ChatGPT and other productive AI tools have been portrayed as bogeymen since they emerged last year, and they’re at the center of the idea that “they’re going to take your job eventually.” However, we continue to ignore these pessimism and disaster scenarios. The Washington Post reports that productive AI has already begun to take away people’s jobs.
Generative AI isn’t perfect, of course, and the harder you let it work, the more obvious its faults become. But for copywriting, companies seem to think AI is good enough.
The Washington Post drew attention to the story of Olivia Lipkin, a 25-year-old copywriter who works at a tech start-up in San Francisco. Olivia Lipkin didn’t care much for the release of ChatGPT last November, but in the months that followed she noticed that her admins began to refer to her as Olivia/ChatGPT on Slack. He was laid off in April.
Lipkin was never told the reason for his dismissal, but he learned from his writings that executives at the company stated that using ChatGPT was cheaper than hiring a writer, and the reason for his dismissal became clearer.
Microsoft has been a major supporter in the productive AI scene, funding OpenAI to continue its work and launching Bing Chat, which uses ChatGPT. Microsoft has tried to balance the fact that AI can do some of the work that humans do with the idea that these tools should be used to help employees, but not replace them.
One of the most important points to consider in Lipkin’s story is the current economic period. With interest rates skyrocketing around the world, consumers are spending less and businesses are pushing back to cut costs and focus on profitable ventures.
Especially given that he works at a start-up, Lipkin’s firing is more likely to be more about tighter budgets than ChatGPT taking jobs from us. The real impact of productive AI will come as normal conditions return once inflation and interest rates fall.
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