You have probably seen this news by now. ChatGPT got an upgrade. GPT 4.o (o as in omni, not 0 as in zero) has been released. And it's free to all users. The omni in the name is becauwe it can “see” and “hear” and “speak” in real time.
I watched the demo videos. Honestly, part of me is terrified by how close this is to science fiction becoming reality.
Some of you are old enough to remember when you never lost your phone because it came with a cord. Some of you are too young to have lived in a world without cell phones. Whatever your age, we will all be able to say we have lived in interesting times. From Covid to self-driving cars and AI.
Your new best friend
Professor Ethan Mollick, who studies AI at Wharton University, wrote this about GPT4.o:
“If an AI that seems to reason like a human being can see and interact and plan like a human being, then it can have influence in the human world. This is where AI labs are leading us: to a near future of AI as coworker, friend, and ubiquitous presence. I don’t think anyone, including OpenAI, has a full sense of all of the implications of this shift, and what it will mean for all of us.”
What will happen if AI gets so good that it sounds like a real person? Will it matter? Of course AI is fallible - we've all heard of AI hallucinations. But people are just as fallible. And the truth is that many people will believe something just because they read it on the internet, whether it was written by AI or a human. Not to mention cognitive bias, and our tendency to believe anything matches our own opinion.
There will be controversy around AI and its implications for a long time to come.
AI in South Africa
I am curious about how South Africans are using AI. A report last year claimed that up to 38% of South Africans are using ChatGPT. People use it to improve writing quality (53%), help with research (43%) and create content (42%).
I didn't read the report itself, so I don't know how the 38% is calculated. Given our levels of poverty and unemployment, I find it hard to believe it is 38% of our entire population. Based on emails and documents I receive, 38% of people with computers don't even use their spell checker. (The AI National Government Summit Discussion Document could have used some AI help.)
A long way to go?
AI will change our lives. But it might still take a while, especially in South Africa.
Recently I spoke to a government official at the Department of Justice. She is excited that they have an online system, although it is woefully incomplete. (They still print all the uploaded documents. And don't even get that right sometimes.) She told me that it took months for their developers to get the system to send an SMS. My hopes for helpful customer service from an AI bot at a government call centre are still a long way away.
I'd love to hear your comments. How are you using AI at work? What did you think of the GPT4.o videos? Share your views.