It’s time to talk about Chat GPT.
It is pretty difficult these days to open any sort of medium dedicated to marketing and not read about Chat GPT or something related to AI. You can ask anyone on the team at TealHaus and they will tell you that I (Kate) have been on a rollercoaster of emotions related to the subject.
I work in a service-based industry where my “art” is in my brain. My literal intelligence and skill is devoted to writing and creating strategies for people to help them tell their stories so they can sell more goods or services—or make the world a better place (sometimes simultaneously). I never really felt threatened before by the concept of artificial intelligence.
But then, suddenly, when I read about what Chat GPT could do…I was.
This tool could take a simple prompt and generate a 300-word essay that might get past an unwitting college professor. I read about agencies (including ones we work with) using the tool and I was incensed. I felt betrayed.
But then I logged on myself and began to interact with this purported nemesis out to take away my money and steal from my babies (obvious hyperbole here). After going through numerous hypothetical elements of content creation and brainstorming, I had an epiphany. Chat GPT, in this specific instance, is not my enemy at all. It is a tool.
And then I thought about my grandmother. Mary Louise Hofler (aka Nannie) was as stubborn as she was opinionated and that woman was convicted that…and I quote, “Computers are the devil.” While her own centenarian mother was making me greeting cards in her assisted living computer class, Nannie was practically ready to take to the streets with a picket sign.
She was convinced they would destroy handwriting skills, take people away from more personal interactions, and she was just fearful of them. Some of her fears certainly were warranted, but sometimes I think about how much she missed because she refused to embrace technology. Today, my husband’s 94-year-old grandmother subscribes to our family’s iPhoto album. Every single day, she receives multiple pictures of her great-grandchildren, and it kept her going through the loneliest days of COVID isolation. She emails, texts, and even FaceTimes with her family. She is connected to her people. My Nannie missed out on all of that.
I don’t want to be like Nannie was in this particular instance. Recently, when I was home recovering from surgery to repair a torn ligament in my hip, I thought about the ways we incorporate new technology and tools into our lives. I was in awe of what the surgeon was able to achieve through two small laparoscopic incisions in my leg. I was so thankful for the technological advancements that got me through a challenging procedure with only a three-week crutch sentence.
I also thought about the way I had to interact with the Chat GPT tool to get it to create anything…it was silent until directed. And even when it created something, it needed multiple revisions and guidelines to become something useful. Even then, it seemed boring to me until I spruced it up.
But isn’t that the way we use tools anyway? To create our vision for something or to help us achieve a goal?
The creation lies in the using.
So, yes, we at TealHaus will use and embrace the tools that enter our world to help us better serve our clients. Chat GPT may be the devil I know for now, but it also could be a key to a more efficient future. And I am into that.
