Surviving the rise of ChatGPT: How writers and other creatives can successfully ride the wave of disruption!
ChatGPT and the many similar projects are heralding the arrival of the next industrial revolution. Writers and other creatives are already among the first to feel the changes. As AI makes it increasingly easy to generate seemingly original content with just a few prompts, many are beginning to question what impact this technology will have on the creative industries. This article describes why this technology is disruptive and how this can be a good thing for those willing to adapt.
Is ChatGPT really a revolutionary development?
The meteoric rise of the new AI driven technologies like ChatGPT is being greeted with both excitement and worry. Some worry that AI will soon begin replacing human creators of various forms of content, as it will be faster, easier, and cheaper to just have an algorithm take over the creative process. Others instead see great opportunities, as is always the case with exciting new technologies. It is still too early to say for certain how great the impact of these technologies will be, but signs already indicate that this may be the beginning of the next industrial revolution.
An industrial revolution is a way to describe major changes and disruptions to business and industry driven by rapid technological development. There have already been several industrial revolutions, first due to the development of steam power and water power in the late 18th and early 19th century, then again due to the development of railroads, telegraphs, and electricity in the late 19th and early 20th century, and most recently the Digital Revolution driven by the development of computers and the internet in the late 20th century.
Some are already arguing that automation and AI will be the drivers of the next industrial revolution. Klaus Schwab, head of the World Economic Forum, is one of the main proponents of this idea, and he believes that this revolution is already under way. He may very well be right, as the rapid rise of technologies for generating both images, texts, and videos looks set to disrupt a wide range of industries, including creative work, academia, health care, education, and many more. More manual forms of business, like logistics, retail, and construction are also facing radical changes driven by a combination of advances in AI and robotics, like self-driving cars and trucks, fully automated shops, and 3d printed buildings.
What is a disruption?
To understand how the emerging AI technologies may impact the creative industries, it is helpful to first understand what a disruption is. In business theory, a disruption is a term coined by the academic Clayton Christensen and refers to when an innovation overturns the existing order in an established market, displacing already established products or firms. Examples of this are how streaming services displaced video rental and how digital photography displaced chemical photography.
When a major disruption happens it typically leads to changing business structures and a lot of uncertainty, but this can be a good thing for those that are willing and able to adapt. Riding the wave of a disruptive force can be an amazing opportunity. An example of this can be found in relation to the recent disruption of photography. Graphical designers and other visual media professionals where greatly impacted by this disruption. Those who were unable or unwilling to adapt were quickly made obsolete due to the abandonment of chemical photography and the resulting decrease in demand for film development and editing. Since the disruption meant that pictures could now be edited by anyone with access to a computer without the need of a film studio, some believed that demand for graphical designers would decline. That was not the case. Those that adapted to the disruption and focused on working with digital media quickly found that demand for their services grew larger than ever. People still needed competent professionals to create and edit graphical products for them and the increased accessibility of digital media just increased the demand for media professionals. No one would argue that the digitalization of photography has been bad for the business prospects of graphical designers today.
How is Artificial Intelligence disrupting the creative industries?
Just like how digital photography automated and simplified many processes related to photography, AI is now automating many processes related to writing and media creation. The bar to acquiring seemingly original content is being rapidly lowered, as anyone with access to the technology can prompt an AI and receive a written text or a media representation about almost any subject. It is highly probable that this will be equally as disruptive to writers and media artists as digital pictures was to graphical designers. Failure to adapt will result in obsolescence.
It is important to remember though, that we are still in the very early stages of this disruption. We do not yet know what the capabilities and limitations of the new technology will be moving forward, but some things are already becoming clear. The new technology simulates the creation of original content but cannot actually generate it. It requires human input and supervision to create anything of meaning and value. As such, there will almost certainly soon be a major rise in demand for creative people to work with these AIs.
How can creatives ride the wave of Artificial Intelligence to success?
Just like the graphical designers did during the digital revolution, writers and other creatives need to embrace the new technology. A talented writer or artist isn’t sought out for their ability to type well or draw fast. Their true talents are their creative abilities, their understanding of the subject matter, their personal experiences, and many other human traits. No AI is even close to replacing any of those skills yet.
Writers that treat the new AI driven technologies like ChatGPT like tools instead of competition are likely to thrive in the coming years. Just imagine how much more efficient the writing process would be if you had an on-demand editor, sparing partner, and research assistant right at your fingertips at all times. These new tools can be exactly that. What they can’t be is a brilliant creative artist or an inspired writer; humans will still need to do that. The increased accessibility of creative pursuits facilitated by ChatGPT and other technologies is highly likely to ignite a surge in interest and engagement with creative endeavors. Typically, such interest is followed by increased demand for high-end products created by seasoned and talented professionals. Those who begin adapting to and utilizing the new technologies now are likely to not just survive the wave of disruption but ride it to new and exciting opportunities for growth and success!