Signal18 Jan 2023
OpenAI aims to change how people search the webAfter rocketing into mainstream online discourse, OpenAI is poised to become the next major tech player with ChatGPT Professional. The popularity of ChatGPT signals that people are hungry for tech innovation they can relate to, but whether their trust in Big Tech will increase remains to be seen.
If 2022 was a year of reckoning for American tech corporations, it was also the year OpenAI made its case to be the next big disruptor in the sector via Dall-E 2 and ChatGPT. “ChatGPT is a natural language processing (NLP) model developed by OpenAI. It is designed to generate human-like responses to text input, allowing users to engage in natural, conversational interactions with the model,” says ChatGPT when asked about itself. With Microsoft's $10 billion investment, the start-up is now poised to upend the tech industry by taking ChatGPT to the next level. With ChatGPT Professional, a paid version of the previous model, OpenAI wants to transform the search landscape, forcing Google to declare it as a 'code red' threat.
The promise of a search engine that gives answers in a conversational way without the intrusion of ads is an enticing game-changer. Yet because chatbots like ChatGPT respond by analysing vast amounts of online data, they have a way of delivering biased information against women and people of colour, generating toxic content, and blending fact with fiction. With people's trust in big tech companies declining – only 54% of Americans trust tech companies – there remain some barriers to OpenAI's ambitions as it invites concerns and more public scrutiny. In comparison, aiming to build trust with its consumers, Revolut created a free crash course in cryptocurrency amid its global meltdown so people feel more confident in their investments.
©Ekaterina Bolovtsova (2020)
