A lot has been said about ChatGPT, the revolutionary next step in AI, a chat bot that is so good at generating information of any kind on the spot that it can essentially render your role obsolete, particularly if you’re a content creator.

Just the kind of news I needed with crazy high living costs biting me in every possible part of my body and with yet another recession looming on the horizon.

So, intrigued by the reports and social media buzz, I decided to dig in (finally) to see what the fuss is about, and if as a content creator I really should be worried.

What I found left me ecstatic. ChatGPT, whether I yet understand it properly or not, is definitely an absolute joy to use. Like a kid who has found a new toy, I couldn’t tear myself away!

But once the excitement and wonder of using this platform — and the quite natural feeling of ‘my head is going to explode just contemplating the possibilities here’ has settled down, one finally comes to the question — so, what does this mean for me?

A lean Google with a creative twist

ChatGPT presents information in a concise and creative manner. We don’t need to visit scores of Google pages or watch tens of YouTube videos to glean the information we want. It can save a content creator a lot of time.

It generates ideas for us on the fly — about any damn topic in the universe. That it is interactive is what makes it so special. You give it any kind of raw material, and it will convert it into a full-fledged letter/recipe/idea/blogpost/movie script, as the case maybe. It can help you generate your next business idea, create a website, and what not.

I began testing out the software in a predictable fashion. My first prompt was to ask for birthday ideas for a 4 year old boy who loves dinosaurs. (That would be my son, yes, though his birthday isn’t until October.)

Here’s how it went:

I then asked it to generate another response for the same query. I got a more organised list this time.

Next, I asked ChatGPT to explain mindfulness to a young kid. And this is what it suggested.

Like any technology, ChatGPT is a good aide but would make a bad master.

ChatGPT may be of less help if you’re a topic expert

I entered several prompts into ChatGPT and for the most part I got impressive answers, stuff that I could actually use. But I found that the more I knew about a topic, the less ChatGPT had to offer anything new to me. The responses seemed rudimentary and often cliched — like in a beginner’s Google article on the topic.

If you’re an expert in your field, or someone who draws on years’ of experience to create content, you need not be worried. ChatGPT can help you break out of a creative rut, but it’s not going to replace your creativity or subject knowledge.

Beware those who want to take the ultimate short cut

AKA Plagiarism

With so much relevant data being generated at the tip of our fingers in a matter of seconds, and even organised in the form of short blog-style posts with a beginning, a middle and an end, you may find it tempting to pick it up as it is. (Or you could be falsely lulled into believing the information is original.) It’s literally all there for the taking — isn’t it?

Well, no. The data is there for the benefit of your understanding and/or to inspire you in your creative endeavours. It’s decidedly not there for literal lifting of concepts, ideas, or words.

You need to be smart about how you use this software.

ChatGPT’s value lies in giving us succinct information in quick bytes. But:

You still need to do your own research

There is no getting around this. You do need to still scour the Internet if your aim is, for example, to learn about a health condition, or produce a credible report on any given topic. ChatGPT is not going to do that for you.

Since the language model ChatGPT is based on is “trained on vast amounts of data from the internet written by humans, including conversations,” the information it provides is as good, as fallible, and as reliable as anything else on the Internet. Meaning, it’s of utmost importance that you do not use this software to write articles for you and then blindly reproduce them elsewhere.

Give the platform as many prompts as you wish to gain information and creative insights, but the ultimate article has to be in your words, written with your perspective/experience. I cannot emphasise this more — ChatGPT is an aid. And like any other tool on the Internet, you need to do your independent and up-to-date research, cross-reference the claims produced by this platform, and reproduce in your own words what you want to write.

As per the OpenAI website, “ChatGPT is not connected to the internet, and it can occasionally produce incorrect answers.It has limited knowledge of world and events after 2021 and may also occasionally produce harmful instructions or biased content.”

(Furthermore, “ChatGPT will occasionally make up facts or ‘hallucinate’ outputs,” it was said in response to why sometimes we receive irrelevant answers from ChatGPT.)

Now more than ever, you need your smart hat on.

Will ChatGPT take my job away?

I can see ChatGPT making several platforms obsolete.

Why would I need dedicated websites for capitalising my title when I can get ChatGPT to do it for me? Or for that matter, why would I use headline generators, quote generators, idea generators, grammar-check services, resume/cover letter generators, etc. I could go on but you get the gist.

ChatGPT is definitely going to replace some businesses and make redundant a lot of professionals. But you need not be in their ranks, if you do your work ethically and thoroughly. There’s no substitute to a content creator’s unique experience and the unique stories they have to tell. You are an expert on your story, and the unique expression of your human condition. I believe this human element in content is now more important than ever.

The human element in content is now more important than ever.

Use ChatGPT to elevate your content creation game

As an increasing number of people wake up to the potential of ChatGPT and start using it in similar ways, well, your output might start to look a little similar, too. Don’t delegate writing, or content creation in general, to ChatGPT, rather use it as a highly capable research assistant. One who is creative, with a wicked sense of humour, and may occasionally come across as (lovingly, not annoyingly) a know-it-all. But make no mistake about who is in charge.