Goodbye Writer’s Block…Hello “Impostor Syndrome!”
Dislocations caused by GPT & newfound love.
The recent release of GPT-3, developed by OpenAI, has caused quite a stir among communities of content creators around the world. From writers, graphic artists, and coders, to translators and teachers, many were caught saying, “Well, there goes my livelihood!”
(There’s a buzz going around that AI would put so many out of a job, a kind of “jobpocalypse,” that Universal Basic Income might soon be a good idea.)
Skills that took years to get decent at suddenly became reproducible…in seconds…and at a quality that would make one’s eyes water.
I remember my photographer cousin spend endless hours on an editing software, working on practically every pixel, trying to delete the background from a model’s hair. Today, that task can be done by the model herself. (That, and being the photographer herself.)
As a writer, I must say, I am still somewhat conflicted about the powers of GPT-3. On the one hand, I was able to review all the works of Shakespeare in an hour and got a recipe for a curiously delicious sandwich. On the other hand, I can possibly be poor and homeless.
So there are days when I’m exhilarated about its potential, and also days when I wonder if I should give multi-level marketing (MLM) another go.
I know much has already been said about GPT-3 never really touching the human writer — creativity, warmth, and all that. But I have to give a reverent curtsy to a tool that can finish the work, while I’m still stirring my cup of joe — and never confuse “your” and “you’re” to!
Writing has always been allied with various implements that make the task easier and more refined. You’ve got Google for research, and Grammarly, well, for grammar. But GPT is a different beast altogether. With the other tools, the authorship was never in question. (I wrote that piece, I deserve that award!)
But, right now, can I still claim authorship if all I did was “Control-C” and “Control-V” — on a keyboard that contains all the letters of the alphabet?
Dang this GPT, I was just beginning to get good at writing! And I was planning to learn how to properly format a screenplay too! (Got some plot lines that are going to give “Fifty Shades…” a run for its money.)
“You can just not use it. Duh!”
Yeah, there’s that.
Well…I don’t wanna do it…but I kinda wanna do it.
I feel like a blackmailed accomplice to a crime. The mastermind says, “If you don’t do it…well, it’d be a shame if something happens to your family…”
If I don’t dive headlong into AI, I’ll definitely be left in the dust by other writers who create content with it, (whilst not losing their authorial voice). It’ll be like running a race against a Ferrari and all I have are my trusty shoes. Unless the goal is to run and have well-developed calves, (aka “writing for writing’s sake”), I’d be better off sitting in my own Ferrari.
So yeah, I’ll most probably be using GPT and all the other AI tools that are coming in the pipeline.
This is probably my last “GPT-free” piece.
But this is not the end of my story…
A New-found Love
Let’s briefly get a little sentimental about humans losing jobs to machines, shall we?
My guess is, there will be plenty of job dislocations in the coming years. Much like the sewing machine disrupted hordes of women from their sewing circles.
But in time, many of those same women were hired in factories, adopted the equipment, and became more productive. Then the textile processing industry grew. Then ships bound for other countries got loaded with T-shirts, dresses, jeans, etc. New jobs that didn’t have anything to do with sewing were created. Now, the women’s husbands were hired to drive trucks or load cargo ships.
In time.
Same with our situation with AI.
In time…new, never-before-imagined jobs will bubble up.
But there’s no denying that there will be lots of painful job dislocation in the short term.
Tech would do its thing. They won’t park progress under the bed, just so everybody can have a job. If that were the case, then we should retire all Amazon trucks, stand shoulder to shoulder for miles, and deliver parcels by passing them to the next person — bucket brigade style. That would give us 100% employment!
I comfort myself by saying, “This is just how we react to new things…”
I was reminded of this great read, “10 smart ways to survive the coming IT jobpocalypse.”
Because that was in July 2013. And it was about cloud computing.
How did that turn out a decade later?
I’m guessing that after all’s been said and done, we’re probably gonna be just fine.
With GPT, what I’ve found is this thing called “Prompt Engineering.” I’m quite new to it but I’m diving all in and learning as much as I can.
You know when you’re using GPT and the answers don’t quite come out the way you wanted? Maybe you wanted to understand “quantum mechanics” and the machine is spewing answers that just go over your head. It’s talking to you and assuming that you were awake in Science class. So you find a different approach to your problem.
So maybe you type in something like “Explain quantum mechanics to me like I’m a 5 year old” or “Explain quantum mechanics like my IQ is 20.” And so GPT adjusts its language level and gives you answers that are more useful.
Maybe GPT initially says, “I’m sorry, I don’t have the information you’re looking for.” But you know in your heart of hearts, “Yes, you do buddy! I know it’s in there somewhere. I just know it. Give it up, man!”
Prompt engineering would have a few workarounds to coax and cajole GPT to get you that information.
I’m very excited about this, and with my background in Psychology, and with GPT’s human-like sentience, I can’t wait to try out psychological probing techniques and languaging patterns to get GPT to “fess up.”
(Imagine GPT on a couch, and you’re the shrink giving prompts and extracting as much data from its head.)
The way GPT’s designed, fine-tuning the inputs, and the wording — its sequence, structure, and context — would make a world of difference. And writers are in a unique position to contribute to the field because…we, like, know synonyms…and stuff. (And can articulate stuff…more better, yeah?)
Don’t know what’s up ahead, but with the type of AI projects in the pipeline, it will be a very strange 6 months indeed.
Buckle-up guys!
