Paul Krugman on ChatGPT: This Is Not The Future

In the early 1990s, the fax machine was hailed as a revolutionary technology that would fundamentally change the way we do business. It promised to make communication faster and more efficient, allowing people to send documents and other information almost instantaneously.

But in retrospect, it's clear that the fax machine had much less of an impact than many people had anticipated. While it did make some tasks easier and more convenient, it was ultimately limited by its reliance on analog technology and the need for a dedicated phone line. As a result, it never achieved the widespread adoption or transformative power that many had predicted.

The same is likely to be true of ChatGPT, a new language model developed by OpenAI. While ChatGPT has been hailed as a major breakthrough in artificial intelligence, it's important to remember that it is still just a tool, and it will have limitations and drawbacks just like any other technology.

One of the main challenges facing ChatGPT is that it is trained on a vast amount of text data, but that data is not always relevant or useful for the task at hand. As a result, ChatGPT may produce responses that are accurate in a general sense, but that don't really address the specific question or concern that a user has. This could lead to frustration and disappointment among users, and make them less likely to use ChatGPT in the future.

Another potential problem is that ChatGPT is not able to provide answers to questions that are outside of its training data. This means that if you ask it a question that it has never seen before, it will not be able to provide a useful response. This could limit its usefulness in certain situations, and make it less appealing to people who need to rely on accurate and reliable information.

Additionally, the reliance on large amounts of text data also raises concerns about bias and fairness. If the training data contains biased or prejudiced language, ChatGPT may reproduce and amplify those biases in its responses. This could have serious implications for the way that ChatGPT is used, and could make it less trustworthy and reliable in the eyes of many users.

Overall, while ChatGPT may have some useful applications, it's important to remember that it is not a magic bullet. It is a tool that has limitations and drawbacks, and it is not going to revolutionize the way we communicate or do business in the same way that the fax machine was supposed to. It's important to approach ChatGPT with realistic expectations, and to be mindful of its limitations and potential pitfalls.