A number of years ago I came across the phrase, “I’m much more worried about natural stupidity than about artificial intelligence.” At the time I thought it rang true, and I still do today even after the entry of ChatGPT into the world. ChatGPT is a powerful, transformational technology and someday may rival the smart phone, internet, or airplane measured by the impact it has on society. But in the end it still just a tool, and what it becomes depends entirely on how we chose to use it. If the world comes to an end because of large language models, it won’t be because of the artificial intelligence, but instead the natural stupidity we choose to us it with.

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On a related topic, I don’t think we’re going to see mass turnover in the job market either like some have predicted. Many jobs will change, some will appear, and a few will be lost. I make a comparison to engineering software. Finite element analysis programs have been available for decades. Click a few buttons and it will tell you how close your structure is to failing.. Yet the more powerful the software gets the more people devote their careers to learning how to use it properly. Similarly, in mechanical design generative software is starting to show up. The job of a good designer may very well morph from someone who is good at specifying wall thicknesses and radii, and to someone who is good at appropriately defining constraints in software. Both of these are good. The job is similar but the tools change.

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I’ve been reluctant to spend much time learning about ChatGPT, but I admittedly used it to help me write the first draft of a technology proposal. It’s a garbage-in-garbage-out system. If you don’t give it a very good prompt you probably aren’t going to get useful results. But if you spend just a bit of time reading up on how to write an effective prompt it can get you results immediately. I was pleasantly surprised actually, even with all the hype in recent months worked. LArge language models are a powerful tool that will affect even my job, and I don’t intend to be left behind.

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All that said, and I’m still here writing these posts the old fashioned way. My first drafts are even written out long-form by hand. I still find writing and publishing to be an effective way to formulate ideas, commit to opinions, and retain that information. The process helps form my identity, and that is not something I can see ChatGPT replacing. I guess writing is one way I hope to maintain some of that natural intelligence yet.