Pros and Cons of ChatGPT

I specifically remember the exact moment I learned about ChatGPT. I was sitting in a meeting, and a coworker was enthusiastically discussing this new AI platform he spent all night playing around on.

According to him, this new platform could answer his questions, finish out code, and write an eloquently written email response with just a few clicks of a button.

Flash forward three months later, and this conversation with my team about a “cool new AI tool” was a hot topic on everyone’s mind. While we had cheekily used ChatGPT to build out silly emails from prompts or off-the-wall responses in our slack channel, organizations worldwide had begun to utilize the prompts and outputs from ChatGPT in their daily operations.

Courses for ChatGPT prompt engineers were popping up on the internet. People were building websites directly from ChatGPT’s outputs, and businesses were looking for ChatGPT experience in their new hire roles.

This new technology has exploded onto the scene, and it doesn’t look like it has any signs of slowing down. However, while it is rapidly becoming one of the most popular tools for marketers, project managers, and business owners, it’s not all rainbows and sunshine.

In this blog post, we’ll look in-depth at some pros and cons of using ChatGPT, so you can decide whether incorporating this powerful AI tool into your organization is right for your business.

Introducing ChatGPT – What Is It?

To answer this question, I went right to the source and asked ChatGPT the following prompt:

ChatGPT, what are you?

This is the response I got:

“I am a large language model trained by OpenAI, based on the GPT (Generative Pre-trained Transformer) architecture. Essentially, I am a computer program that uses machine learning algorithms to generate human-like responses to text-based inputs. I can understand natural language and respond to a wide variety of questions and prompts on various topics, drawing on my training data to provide informative and accurate answers.” – ChatGPT Prompt

I then asked it:

What is a GPT (Generative Pre-trained Transformer) architecture?

“Generative Pre-trained Transformer (GPT) is a type of deep neural network architecture developed by OpenAI that uses unsupervised learning to generate natural language text. It is based on the Transformer architecture, a type of neural network that has been used successfully in various language processing tasks.” – ChatGPT Prompt

At this point, I had to stop myself from asking more questions, as I felt like I was going down the rabbit hole. However, ChatGPT answered my questions as it should: with an easy-to-understand human-like response. My prompts were simple, and the results were immediate.

As a tool that uses advanced technology to understand and respond to human language, ChatGPT can help us communicate with machines in new and innovative ways. It opens a new door for artificial intelligence to transform our interactions. Still, when using it, you must be aware of the pros and cons before relying entirely on this new technology.

Pros of Using ChatGPT

It’s no wonder that the use of ChatGPT has skyrocketed since its quiet rollout in November 2023. With the ability to ask a question, curate prompts, and receive answers, this AI tool has the potential to be a lifesaver for so many businesses out there. Pros of using ChatGPT in your industry are as follows:

• Quickly generated content
• Personalized responses
• Streamlined Processes
• Enhanced Efficiency
• Improved Accessibility

Quickly Generate Content

With ChatGPT, you can generate content quickly and cost-effectively. It offers an excellent option for curating blog post outlines, emails, or other written content on the fly. It even provides a pay-to-use subscription tier with privacy settings and additional user control.

Personalized Responses

ChatGPT has been trained to understand natural language and provide personalized responses based on input. Users can adjust the prompts and “ask” ChatGPT to form a reply based on a specific tone or within a particular way. This is a great way to engage with customers personally and provide customized answers to their questions or concerns.

Streamlined Processes

AI allows businesses to streamline processes by automating mundane tasks and freeing resources. For example, building out sales funnel tasks to regular follow-up emails can be a sinch. This allows employees to focus on more essential tasks like customer service or product development.

Enhanced Efficiency

ChatGPT can help streamline certain processes, such as customer support, by quickly answering frequently asked questions. This type of automation can reduce the workload for human support staff, allowing the team to focus on tasks that require human intervention.

Improved Accessibility

ChatGPT can be particularly helpful for people with difficulty accessing information or resources due to language barriers or disabilities. Its ability to generate personalized responses in natural language can help make information more accessible and easier for a broader range of people.

Cons of Using ChatGPT

As I mentioned earlier, it’s not all rainbows when using ChatGPT. For all the positives of using such a powerful tool, there are inevitable drawbacks as well. Here are five potential cons of using this AI technology in your business:

• Limited Knowledge
• Inaccurate Results
• Security Risks
• Unpredictability
• Language Barriers

Limited Knowledge

Even with advanced training, AI models still have limited knowledge about the world around them. They only rely on data for answers, which means the model can only answer if something is in their dataset. Also, if the data they rely on is incorrect, the data they pull for your answer may be incorrect.

Inaccurate Results

Depending on the dataset used to populate ChatGPT, there can be a discrepancy between the actual sentiment of a statement and the model’s interpretation of it, resulting in an inaccurate result. ChatGPT does not generate answers by looking for the information in its database – instead, it draws on patterns it sees in its data and training. As it pulls the response from the pattern, this is where inaccurate results can occur. For example, if the training data contains any type of biased or inaccurate data patterns, ChatGPT may generate responses reflecting biases or inaccuracies.

Security Risks

Unfortunately, many users don’t understand that the information they put into ChatGPT isn’t necessarily private. ChatGPT stores data. It learns from conversations between queries and prompts and is always learning to provide better results. While this can help the program become more efficient, users must understand the security risks of everything they input into the platform. Unfortunately, this was discovered the hard way as a group of Samsung employees included corporate information in ChatGPT, landing them and the company in hot water.

Unpredictability

There is always a risk of unexpected outcomes when using AI technology. Unfortunately, these deep learning models like ChatGPT have become so large that even the model developers often need help understanding why their models have made the predictions they do. With such reliance on input and data algorithms growing so much over time – the responses to prompts will shift and change.

Language Barriers

ChatGPT relies heavily on natural language processing to understand and respond appropriately. Unfortunately, it does not understand or accurately interpret specific languages, dialects, or slang. While this could change in the future, as it stands right now, ChatGPT still needs a human touch and a second eye.

The Future of ChatGPT

“Every decade, a disruptive technology appears which changes how we live or do business,” says Dave Cunningham, CEO & Founder of Flint Hills Group, “Examples are cloud computing, smartphones, and electric cars. I believe ChatGPT will become this impactful.”

To Daves’s point–yes, ChatGPT and AI technology are hands down disruptive technology, and it’s not something that will disappear tomorrow. While there is significant fear over the future of AI technology, and some countries have even banned the platform entirely, I predict it will most likely live on in some form or another.

AI technology is built to be a tool to make our lives easier. It is something we can use to lean on and help optimize our process and assist us in our daily operations. It is not something that we can put our faith in to do the job 100%.

We must be the drivers of the car. We must be around to steer it out of traffic and ensure we take the right road to reach our destination. Will AI be there to help with directions and find the easiest route? Absolutely, but you still need to be there in real time, watching the roads and ensuring the path is clear.