Since it completed its first anniversary, here we will shed light on some of the changes that the AI tool has brought with itself:
Automation
One of the first notable changes that collectively made the world take a mental leap into the future of automation. Earlier (pre-2022), when being asked about automation in future, one would expect blue-collar roles to be its first victim, taking into account that these jobs demand lower skills and are repetitive in nature.
However, OpenAI completely changed this perspective by proving that white collar (especially the creative roles) were at a much higher risk in terms of automation.
Education
Education is the next industry that has undergone permanent change. Writing essays, memorizing facts for exams, and answering multiple-choice questions correctly have all been part of the standard educational and testing regimen for generations.
But now, ChatGPT has brought in a revolution. It scores remarkably well on a variety of standardised tests, delivers coherent knowledge from a wide range of sources, and can compose essays better than most of its users. This has challenged the long-standing educational paradigm, bringing up a number of practical and philosophical issues in the process.
Geopolitics
A more contemporary domain transformed with ChatGPT is Geopolitics. Governments all around the world now recognize AI as one of the key technologies of this century, thanks to OpenAI's offering, which has sparked global talks and the development of strategies in this area.
For instance, the competition between the US and China in the field of AI, the multilateral conference on AI safety held recently in the UK, and the passing of the EU’s AI Act.
ChatGPT has sparked some serious discussions on AI in international relations, which is only expected to intensify in the future.
It is anticipated that the strategic assets that nuclear engineers were during the Cold War will be viewed similarly with today’s top AI engineers.
Software & KaaS
One of the reasons ChatGPT deserves praise for is embedded AI in popular applications. The expectations for apps have been permanently changed, whether it is directly caused by something like Adobe incorporating generative AI into their creative cloud suite, or indirectly caused by things like Microsoft Windows or their Office Suite being upgraded through a “Copilot” that is driven by ChatGPT.
This tendency is now being adopted by more and more applications, suggesting that generative AI may soon outperform the internet in terms of ubiquity. One should not bet against it, since it has amassed hundreds of millions of users in less than a year.
Another significant change brought about by ChatGPT was the introduction of the idea of "Knowledge as a service." An underlying neural network that stores data powers ChatGPT and a plethora of other generative AI tools. After that, this information can be accessed whenever needed to generate ideas or new insights. This area has emerged overnight as a result of ChatGPT's capacity to deliver precise and carefully chosen information on demand. Now that a number of businesses are requiring these capabilities internally and that new updates enable the development of personalized ChatGPTs, the field of "KaaS" is only going to expand.
Much More to Come
The points mentioned above, however, are just the tip of the iceberg. These are the mere subset of changes induced by ChatGPT and how the world has changed with its introduction to these tools.
One can conclude that generative AI is all set to change varied aspects of lives, and the world will ultimately not be the same as it is today. One can only imagine the degree of changes one will experience with all that AI has to offer.