Chances are, you’ve seen media reports of the viral artificial intelligence (AI) sensation ChatGPT, which launched in November last year.
The technology, which can almost instantly create thoughtful responses based on user prompts, is making a lot of creative professionals nervous. Copywriters, authors, artists and lawyers are worried about being replaced in a few years. One high school teacher who has taught English for 12 years calls the writing technology “the end of high school English.”
But to put these fears in context, people have worried about startlingly advanced machines taking their jobs for at least 212 years. In 1811 in Nottingham, England, the first Luddite revolt took place as frightened workers smashed machinery they feared was making their skills obsolete.
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Ten years later the English economist David Ricardo published “Principles of Political Economy,” where he argued that the machinery of the early Industrial Revolution threatened workers. And in 1952, Kurt Vonnegut Jr.’s novel “Piano Player” laid out a dystopia where advanced machines made almost every human unemployable.
Fears of machines replacing workers are nothing new. And with the economy creating 223,000 jobs last month, and over 10 million in the previous two years alone, it’s safe to say those centuries-old fears were overblown.
Even so, there’s no denying that new technologies and machines have made many people’s jobs obsolete over time. Eventually, economies adjust, and the new industries that these new technologies create will employ more people. But that doesn't make it less painful for tens of millions of workers who are caught in the transition.
One way ChatGPT has changed the discourse around AI and jobs is by changing the conventional wisdom on who might be affected. Historically, economists have predicted that unskilled jobs would be the first to be replaced by machines. But anyone who has experimented with ChatGPT can envision a future, maybe only a few years from now, where AI spits out powerful legal briefings, poetry that outshines Shakespeare’s and sizzling novels with the click of a mouse. What will this mean for you?
It’s impossible to say exactly how jobs will be affected by AI and when. But one thing is certain: AI will only grow more powerful and more prevalent in the industries it touches. Already, Microsoft Corp. MSFT has decided to pay $10 billion for a 49% stake in ChatGPT. And the global AI market is forecast to grow from $387 billion in 2022 to $1.39 billion by 2029.
Surprisingly, pure-play AI stocks aren’t as common as you would think. It’s possible that Microsoft manages to lay claim to billions of dollars of market share — but for a company already valued at $1.8 trillion, that may not move the needle much for investors.
One company to consider is RAD AI, the first AI marketing platform built to understand emotion. In an economy where $75 billion a year is wasted on ineffective marketing, RAD AI’s platform has been shown to rewrite ineffective marketing into pitches that can resonate emotionally. This isn’t hypothetical — the company achieved 310% growth in revenue last year. And while it is not yet public and may never be, investors can claim a stake in RAD AI for a limited time.
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