Blog : AI

How ChatGPT Is Disrupting the Very Idea of Art Itself

By now, most people are familiar with the sheer level of disruption that AI-driven tools like ChatGPT are leaving in their wake. That one in particular is already being used take (and pass) business school exams for people. A mobile app like the Robinhood app was used by Reddit to upend the stock market. It’s changed the way people think about searching online. It’s had a major impact on eCommerce. The list goes on and on.

But when it comes to art, the impact has largely been limited to being a novelty… until now. People have used ChatGPT to write wonderfully bizarre essays or to create rudimentary pictures based on rough descriptions. But could that same tool soon be used to instantly create another season of your favorite television show, or to write massive series of novels so that you never run out of something to read?

If the answers to those questions are “yes”… is that a problem? That’s where things get tricky.

The Impact of AI on Art is Already Here

Perhaps the biggest example of this idea playing out in the news right now takes the form of the Hollywood Writer’s Strike. For those unfamiliar, all writers who are a part of the Writer’s Guild of America (or WGA for short) began a strike in May 2023 with a list of demands that studios like Disney and Warner Brothers initially refused to accommodate. One of them had to do with protections against the impact that artificial intelligence might have on the entire industry.

One of the WGA’s demands was that studios “regulate the use of artificial intelligence on all covered projects.” More specifically, they want guarantees that AI will not be used to write or rewrite literary material, that anything generated by AI cannot be used as source material, and that anything covered under the Guild (which is just about everything produced by the major Hollywood studios) can’t be used to train an artificial intelligence algorithm.

To put it another way, writers want guarantees that they’ll lose out on future jobs in the future because AI will simply be used to fill that void. If they turn in a first draft of a script, they want to make sure that they won’t be immediately fired so that an AI can then rewrite it for free. Anything that has previously been written (like a script for cinematic classics like “The Godfather” or “Gone With the Wind”) should also not be used as training material to allow an AI algorithm to do all of the above.

In essence, what they’re trying to protect is not necessarily their ability to be artists – as any of us can do that at any point. It’s their ability to make a living from it. If a studio has a choice between paying someone to write a script and using an AI tool like ChatGPT to create that same script for “free” (after the initial investment of course), and the results are similar if not identical, it’s clear that they will select the second option almost every time.

Equally complicating things is the subjective nature of art. Person A could watch a movie that they loved while Person B could watch the same movie and think it was terrible. So who is to say a script written by an AI tool like ChatGPT isn’t just as good as one written by a human?

The same is true of the quality of a painting written by AI, or a song that has been generated in largely the same way.

So even though, as it stands, AI cannot replicate the quality of human-derived art with 100% success (just look at the hands in any AI-generated drawing of a human for proof of that), there will come a day when that is no longer the case. Given how hard the Hollywood writers are currently fighting, that day may come a lot sooner than most people realize.

What happens then? If “art” lacks that human element – that connection that we make with the thoughts, ideas, and feelings of another human being – does it continue to be art? If “yes,” does that matter? Is this future inevitable? These are the types of questions that people who care about art and its impact on our society are already having.

As the philosopher Alfred Korzybski once said “a difference which makes no difference is no difference.” When it comes to art as a concept, that is a level of disruption that we all may have to come to terms with sooner rather than later.

<em>How AI Is Disrupting the Modern Office</em>

How AI Is Disrupting the Modern Office

If you had to sum up the recurring theme of the last several years in virtually all areas of our lives, “disruption” would be the word you would undoubtedly use.

We have witnessed some significant and thrilling instances of disruption, such as how a community of Reddit users utilized the Robinhood app to revolutionize our perception of stocks. However, the impact of mobile apps on financial markets is merely the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the various forms of disruption that we have encountered.

Another form of disruption that is prominent in ways both large and small takes the form of AI, or artificial intelligence. In just a few short years it’s changed the makeup of the modern office significantly – something that is true in a number of ways that are worth exploring.

The Role of AI in the Ever-Changing World of Work

For decades, managers have existing in an office environment primarily for the purposes of “people management.” They help make sure that team members and other employees are staying on-task, are moving in the right direction, are keeping up with all necessary deliverables, etc.

With AI tools that are already available, all of this can now be automated. An estimation between 40% and 50% of human resources functions are now using many AI-augmented applications to perform these tasks with greater ease and accuracy than ever before. Somehow, this has simultaneously managed to make the human resources department more valuable than ever thanks to the timely and accurate insight that it can generate, while also completely shifting the definition of what employees working within this department are expected to do.

As the world rapidly adopts AI technology, even Zoom has hopped on the bandwagon. In a recent announcement, the video conferencing platform revealed its collaboration with OpenAI, the creators of ChatGPT, to introduce AI-powered features, primarily targeting sales teams, marking a major shift for the company.

The feature, dubbed Zoom IQ for Sales, uses artificial intelligence to digest the massive volumes of data that organizations are already creating to generate an accurate and real-time engagement score for all customers in a system. It is intended to give insight into how “attentive” a customer is based on the amount of time that passes between when they make contact, how long they speak during calls, the number of times they speak when talking to an employee, and more. It also generates a sentiment score that essentially measures how positive or negative their attitude is when they participate in meetings.

In an instance, tasks that formerly took up a significant amount of a sales representative’s day in the office are now handled quickly, easily, and accurately by an AI tool. This in turn frees up as much of their valuable time as possible to focus on matters that truly need their attention.

But how soon will it be before these same AI tools are essentially running our Zoom meetings for us? Suddenly what was once a pivotal collaborative tool during the pandemic becomes yet another opportunity for automation. If that isn’t a perfect example of disruption – and the rapid pace it often arrives with – nothing is.

In the end, it’s truly incredible to think about that which has been made possible thanks to AI in an office environment over a (relatively) short period of time. From the role of automation in allowing employees to work smarter, not harder, to the recent emergence of tools like ChatGPT. When you consider all that artificial intelligence has been able to disrupt in just a few short years, it’s truly amazing to think about what the next few might have in store for us all.

<em>The Disruption of AI in the Healthcare Space</em>

The Disruption of AI in the Healthcare Space

Much has been written about artificial intelligence over the last several months – particularly when it comes to consumer search.

ChatGPT debuted mere months ago, and it’s already being heralded as the natural evolution of the chatbot. Not only can it do everything from answer complicated questions to generate responses to prompts, but it can even help generate content like resumes, blog posts, and more. Things have gotten to the point where, according to one recent study, an estimated 70% of people who regularly use ChatGPT at work to make their lives easier haven’t actually told their bosses that they’re doing so.

But while this may be the flashiest example of just how disruptive AI can be, it’s far from the first – or even the most important. Medical professionals have been using artificial intelligence in the healthcare space for years, for example – all in ways that are changing how we think about the care provided to patients and the potentially lifesaving outcomes that we’re able to generate.

AI and Healthcare: The Perfect Pairing

One of the most immediate ways in which artificial intelligence is being used in healthcare has to do with patient triage, particularly as it relates to reviewing images, scans, and other critical documents.

In an effort to find out what disease or condition a patient is suffering from, a doctor will typically order a battery of different tests. Those tests produce scans and diagnostic images of organs like the heart or lungs that then need to be carefully reviewed. The issue is that not only does this typically take a great deal of time, but it is also susceptible to human error as well.

Artificial intelligence, however, can be trained on massive amounts of data to perform the same basic tasks in a fraction of the time. Not only can then quickly analyze images and other records at high speeds, but they can do so far more reliably than a human ever could. This can lead to a faster diagnosis on behalf of the patient, which can get them the care they need quicker and improve outcomes along the way. Not only that, but it frees up the invaluable time of the medical professional to focus more on those matters that could truly use their attention.

The same concept holds true to the way that artificial intelligence is being used to train doctors, nurses, and other clinicians as well. Again, once an AI system has been given the chance to ingest the right, quality dataset, it can review information and “make decisions” with an incredibly high degree of accuracy. When used as an assistive training tool, this can help to minimize the types of mistakes that new doctors are likely to make, can help usher in more accurate clinical judgments, and more. All of this results in better trained medical professionals getting out into the field far faster and with a more robust education than ever.

All of this helps bring about the most important benefit of all: higher quality and better healthcare for larger numbers of people, allowing for lifesaving treatment along the way.

Based on use cases like those outlined above, it’s easy to see why it has been estimated that artificial intelligence could save the healthcare industry approximately $360 billion per year. Once obstacles like slow adoption rates among doctors and patients are overcome, there truly is no limit to the potential that is on display in front of us.

In the end, it’s safe to say that technology is changing just about every facet of our lives. In a world where a collection of Reddit users can use a mobile app like the Robinhood app to disrupt the stock market, should anyone be surprised of what AI is capable of in contexts like healthcare? Perhaps it is best to think about it this way: what is impressive is not necessarily what AI can do today, but what it will potentially be able to accomplish tomorrow. That in and of itself is truly exciting to think about.