You vs. AI

Hi pals. Hope your day’s off to a wonderful start! And if it isn’t, just be glad you didn’t spill iced coffee all over your keyboard doing your morning manifestations.

Today’s tunes: There’s quite literally no other way to get through a Monday than to groove to Slam Dunk (Da Funk) by 5ive (AKA the theme song for the iconic DCOM mentioned below).

—Rod

AI Has Entered the Chat

Of all the enormous life lessons Disney Channel Original Movies™️ (DCOMs for short) have taught us, the impact of artificial intelligence as seen in Smart House is up there with the most important (along with don’t turn 13 if your mom is a mermaid).

A Smart House rewatch is in order these days. Artificial intelligence (AI) has become a major force, and I mean beyond all those AI-generated photos of what every TikToker would look like as a Celtic goddess or a space cowboy.

AI could meaningfully change the way we interact with the world, each other, and most importantly for the purposes of a newsletter called WorkDaze…our work. But it’s complicated and lots of people don’t really understand it (it’s me, I’m lots of people 🙋‍♂️).

So let’s talk a little more about the AI trend du jour: ChatGPT.

What is ChatGPT?

It’s basically a better, more intelligent version of SmarterChild from our AIM days. It’s a chatbot that uses AI language models to generate human-like text including emails, essays, songs, and everything else Under the Tuscan Sun based on user prompts.

Some people love it: Microsoft just invested a rumored $10 billion in OpenAI, the company that created ChatGPT.

And others hate it: ChatGPT has already been banned from school systems concerned that students are using it to cheat (i.e. prompting it to write entire essays).

Is ChatGPT good or bad?

I say a little bit of both.

Yay: Some people are already using ChatGPT to help them with their jobs. Real estate agents use the tool to help write home listings that would normally take at least an hour in, like, two seconds.

Nay: While ChatGPT has passed medical, business, and law school exams, some worry that its flaws, like making simple mathematical errors (relatable) and exhibiting negative biases, don’t make it such a reliable source.

What about my job?

Well, I’ll start with this submission from a coworker…

Big picture: AI is like Sweetgreen launching delivery—it’s changed both the world and the way we work. And while certain jobs will be replaced by AI eventually, the expansion of AI opens up the doors for new opportunities, too.

In fact, most tech experts think our future will involve a combo of humans and AI working together, also known as “collaborative intelligence.”

Still freaked? Let’s get deep for a sec. One thing that cools my jets when I start to panic about a computer taking my job? AI will never be fully able to replace humans.

Can ChatGPT write an email to my boss in one minute instead of the four hours it takes me? Definitely.

Does it have the emotional intelligence and human perception to recognize that I shouldn’t email my boss on Thursday nights because that’s when she plays bridge with her neighbors? Not a chance.

But just to be sure (read: stop my spiral), I asked ChatGPT itself to calm me down:

Things to Slack your work besties

…after your hour-long midday shower.

Communication, unlearning, and listening are three things to remember when trying to teach your Boomer coworker how to react to a Slack message. Perhaps also a dictionary for Gen Z lingo? 🤝

Not me seeing this Tweet and imagining all of the meetings that would become the emails they always should have been.

Like I always say, leave the hot goss out of the office. Instead, get your fix from the podcast Normal Gossip. It’s raw, hilarious, and best of all, doesn’t involve you.

Thanks for reading! See you back here on Friday as I try to be a voice of reason for you all (and myself).

—Rod