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Is ChatGPT a Threat to Your Job?

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Artificial Intelligence is here! While the conversation around AI is not new, recent high profile tools, like ChatGPT and DALL-E have hit the internet with a bang, creating new opportunities for consumers to use AI creatively in everyday life.

Released at the tail end of 2022, ChatGPT is a “large language model developed by OpenAI that can be used for natural language processing tasks such as text generation and language translation.”

In short, it is a program that aggregates content from the whole internet and is able to “create” prose or code based on prompts entered by users. Chat GPT can also translate, summarize and edit text with ease.

ChatGPT can benefit businesses and and individuals in a number of ways, but fundamentally, it makes it easier to generate text of all kinds. Students have already taken advantage of ChatGPT for writing papers.

Like most new technology, there are benefits and potential downsides. While many are excited by the applications of AI in everyday life, others worry that this technology could replace large portions of the workforce, leaving many people jobless.

At the moment, there are still flaws with the program as it can’t review and cite sources. Nevertheless, competitors like Google are already planning to demo their own version of ChatGPT this year along with 20 other AI programs. Google also announced that it is laying off 12,000 workers and investing more of it’s resources into AI instead.

This raises another critical point, which is that AI isn’t just coming for jobs that are repetitive, not creative and without interpersonal demands. Even much haloed roles in tech may be deprioritized as companies shift their focus to cutting edge technologies like AI.

These advances show how quickly AI can impact our livelihoods as companies adapt to competition.

While it’s hard to predict what new jobs will also emerge as AI replaces old jobs, the best we can do is stay aware of AI developments and ask ourselves: How is AI currently impacting my industry?

At The HBCU Career Center, we encourage our readers to research the future of work and what new developments are coming down the pipeline.

Need help making your next career move? Use our career insights tool to research education and certifications needed to succeed in your field, salary ranges in your profession, and the overall prospects of your industry.