 other blogs said. And that's the difference today between good content and bad content. And I think that's again something we will start to be more discerning about. Like another example is chat bots, right? Again, chatbots the answer to that horrible customer service rep on the other end who does not answer your questions. And who you will you take forever to finally get on the phone. But

Kiran: 20:42

I hate chatbots.

Debkanya: 20:43

Exactly. Exactly. I hate chatbots.. I hate them. I don't want to talk to a chatbot. I wanna talk to a human being.

Kiran: 20:49

Ridiculous. It makes life worse.

Debkanya: 20:51

Exactly. So there you go. there's a parallel to be drawn then maybe?

Kiran: 20:56

I don't know. I mean, see there are certain things that technology has always done, which has enabled and made life easier and better. Yeah. I don't think it is this Dark Lord coming from somewhere who's gonna take over the world and those kind of things. There will be some which succeed in helping us become more efficient. There will be some which fail. I don't think it is taking over any time soon.

Debkanya: 21:24

Anytime soon. In the next five, 10 years, in your lifetime or what do you...

Kiran: 21:29

Oh, in my lifetime, a hundred percent.

Debkanya: 21:32

Okay, cool. So then verdict is nothing to worry about. It's just another flash in the pan and it's good for you.

Kiran: 21:38

No, there is a lot to worry about. Yeah, it's a lot. Cause it is it is not gonna take over, but what it'll do is it'll show up inefficiencies in the human in a big way. And so if we are not upskilling constantly and kind of building our own capabilities, building our own growth, then that becomes a problem because technology will very quickly show you up.

Debkanya: 22:05

Right. Last word, Soumya, Pooja?

Soumya: 22:10

Yeah. I think that AI is going to be that enabler for us. Of course, there are things to worry about because I think for a lot of us, there could be parts of our jobs that could become obsolete, but upskilling and reskilling will still kind of keep us afloat. AI is not going to completely replace us like Kiran said, maybe not, at least in our lifetime.

Pooja: 22:33

Yeah, no, I agree with Soumya. I think as much as I personally fear the very fast advancement of technology, I think it's a good thing that we have these enablers in place to be more efficient and I dunno. Let's see where, what happens. I'm hoping this takes a little longer and it isn't this sudden shift where I'm like, oh, like you know, the worry and the concern comes in at, at a extreme level. But let's see. I'm excited. I'm curious to see where this goes.

Debkanya: 23:10

I agree. I'm excited too. Actually, I'm, I've decided that I'm going to use these tools, AI tools to, as my personal assistants. Yeah. So I get them to do my dirty work for me. All the stuff that I don't want to do, that should have always been automated. All this random.

Kiran: 23:26

That's perfect.

Debkanya: 23:27

Yeah, exactly. Make it do the dirty work. Yeah. So you can focus on the higher level thinking. Yeah. That's that. Our brains have been, are designed over your, and yours and eons. Right. So use that for the bigger things that you're meant to be doing and leave the non-productive random day-to-day stuff for tech. Great! This was fun. Thank you so much everybody for listening in. We do this chat every Thursday if you have anything, any topics that you think we should be talking about, please let us know here or you can reach out to us on LinkedIn. You can find us all on LinkedIn. Yeah, and until next time, it's goodbye from all of us.

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