ChatGPT: how to prevent it becoming a nightmare for professional writers.

Nearly half of white-collar professionals have tried using ChatGPT to help with their work, according to a recent survey of more than 10,000 people at blue chips such as Google, JP Morgan and McKinsey. That's staggering, considering the AI chatbot was only released to the public in November. It's potentially very exciting for the future of work, but it also brings serious risks.

ChatGPT and other imminent rivals are part of a long history of technologies geared to reducing the labour of writing. These range from the printing press to the telegram, the typewriter, word processors and personal computing.

AI chatbots can help overcome human limitations, including speed, foreign languages and writer's block - potentially helping with everything from writing emails to reports and articles to marketing campaigns. It's a fascinating trans-human relationship in which the AI uses past human-produced texts to inform and shape the writing of new texts by other humans.

Jobs involving significant amounts of writing will inevitably be affected most, such as journalists, academic researchers and policy analysts. In all cases, AI chatbots could allow for new knowledge and ideas to be disseminated more rapidly. Certainly it could lead to weaker, less useful writing, but if used to create a structure that is thoroughly edited by the writer using their own original ideas, it could be very beneficial.

Also, some people have a competitive advantage at writing not because their ideas are better but because they are just faster. This is often because they are writing in their first language, due to nothing more than historical coincidence. AI chatbots could therefore help make writing more inclusive and accessible.

Downsides

On the other hand, there are worries that ChatGPT and its competitors could steal many people's jobs, especially in traditional white collar professions, though it's very difficult to say at this stage how many people will be affected. For example Mihir Shukla, CEO and founder of California-based software company Automation Anywhere, thinks that "anywhere from 15% to 70% of all the work we do in front of the computer could be automated". On the other hand a recent McKinsey report suggests that only about 9% of people will have to change careers. Even so, that's a lot of people. Lower to mid-level employees are likely to be the ones most affected.

Linked to possible job losses is the danger that employers will use these technologies to justify...