April 13, 2023
Boston Business Journal recently published an article featuring Dokyun “D.K.” Lee, Associate Professor of Management and Information Systems, discussing the growing presence of generative AI.
With the November 2022 launch of ChatGPT from San Francisco-based OpenAI, artificial intelligence has been getting a lot of attention. Generative AI, which can produce text, images and other media based on prompts, has obvious appeal for many work tasks including writing email, reports, and software code. Lee suggests AI is already integral to many areas of business, and that presence will continue to grow. Companies will be much quicker to apply AI to certain functions than others. Organizations will likely be more open to using generative AI for employee-facing functions rather than consumer-facing ones.
Its capabilities do raise questions about how it can fundamentally change the human creative process, as AI can quickly turn out unlimited variations and combine ideas humans might not consider. Lee states,“It’s a general-purpose technology, like electricity. Sometimes you need to change the entire way you’re doing things. It’s for sure a change that’s here to stay, and lots of things will be automated. It’s not hype. People should be vigilant for opportunities and dangers”.
Despite AI’s rapid development, we should not underestimate how deeply entwined we are with it, as is evident in platforms such as Netflix and TikTok that use algorithms for recommending content.