AI-generated junk suffocating online platforms like algal blooms that choke the life out of ponds.
Hustle bros are jumping on the AI bandwagon
Well that was fast. While still pondering the impact of generative AI technologies such as ChatGPT, we already have the hucksters rushing in to put it to market and make a quick buck. On a more serious note, a Columbian judge has used it to help him draft his judgement and we’ve already about the robots taking over CNet.
As the graphic in the tweet below has predicted, the first use cases for generative AI will be to scale up correspondence so that the we can produce customized on a grand scale.
Chat support vendor Intercom demonstrated how AI can be used as an add-in to summarize, make more formal, translate or even write a new article based on simple inputs. Microsoft is already cashing in on their $10 billion investment in OpenAI and making Bing search more conversational and the AI has already been integrated into their enterprise software platforms.
Viva Sales, which connects Microsoft’s Office and video conferencing programs with customer relations management software, will be able to generate email replies to clients using OpenAI’s product for creating text. The AI tools, which include OpenAI’s GPT 3.5 — the system that is the basis for the ChatGPT chatbot— will cull data from customer records and Office email software. That information will then be used to generate emails containing personalized text, pricing details and promotions.
Microsoft Will Use OpenAI Tech to Write Emails for Busy Salespeople
The AI hype race has a nasty habit of pushing the “should we really do this?” stage of innovation to the side in pursuit of the almighty first-mover advantage. Threatened with Microsoft releasing a conversational AI search engine, Google is now pressured to release their own version. Despite careful consideration to date Google is making investments in what feels like an AI arms race.
All this to say that it’s going to take awhile for the “algal bloom” mentioned at the top of thIs article to run its course. In time the valuable use cases will become obvious but, to most, it will be in hindsight. There are going to be some road wrecks along the way but hopefully we will not break the internet, democracy, or society while we learn how to be smarter about how to work smarter.
It’s useful to gain perspective on the coming AI revolution from the great technological historian Kevin Kelly who spoke about how AI would lead to the Second Industrial Revolution six years ago at TED.
Everything we electrified, we can now cognify. . . The most popular AI product in 20 years from now, that everybody uses, has not been invented yet.
Kevin Kelly
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