ChatGPT and the Future of Writing: What Writers Need to Know

The emergence of ChatGPT, an AI chatbot armed with the ability to read, write, and absorb vast amounts of information, has raised concerns of job losses among creatives such as writers across all areas of publishing such as the newspaper industry and online media providers.

While many are worried about losing their jobs to AI, various experts have said that sites that publish AI-written content may be penalized by Google’s spam policies so the dire warnings of the internet being flooded by content written by bots will be kept in check.

Despite widespread apprehensions surrounding ChatGPT, industry experts believe that the likelihood of the chatbot replacing jobs in writing-based industries is low. AI language models can, for instance, generate basic content quickly and efficiently but still lack the creativity, emotional intelligence, and human understanding that is required to produce high-quality content.

The media industry has been particularly receptive to AI and chatbots, and after laying off 12% of its workforce in December, news site Buzzfeed announced its intention to use ChatGPT to generate quizzes and other types of content. Similarly, CNET said it was using a ChatGPT-like tool to produce its articles. But businesses are unlikely to displace writers with AI chatbots because humans are still needed to do “higher value stuff” that involves “creative strategic thinking,” not just mundane repetitive tasks.

Even though it remains to be seen to what extent AI-generated content without regard to quality is penalized by Google’s spam policies, it is important to note that emotional intelligence, empathy, and human understanding are skills that no AI technology can replace at the moment and will be the defining factors in creating high-quality content that resonates with readers.

Sheeta Verma, a marketing consultant for California-based startups, believes that AI-generated content lacks the “human touch” that is so vital to creating compelling content that truly resonates with a target audience. Empathy is another skill that AI lacks because humans think about things on a higher level and have beliefs about equality and justice that come out in their work, according to industry expert Alan Jacobson.

While AI technologies show great promise, it remains unlikely that it will replace writers in the publishing industry in the near future. However no-one knows for sure what the long-term impact will be. Hopefully, businesses will continue to find new ways for AI chatbots to augment and assist human content creators with basic tasks, while giving workers more time to concentrate on creating more exceptional content with a human touch.

A recent survey of more than 10,000 people at blue-chip companies such as Google, JP Morgan and McKinsey revealed that almost half of white-collar professionals have tried using ChatGPT to help with their work. This is an astounding number considering that the AI chatbot was only released to the public in November, and it could transform the future of work. However, it also poses serious risks that must be considered.

The use of disruptive technology is not a new phenomenon, as technologies designed to lessen the burden of writing have a long history stretching from the printing press to the personal computer and writing tools and apps. AI chatbots are capable of overcoming human limitations, such as speed, foreign languages and writer’s block, which have the potential to transform how we write everything from emails to reports, articles and even marketing campaigns.

AI such as ChatGPT draws on a massive corpus of human-produced information to inform new and original writing, creating a fascinating symbiotic relationship. Since the advent of smart phones, we’ve all become techno-sapiens in a sense so this is just another advancement in our symbiotic relationship with technology.

Jobs that involve significant amounts of writing, such as academic researchers, content writers and journalists won’t come out of it unscathed and will likely be affected in no small way by these new technologies. There’s no doubt that the use of AI chatbots can facilitate new knowledge and ideas being disseminated more rapidly, which is a key benefit in many cases. While the use of AI chatbots may lead to weaker, less useful writing, using them to create a structure that’s edited by the writer using their own original ideas can create high-quality content.

One of the major concerns with AI chatbots is the likelihood that it could result in many people losing their jobs, especially in traditional white-collar professions. Mihir Shukla, CEO and founder of California-based software company Automation Anywhere, estimates that anywhere from 15% to 70% of all computer-based work could be automated. At the same time, a recent McKinsey report suggests that only about 9% of people will have to change careers. This means that lower to mid-level employees are likely to be the most affected.

Linked to the possible job losses caused by AI chatbots is the danger that employers could use these technologies to justify cost savings by making existing workers use these tools “to do more with less”. This approach could lead to increased pressure on employees to produce more work, ultimately missing the leap in productivity that AI chatbots could bring about. The AI chatbot could free up employees to have more time to create high-quality, original work.

Which Jobs is AI Likely to Impact?

An academic team in the United States have attempted to answer this questions. Researchers from Princeton, New York and Pennsylvania universities analysed which workplace abilities were mostly closely related to those exhibited by AI systems like ChatGPT.

They then calculated which of 800 specific occupations are most exposed by evaluating the abilities most important for those roles.

Their recently released paper ranks those occupations from most to least exposed, concluding that “highly educated, highly paid, white-collar occupations may be most exposed.”

Read the Full Paper Here

Other concerns arising from the development of AI chatbots include the human cost of creating them. Kenyan workers, for example, were paid between US$1 and US$2 per hour to train OpenAI’s GPT-3 model on which ChatGPT is based, with the anonymous workers being exposed to potentially offensive and traumatic content.

The issue of intellectual property is another concern raised by AI chatbots. It’s not clear who owns the work they produce, making it difficult for companies or freelancers to protect their own output, and potentially exposing them to copyright infringement claims from someone who owned the writing that seems to have been reproduced by the AI chatbot.

Going forward, regulation is needed to limit the potential for exploiting workers through the use of AI chatbots. This could include caps on the amount of AI-assisted written work demanded of individuals and the need for a grander awareness of the potential harms and benefits of these technologies. It’s also vital to recognise that the risks and rewards are being compounded by many companies’ focus on maximising profits and productivity. This makes alternative work environments where the emphasis is on providing workers with a good quality of life particularly important. We must act now to recognise where this is heading and get the world up to speed, as workplaces could look very different a year or two from now.

The increase of large language models (LLMs) and generative AI programs has sparked genuine concerns among highly-skilled workers in creative industries about automation’s potential impact. Although automation has historically affected lower-wage jobs the most, AI automation is now predicted to be a major impact to jobs such as journalists, graphic designers and content writers.

This shift is causing many privileged and highly-skilled white-collar workers to experience anxiety about the security of their jobs. As research shows, individuals in these demographics tend to have a higher emotional investment in their work, with their sense of identity being tied closely to their job performance. As a result, the emotional impact is magnified when automation programs like ChatGPT enter their workflow and how this may eventually render them redundant.

Despite economists suggesting that the economy will continue to grow despite changes brought about by automation, nobody knows for sure how many jobs will be lost or when these changes will occur. Given how highly specific the vulnerabilities of white-collar workers are, many people remain concerned that the AI revolution will differ from previous migrations in terms of the impact it will have on the job market.

One key difference between the automation of blue-collar and white-collar work is the emotional attachment that those in the latter tend to have with their job tasks. White-collar workers tend to express their full potential through their work, and their sense of identity is more closely linked to their job performance than is the case for blue-collar workers.

Workers in the creative industries, in particular, may feel threatened by automation programs like ChatGPT, especially those working in areas that require a high degree of skill and talent, such as illustration and writing. These individuals may see their jobs as being replaceable more easily than other white-collar positions due to the proficiency of automation.

While concerns around economic displacement resulting from automation are valid, the emotional impact of these changes should not be overlooked. As automation technology evolves, and specific job tasks are replaced, workers in creative fields may require even greater psychological as well as economic support to navigate the impact of this disruptive technology.

ChatGPT founder, Sam Altman has described the technology’s current boom as a potential “printing press moment” but one that required safeguards during a Senate panel hearing recently and urged lawmakers to regulate artificial intelligence. He went on to say that AI may eliminate some jobs, but create new ones.

“There will be an impact on jobs,” Altman said. “We try to be very clear about that, and I think it’ll require partnership between industry and government, but mostly action by government, to figure out how we want to mitigate that. But I’m very optimistic about how great the jobs of the future will be.”

Further Reading:

Can ChatGPT Help You Write Better Books?

The Impact of AI on Book Editing & Publishing

Is AI the future of Book Editing & Publishing

AI-Generated Books: The Future or a Fad?

Authoring a New Era With AI

Fictional Worlds of AI & Transhumanism

Interview with a Sci-Fi Writer & ChatGPT