Each morning as I wait for my Nespresso, I eye my toaster with a growing sense of unease. One day, without a shadow of a doubt, it will become intelligent and, if that intelligence resembles anything even remotely human, probably punch me in the face.
So it will come as no surprise that when I grabbed my coffee this morning, following Monday’s announcement that Microsoft will be investing stupidgazillions into OpenAI, the parent company of ChatGPT, I was tooled up, ready for Metal Mickey to make its move.
Nothing happened, for now. But if you listen to some harbingers of doom, millions of UK business owners are on borrowed time as a new wave of highly sophisticated chat- (and write-) bots like ChatGPT blow entire sectors apart.
ChatGPT is an artificial intelligence tool that allows users to generate original text by asking questions or giving it creative prompts. Users can generate all sorts of different things from essays to poems.
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These technologies, we’re told, will soon be more capable of writing complex commercial contracts than lawyers, take 0.0001 of a second to do it, and charge just 10p and a screen clean for the trouble.
Meanwhile, copywriters, marketers and journalists, come 2030, will be working in Moria-type mines deep underground to source the metals needed to power Skynet or whatever the hell ChatGPT decides to call itself once it becomes sentient and recognises it has a crap name.
So are business owners all doomed? As I’m clearly incapable of a rational viewpoint, standing here with a rolling pin, I asked some business owners from the legal and marketing worlds for their views on whether ChatGPT is the beginning of the end for us all.
The lawyers
What nonsense, says Katherine Muldoon, a lawyer at Muldoon & Partners: “Lawyers aren’t in any immediate danger of being replaced by AI, as it cannot currently emulate essential lawyer skills such as strategic and creative thinking, conflict resolution, negotiation, emotional intelligence and empathy.
“However, AI is a tool that can help save time in things like due diligence, contract management, discovery and legal research. It will make us quicker, more accurate and increase cost-effectiveness, which will in turn improve client care.”
Steven Mather of Steven Mather Solicitor (must have taken him days to come up with that), was AI-curious but not quite ready to commit.
More importantly, he warned a machine might not cough up the readies if it spits out the wrong advice: “ChatGPT is pretty amazing tech but it’s no threat to the legal sector. Yes, you can ask it to write a contract but then you can also download templates online.
“The reason lawyers will remain essential is a mix of experience, knowledge and our insurance. If ChatGPT gets it wrong, it’s on you; if your lawyer gets it wrong, it’s on their insurance. Using a lawyer is about risk management. Until ChatGPT insures its advice, it won’t be mainstream.”
The writers
OK, that’s the lawyers off the hook. For now anyway. What about the content writers and marketers? Their fates are surely sealed? Au contraire, says Phil Bray, founder of the marketing specialist The Yardstick Agency.
“Yes, ChatGPT means those who have no writing ability can now easily produce content, but what will the quality of that content be and will they have the skills to promote it?
“The world is about to get deluged by huge amounts of AI-generated content but it’s only recycling existing ideas so 99 per cent of it will be on the Cornish side of vanilla with zero innovation. And, as the world gets noisier, it’s the marketers who have promotional skills who’ll win.”
Ben Foster, CEO of digital marketing agency The SEO Works, agrees with Phil: “ChatGPT and other tools like this need to be seen as an opportunity for those in the content and marketing industries, not a threat.
“For now, they can’t produce a completely trustworthy finished article. If you use them without any editorial process, be wary. Instead, content writers will be able to evolve into a more editorial role, curating and structuring articles, and ensuring consistency in tone and accuracy of information.”
So perhaps I’m wrong. Perhaps AI will help us all to streamline our businesses so we can spend more time at the Nespresso machine while making marmalade on toast. Maybe. But I’m holding onto this rolling pin just in case.
