Ep. 244: Thoughts on ChatGPT

Deep Questions with Cal Newport

Cal Newport

Technology, Self-improvement, Education

4.8 • 1.3K Ratings

🗓️ 17 April 2023

⏱️ 90 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Are new AI technologies like ChatGPT about to massively disrupt our world? Drawing from his recent New Yorker article on the topic, Cal explains exactly how programs like ChatGPT work, and uses this knowledge to explain why we can calm our fears about this new technology.

Below are the questions covered in today's episode (with their timestamps). Get your questions answered by Cal! Here’s the link: https://bit.ly/3U3sTvo

Video from today’s episode: youtube.com/calnewportmedia

Today’s Deep Question: How does ChatGPT work? (And should we worry about it?) [11:24]

- Is there anything AI won’t do better than humans? [57:30]

- How will AI end up disrupting knowledge work? [1:02:27]

- Should I quit web development before AI eliminates the industry? [1:07:32]

- Will AI create mass job loss in the next five years? [1:11:52]

SOMETHING INTERESTING:

- NPR leaves Twitter [1:21:11]

npr.org/2023/04/12/1169269161/npr-leaves-twitter-government-funded-media-label

Links:

newyorker.com/science/annals-of-artificial-intelligence/what-kind-of-mind-does-chatgpt-have

twitter.com/tqbf/status/1598513757805858820

twitter.com/goodside/status/1598077257498923010

nbcnews.com/tech/tech-news/chatgpt-passes-mba-exam-wharton-professor-rcna67036

time.com/6240569/ai-childrens-book-alice-and-sparkle-artists-unhappy/

nytimes.com/2023/02/16/technology/bing-chatbot-microsoft-chatgpt.html

nytimes.com/2023/03/24/opinion/yuval-harari-ai-chatgpt.html

Thanks to our Sponsors:

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Thanks to Jesse Miller for production, Jay Kerstens for the intro music, and Mark Miles for mastering.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	I'm Cal Newport and this is Deep Questions, the show about living and working deeply in
0:17.9	an increasingly distracted world.
0:20.5	I'm here on my Deep Work HQ, joined once again by my producer, Jesse.
0:29.6	So Jesse, you may have noticed that we have been receiving a lot of emails in the last
0:35.4	few months about chat GPT and related AI technologies and our listeners want to know my thoughts
0:43.4	on this, right?
0:44.4	I'm a computer scientist.
0:45.4	I've thought about the intersection of technology and society and I've been silent
0:48.6	about it.
0:49.6	Well, I can reveal the reason why I've been silent about it is that I've been working
0:53.2	on a big article for the New Yorker about exactly this technology, how it works in its
0:58.7	implications for the world and my general rule is when I'm writing an article, I don't
1:02.8	talk about that subject publicly until the article is done.
1:07.9	I mean, that's basic journalistic practice, but actually, Jesse, I haven't ever told
1:11.8	this story, but that rule was really ingrained in me when I was in college.
1:19.4	So when I was coming up as a young writer, I got started pretty early, wrote my first
1:22.6	book in college.
1:23.6	Yeah.
1:24.6	I was commissioned to write something for the New York Times.
1:26.8	I don't remember exactly what it was, maybe not bad, something to do with college students
1:30.9	or something like this.
1:32.3	I had an early blog at that time and I wrote something on the blog like, hey, this exciting,
	...

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