As ChatGPT sparks questions over whether it can replace white collar jobs, OpenAI is surveying users about the technology’s “economic impact.”
OpenAI announced the survey yesterday on its Discord channel. “We are looking to talk to more users from a broad range of professions about how ChatGPT use impacts their work,” the San Francisco-based lab said. “Data gathered from this work will help researchers better understand the economic impacts of ChatGPT on individuals and workers.”
The online survey goes on to say OpenAI hopes to use the insights so ChatGPT and other AI systems “can be safely developed and deployed into the economy moving forward.” This suggests it's looking to target specific markets for ChatGPT, but not before adding guardrails.
In the survey, OpenAI asks for the user’s occupation, along with the various ways they’ve been tapping ChatGPT on the job. Two optional questions at the end also ask “What is the last thing you had ChatGPT help you with while you were working?” and “Imagine you just hired a new coworker, give them instructions for how to use ChatGPT as you just did above.”
However, the survey refrains from asking if the AI program could replace someone’s job. OpenAI didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment, so it’s unclear how the survey might steer ChatGPT’s development. But the AI program is smart enough to write articles and blog posts, develop marketing pitches, summarize complex topics, and even debug and code computer programs, to varying degrees of success.
As a result, some workers are already starting to tap ChatGPT. An online poll in January from Fishbowl found 27% of working professionals have used the AI-powered chatbot to help them complete work tasks.
But at the same time, the chatbot is stirring up some fear over how it could disrupt white collar jobs. In a recent interview with Forbes, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said more powerful AI programs known as AGI could one day “break capitalism,” although that technology is still a ways off.
In the meantime, users can expect ChatGPT and similar programs to expand. Microsoft has already been spotted integrating ChatGPT into its Bing search engine. Google, on the other hand, is preparing its own rival with a new chatbot program called Bard.