6 months of Hype, Chat and Fears of Generative AI and ChatGPT

Since the launch of ChatGPT, in late 2022, the chatbot based on OpenAI’s GPT-3.5 large language model. There has been an extraordinary flurry of launches, hype and activity since then. Even in the past week, OpenAI, Google and Meta announced fresh products, OpenAI’s CEO testified in Congress, and the G7 called for “guardrails” on AI, among many other developments. Whether you agree with the researchers who say the underlying technology has “sparks of Artificial General Intelligence” or you think it is just a “stochastic parrot”, it is vital to understand how it works and what it could mean. This book is aiming to give a clear overview of generative AI, addressing what it is, how it works, how to use it, and what it means for jobs, the economy and society. In the meantime, one thing seems certain. Amara’s law, that “we tend to overestimate the effect of a technology in the short run and underestimate the effect in the long run,” could have been written for (or indeed by) ChatGPT.