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I’m both excited and scared about the concept of Artificial intelligence (AI) including ChatGPT, which is currently all over the technology news.
The technical and engineering side of my brain is fascinated by the whole idea. The potential of artificial intelligence growing up and being able to make our lives easier in different aspects is incredible.
We have 3 of those Google Nest Minis in our apartment (we got 1 for free and paid $1 each for the other 2). They’re useful and convenient – we play music through them, check the weather, set timers while cooking, ask them questions (which is usually when I end up shaking my head at its lack of comprehending what I’m saying), and other small things.
They’re great for small “easy” tasks like that and we do tend to miss the convenience when we’re somewhere without them. An Amazon Echo Dot with Alexa is similar if you’re familiar with those.
But that’s nothing. That’s artificial intelligence in its infancy. The impact of AI is going to be profound. It’s going to have a dramatic effect on the world that most of us can’t even comprehend yet.
And that’s the part that scares me. Could we have a Terminator “Rise of the Machines” revolution happen in real life?
Or could an “I, Robot” type of plotline happen?
Those might be a little extreme (though fun movies to watch!) but there’s still a very legitimate concern as artificial intelligence takes a more prominent role in the world.
Attention on AI because of ChatGPT
Right now, artificial intelligence is getting a ton of press with the beta release of ChatGPT. ChatGPT is a chatbot with AI built into it that’s blowing people’s minds.
Microsoft has already backed the company behind ChatGPT, OpenAI, with $1 billion in 2019. It’s now looking like they’ll be putting in another $10 billion for a bigger stake in the company.
Imagine if they baked that kind of technology into their Bing search engine. They could, if they were smart, change the whole dynamic of search. Instead of digging through search results, you could just get the answer presented to you right then and there.
Google sometimes does this with small snippets like if you ask something minor…
But imagine if you were trying to code something or figure out an Excel formula for example and needed some help. You could just tell it the specifics of what you’re trying to do and it could give you exactly what you want right there in front of you. No need to sift through tons of articles first or try to modify the code to work in your own scenario.
You might already be hearing about the controversy of whether teachers and schools should ban this new technology (that won’t work) or embrace it. Kids can create book reports or summaries instantly with no effort at all but why not find ways to work with it instead of against it?
This is just scratching the surface, too. Artificial intelligence like ChatGPT and others (and there are others out there) is going to change the world. We’ll be hearing more from Google as well who’s been treading carefully on this up until now.
So here’s what’s cool. You can toy around with ChatGPT for free right now while it’s in beta. It isn’t up to speed on current events as it doesn’t pull new information from the internet (for now). But you can throw a lot of cool and complex questions at it and it does an impressive job handling it.
Be aware though that it’s not guaranteeing the information to be 100% correct as of now. So don’t just copy what it says and hold that to be the holy grail of truth.
That leads us to this post. I’ve been messing around with ChatGPT for a little while now just to learn more about it… and it’s pretty impressive! So I thought it would be fun to put ChatGPT on the task of creating a personal finance post for Route to Retire. Folks, we’re already seeing AI being a big part of what you’re reading out there so you better get used to it!
So what you’re about to read is a simple article that’s 100% generated from ChatGPT… in seconds.
Take a read below and see what you think. I put my requests in red and ChatGPT’s responses in blue. This is 100% as is without any editing…
ChatGPT’s article on the importance of saving and investing
Write an article that’s roughly 1,500 words that talks about the importance of saving and investing. Target the audience to be people in their 30’s with just a basic understanding of personal finance. Talk about why compound interest is and why it can make all the difference, especially for younger people. Use an example of saving $200/month and what it would be worth in 30 years. Make the article informative but motivational and exciting with a little bit of humor.
Saving and investing: it’s the ultimate power couple of personal finance. But why should you care? Well, if you’re in your 30s, the time is now to start thinking about your financial future. And compound interest is the magic ingredient that can turn a small savings account into a big nest egg.
First, let’s talk about why compound interest is so powerful. Simply put, it’s the interest you earn on interest. So, if you invest $100 at a 5% annual interest rate, after one year, you’ll have $105. But in the second year, you’ll earn interest not just on your original $100, but on that extra $5 as well. And the more time your money has to compound, the more it grows.
Now, let’s look at an example. Let’s say you’re 30 years old and you start saving $200 per month into a retirement account that earns a 7% annual interest rate. By the time you’re 60, you’ll have saved $144,000. But with compound interest, your account will have grown to over $500,000. That’s right, you could have half a million dollars just by saving a few hundred bucks a month.
Now, I know what you might be thinking: “But I’m in my 30s, I have other things to worry about right now.” And yes, of course you do! You have a life to live and bills to pay. But the beauty of saving and investing is that you can start small and gradually increase your contributions as your income and priorities change. Even if you can only save $50 a month to start with, it’s better than nothing. And as you get raises or pay off debts, you can increase your savings.
Another thing you might be worried about is the stock market. It can be scary to think about putting your money into something that can be so volatile. But here’s the thing: the stock market has historically been one of the best ways to grow your money over the long term. And if you’re saving for retirement, you have time on your side. Even if there’s a market downturn, it’s likely that things will recover before you need the money. And remember, you can always diversify your investments to reduce risk.
So, what are you waiting for? Start saving and investing today. Even small contributions can make a big difference over time. And remember, compound interest is your friend. The earlier you start, the more it can work in your favor. And with a little bit of patience and discipline, you’ll be well on your way to a comfortable retirement. And who knows, maybe you’ll even be able to retire early and spend your golden years traveling the world or pursuing your passions. So, what are you waiting for? Start saving and investing today and watch your money grow!
And one last thing, with all the seriousness in this article, I must remind you, don’t forget to enjoy your life too. Invest in experiences, memories and good times. After all, life is too short to be all about money.
In summary, saving and investing is crucial for your financial future. Compound interest is the magic ingredient that can turn a small savings account into a big nest egg. Even if you start small, it’s better than nothing and as you get raises or pay off debts, you can increase your savings. Diversify your investments and don’t forget to enjoy your life.
I then asked it to create the title for this post…
Provide a catchy title for this article that’s good for SEO about how ChatGPT wrote this article and include a positive power word in it.
Masterfully Crafted: How ChatGPT Wrote a Compelling Article on the Power of Saving and Investing
So, what you’re seeing is what you get. Did ChatGPT nail the title and article? I’ll let you be the judge of that.
I think the title’s a little pompous but hey, maybe that’s a good thing. I think the article’s not bad though. It hit on a lot of the points that most personal finance bloggers like to stress to readers on saving and investing. It was pretty well written, too. In this example, it might be hard to discern if it was written by a person or AI.
That said, it didn’t really care about my request to make the article about 1,500 words – it made it only 547 words. And where’s the bit of humor I asked for in it?
What’s really cool though is that you can then refine any answer it gives. Let’s say I read the article over and want it to be a little more advanced on the topic – I could just say “redo the article for a more advanced reader” and it’ll be done. Or maybe “redo the article with more humor” and just like that the changes will be made.
I think we’ll see a lot more writers utilizing artificial intelligence like ChatGPT in the near future. Some will use it for ideas or a rough draft while others will use it to churn out articles left and right.
I can’t say that it’s all good or bad but be prepared as we’re about to see some major shift in how the world works with AI.
Plan well, take action, and live your best life!
Thanks for reading!!
— Jim
Jim, this was fascinating. As I read the AI article, it seemed to me to have a lot of “usual” catchphrases I see in other blog articles I read. I agree with you about schools working with the AI so our students will be familiar with it. Who knows what skills they may need with it for the future? We can only dream.
Also wanted to mention your comments after the AI article reminded me of something else. Many artists, book illustrators, and others are using the computer these days to make some of their art. I was able to buy a beautiful lithograph of original artwork by a children’s book illustrator that was digitally generated. I was able to buy for a reasonable price, and the framing was the expensive part. At the time, I thought it was a good way for those of us in “the masses” to be able to buy art, since the artist controls the process and number in the editions.
That’s cool, Chris – that kind of stuff is fascinating to me. Technology advancements have been like a snowball over the decades, too. It’ll be interesting to see just how different things will be even just over the next decade.
Hey Jim,
Pompous or not, but you are completely scaring me, Jim. When I read the article’s title in my inbox I thought that you came up with a slightly weird, but really catchy title… So, yeah, ChatGPT got me right away :-(. The article itself sounds a little sleazy, but hadn’t I known it in advance I wouldn’t ever had suspected it had been written by the ChatGPT. Thus this leads to questions/concerns in my mind. How will we distinguish when a real person is telling a real story or if it’s all just fake stuff with some edits thrown in? Is it necessary to be distinguished though? It probably depends on the context of things that must be relayed and how cheeky it has to be. For example, it would totally be fitting for the TikTok’s crowd or naive ‘starting life’ adults, but if I read more or similar articles as in your example, it wouldn’t follow such a PF blog. It didn’t ‘connect’ me if you know what I mean here. However, thanks for the toolbox and I might play too just to see what it creates. Maybe I can start a blog too. I’m a bad writer though I would have a lot of things to share too, so yeah, if I was really driven to start a blog, ChatGPT would be a huge help for me.
Anyway, very scary indeed… Think about all the conspiracy theories and all the fake things that will be believed to be true… Crazy.
There’s already technology out that can tell you if the information is real or not with pretty good accuracy. I believe OpenAI said that they want to implement something as well to help with this as well.
That said, a lot of the articles you’re probably already reading on the web are AI-generated content. And that is going to just continue to grow as it becomes more widely available and evolves more.
Talking about starting a blog using AI to generate content isn’t far-fetched. Entrepreneurs are already there who might not have writing skills (or need to use them if they do). Think of how quickly you could generate content and post it on the web. The ad revenue could easily make it worthwhile as they could churn out a dozen or more articles a day with no writing staff.
Interesting, right?
Amazing, Jim. I’ve been reading ABOUT it, but this is the first time I’ve read something IT ACTUALLY wrote. Mind blowing technology. Just like folks thinking about simple cell phones when they first came out, we have no idea how this will ultimately impact our lives, but it will be huge.
Now, I need to see if I can figure out how to get IT to write a post for me every week until I’m 150 years old…
Haha, that would mean I’d need to bring on some AI to read all your content for 150 years! 😉
Wow thanks for sharing, have also been reading much about it but not seen the output. The quality is very good. It is a bland lifeless piece vs incorporating the human life stories and adventures you add…but that’s just time for this AI to learn.
Scary on in hand but fascinating on the other for what the next generation will become.
Note: ChatGPT did NOT write this response 🙂
Hmm, that disclaimer sounds like something an AI chatbot might write to throw people off! 😉
Dead on about it just getting better over time. My understanding is that the next iteration from ChatGPT alone is slated to be coming out in the next few months and it’s supposed to be pretty impressive. Exciting and scary all at the same time!
Oh goodness, that was fantastic! However, I do think it’s a little scary as well, it seems this will make kids even lazier, cause it will eliminate any need for writing skills. And what will it do to the blogging community? Not sure I’m a fan of this, but Microsoft didn’t ask my opinion!
I would bet that the smarter teachers will find ways to have students use AI to complement the work versus fighting it… kind of like calculators for math. This linked article mentions a few ideas.
On the blogging side of things… yeah, writers, in general, are definitely gonna feel the pain from this.
Wow, it seems these tools are going to make convincing people to take financial advice much easier, especially if you can tailor it to the reader like that (advanced, humor, etc).
That’s a glass-half-full way to look at things for sure – I like it! This will be one of those things folks can fight or get on board with and try to find a way to have it work for them.
It may not be time to jump completely on board with AI, but it is definitely time to start learning more about it. Great article!
Thanks, Zach – absolutely agree!
Okay yes – the title AND the article would dupe me! Sounds 100% conversational like blogs are and the only reason I would know it’s not legit is because we all know you and your personality (which of course is what makes blogs special!). Very very fun to see in real life – can’t say I have up to this point?
One option is for authors to have AI generate a post for them and then tweak it to inject their personality. I still feel like that’s “cheating” in a way, but I can see that being the path a lot of writers end up going for a while before the machines simply take over the world… scary!
yup yup, very true…
until google catches it and penalizes them and then everyone stops doing it 🙂 you KNOW other bots can sense another bot! lol…
Ooh, I like that… let the machines fight each other! Maybe they’ll leave us out of it for a while before they destroy us all! 🙂
It’s interesting technology to be sure, but I’m not sure it can build really compelling content yet. It can string a few sentences together, and that’s great. But I thought the text seemed very generic. No linked sources, data, or backed-up statements either.
I don’t think it’ll be replacing the kinds of articles I read anytime soon. Articles that require real thought, data, and comprehension. Not just regurgitation of stuff found on the internet.
Something to improve upon for the future I guess.
You’re right that there are no linked sources – at least with ChatGPT. It’s not connected to the internet so can’t pull that data… yet. But there are also a lot of others out there as well that are potentially much more powerful. Supposedly, Google and Facebook have even better technology but have to be careful before putting it out there yet. Since they’re so big, they know how much scrutiny they’ll be up against so they want to make sure they’ve covered all based first.
What a great idea for an article! My first thought was that I would like the bot to write an article identifying possible bad consequences (and solutions) of the technology! And my second was that it seems that articles written by a bot will not be able to include the experiences and personality of human writers.
I hope this technology can be developed and controlled in a way that will be beneficial and can minimize the bad consequences. This post was very interesting and thought provoking!
The weird thing (well, one of the weird things) is that something like ChatGPT can write articles that include experiences and personality… they’ll be made up, but most likely, the reader would never know the difference. That’s a little scary!
Wow! I didn’t realize that. It is kinda scary, but quite interesting!