This is part of a series of independent blogs about the impact of AI on our world, especially in the field of writing and marketing. It reflects my personal view and is based on my experiences. I am not an endorser of any AI product.
The AI Arms Race: Who’s Chatbot is better?
I’ve been binging on Artificial Intelligence (AI) news, training and information lately from podcasts, articles, books, online courses and more.
What I’m learning is A. I’m behind and B. It is nearly impossible to keep up.
That’s because AI is moving so fast, it’s almost dizzying. Tech gurus say AI startups are forming almost daily and competition is fierce. The launch of ChatGPT-4, arguably the most sophisticated Learning Language Model (aka conversational or generative AI), hyper-charged this growth. An estimated 100 million people have used GPT-4 since Open AI released it in March.
Not surprisingly, the big dogs are at the forefront: Microsoft, Google, Meta. Google is expected to introduce its generative AI model, Gemini, soon. Meta and Apple are expected to follow with their products. Mega consulting firms such as McKinsey, EY and Accenture are investing billions into their own proprietary AI models.
Companies such as Intuit and Zoom have integrated AI into their products. In casual conversations with friends and colleagues, those at smaller businesses and organizations either have begun to dabble with GPT-4 or haven’t used it at all. There is sure to be a large learning curve.
How Do You Build Trust in AI?
At the same time, there is some reservation or hesitation because people either do not fully trust AI or they are uncertain or untrained on how to best use it. Some large firms are delaying AI implementations because of concerns about bias and cost, according to a recent survey of 300 firms.
In a closed-door meeting with Congressional and Tech leaders, including Sam Altman, Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg, discussed what kind of government restrictions, accountability and guardrails should be established around AI. That is sure to be an ongoing conversation.
But the reality is that AI is like an ultra high-speed train with enormous speed and potential. Perhaps it can be slowed but there’s no stopping it. We’ll all have to become adapters at some point if we want to keep pace.
Some of the most interesting things I’ve learned about AI so far:
Research studies have shown AI has performed as well if not better at creativity tasks and overall productivity. In a study published in Nature.com, researchers found that “On average, the AI chatbots outperformed human participants.” However, the best humans still outperformed AI in an assignment to come up with creative ideas to use rope, box, pencil and candle.
Hours spent creating social media calendars can be reduced to minutes or even seconds with the help of AI, which can pull content from blogs (which also can be AI-generated) and quickly create and post content on social media.
You may no longer have to fret or struggle if you don’t know how to use an Excel spreadsheet. An AI-powered product Equals calls itself “the next generation spreadsheet.” It connects directly to your data, so no manual or copy-and-paste input; it creates and runs your query; automatically updates it at your desired timeframe and shares it with your team (via Slack, for example). They’re offering free trials and I plan to check it out.
A study by a Wharton School of Business professor and Boston Consulting Group found consultants who used GPT-4 significantly outperformed those who didn’t on four different tasks: creative, analytical, writing and marketing and persuasiveness. Conclusion seems to be: using AI tools improves efficiency and quality. One interesting note: Less skilled participants, assessed pre-AI, saw a much bigger jump (43 percent) in performance than higher skilled participants (17 percent).
I have to give a plug to The AI Breakdown podcast, which I have found super informative. It’s an aggregation of the biggest AI news each day with a spotlight on one of the news items. It appears to responsibly source its information and offer balanced reporting of AI news.
Credit: Image by jcomp on Freepik