Why ChatGPT advent is like the printing press invention
ChatGPT was released to the market, and it was a shock for many. Frankly it was a shock for many AI professionals, including me. Yes I knew it was coming, yet when you actually see it, it’s different. It’s reality, you cannot come back.
That said, AI is actually a tool for productivity rather than an entity that replaces us.
To me it is clear and somehow granted, but since it is not for many, I will try to explain with an example from the past.
To me the release of ChatGPT has a lot of similarities with the printing press invention by Johannes Gutenberg.
Back in the 1400s , if you wanted to read a book, you would have to travel into the place , probably an Abbey, to stay there to read it. If you wanted the book, you would have copied it: for months you would have stayed in the Abbey simply manually copying word by word the book until you finished it. Alternatively, monks were providing the service: monks were copying thousands of books in Mediaeval times for affluent people who could afford it.
Gutenberg’s invention changed all of that: the printing press allowed to copy books in hours rather than months or more.
Yes, the monks who copied books were out of business. The copying job was defunct. Yet, jobs were actually increasing. Two reasons:
- Volume. The printing press, reducing drastically the cost, increased massively the volume of books in circulation and with that publishers and related jobs.
- Assurance. Before the invention of the printing press, simply assurance of the book quality was not an option: if after months or years, you could have a book copy you were already lucky and you spent significant amounts. With a fraction of the amount now, you could spend with people who first reviewed the book and the quality before actually printing it.
I believe AI tools have exactly the same effect: an increase in volume and an increase in assurance.
Yes in the process, old economy jobs will disappear. But nothing to do with mass redundancy.
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