If you’ve spent much time anywhere online in the last month or so, then you’ve almost certainly heard lots and lots of talk about ChatGPT. 

ChatGPT is an AI-based program created by OpenAI, a chatbot specializing in supplying long-form answers to various questions and prompts.

Its sheer proficiency at this has everyone talking about how it will take multiple industries by storm in the very near future, including journalism, programming, and content production. 

But how true is this, and what is ChatGPT really all about? Here’s a closer look at what digital marketers and content managers everywhere should know.

Customer Support Changes

Chatbots are one way AI has been part of the digital marketing game for a long while now, and this will likely become even more the case as the bots become smarter.

At present, most customer service chatbots need to lead customers down a pre-specified path in order to provide accurate, helpful resolutions to various problems. 

However, ChatGPT’s ability to converse intuitively with another human being will likely really elevate chatbots as potential customer service assets.

Workflow and Idea Generation Shifts

As ChatGPT and similar programs continue to become smarter and more advanced, the marketing world will see them come into play more often as tools to be leveraged by living, breathing, creative humans.

Because, at the end of the day, a chatbot will never be able to accurately synthesize a human’s unique experiences or ability to feel (and encourage) genuine emotion in other humans. 

What it can do is assist content creators, content managers, and digital marketers with tasks like generating ideas or pushing past creative roadblocks.

Plenty of people have been toying with these tools just to see what sticks—sometimes it’s just curiosity, other times it’s a legit attempt to reshape the workday. You might see marketers dumping thought fragments into ChatGPT just to get a quick outline or some sparks when they’ve hit a wall. Sometimes the results are a little too weird to use as-is, but the raw material shakes things loose. It’s like brainstorming with a team that never gets tired or judges your worst ideas, which isn’t an awful addition to the creative process. But there’s always that nagging feeling that the ultimate value shows up when a human comes back in and rewrites with a genuine voice.

Even with all its shiny capabilities, it’s kind of obvious when content comes exclusively from a bot. There’s this underlying lack of messiness—nothing unexpected or risky, and definitely nothing personal. Sure, it spits out something that sounds plausible, but layer in a human’s oddball tangent or sharp punchline, and suddenly the material breathes. Maybe the future is less about one side replacing the other and more about this messy collaboration. That’s probably what’s making managers quietly hopeful and a little uneasy at the same time.

The Impact of ChatGPT on Education

As with digital marketing and content creation, education is also starting to feel the impact of ChatGPT on the industry. 

And also, as with marketing, some of that impact poses major problems, while some of it might hold some promise for the future of education. Here are a few examples that have people talking.

Potential Decline in Motivation to Learn

Now that ChatGPT is exceptionally close to being a household name, educators and parents alike are concerned about its potential impact on a student’s motivation to learn in the first place. 

How many young people won’t see the point of paying attention in class, furthering their education, or learning a skill if they can simply ask a chatbot to do it for them?

Similar concerns came up when inventions like calculators and even Wikipedia hit the scene in the past. 

Experts knew those things would ultimately change how people teach, learn, and look for answers, and something similar will almost certainly happen because of ChatGPT.

Concerns About Cheating

In many schools and learning establishments, ChatGPT is already banned on school computers as a potential resource for students and, in some cases, educators, as well. 

Its proficiency in everything from solving math problems to writing book reports to crafting essays has raised a genuine concern about cheating when it comes to tests, homework, term papers, and more.

Many educators are emphasizing the need for reliable AI detection methods as a result. 

Although ChatGPT can produce decent essays and nonfiction content that sounds at least somewhat human, it’s still easily detectable as not written by an actual human being.

AI-written content still tends to be relatively thin, repetitive, and superficial compared to human-produced content. 

And again, it cannot efficiently tap into the nuances of unique human experience, critical thinking, and genuinely-felt emotions.

Shifts in Education Methods

Of course, there are those who genuinely do see where technology like ChatGPT or similar could actually help educators be more effective at their jobs. 

Like Google, it’s a solid potential resource for gathering or better understanding all sorts of information.

It also has solid value as an organizational tool. 

For example, it could be helpful in drafting lesson plans, planning assignments, and generating good ideas for improving student engagement in the classroom.

Likewise, it could become a valuable resource capable of helping students overcome learning blocks, better understand complicated concepts, and become better at writing, problem-solving, and a variety of other things.

Wrap-Up

So what is ChatGPT, and is it a viable replacement for human content producers? The fact of the matter is, while AI-based programs like ChatGPT do have potential promise, their role moving forward is as tools designed to help human beings be better at what they already do.