ChatGPT is the future –– how are you preparing for it?

The sense of awe.

That’s what I remember from my first ChatGPT experience.

I mean, talk about a technological breakthrough! I’m humbled by the sheer creativity of it.

(It reminds me of when Deep Blue defeated world chess-playing champion Garry Kasparov in 1997. It was astounding, and what’s more astounding? Now we can hold that incredible amount of computing power…in our pockets.)

Think about creativity for a moment: Nothing we do is truly original. The way we work is to take old ideas and iterate on them. The idea isn’t original –– the execution is.

ChatGPT works the same way: It’s incredibly creative because it’s iterative.

Sure, the AI can come up with words and spin them into a cohesive narrative, a funny joke, a story about a mischievous cat –– heck, even a term paper on cybersecurity or business ethics or climate justice (yikes!).

But it can’t generate anything without input. It needs us –– people –– for that. Otherwise, it has nothing.

The real interesting thing about ChatGPT (and AI tools like it) is not that it’s “coming for us” or “taking our jobs.” Rather, it’s an opportunity to flex our creative muscles. We need to think differently to influence the AI’s output:

• How can we input something and get different results?

• How can we modify an input to adjust the final output?

• What happens if you rephrase this word…or that word?

Every time I play around with ChatGPT, I have this feeling like I’m talking to someone. It’s so advanced that it makes you feel seen, heard, and understood. It’s not actually sentient, of course. But it is responding to you and the input you provide.

And that’s where I’m reminded of the wider implications for how we do business, create, and disrupt.

We have to get really good at using AI. AI is now a skill everyone can develop. We have to harness its power for a purpose — to push the edges of creativity as we know them.

But we also need to think about how people might take advantage of it.

What if kids use ChatGPT to write their high school essays? If authors use it to generate book content? Does AI get credit as a co-author? As source material? Will we all use it on the honor system, pledging not to use it for nefarious or fraudulent purposes or to misrepresent our work?

And will it always be free? How will we value it? (Can we value it?!) I predict people will experiment with it and explore its capabilities, get hooked, and be more than happy to pay for it. I know I will!

I certainly don’t have a crystal ball or all the answers. Right now, I’m still astounded and reveling in this epic breakthrough. I can feel the world shifting!

I’m curious how you and your companies are preparing for this new, advanced, and powerful AI. What predictions do you have? Hit reply and share your thoughts with me!

– Charlene

My Latest: (pull from Content Library)

• Are environmental, social, and governance metrics doing more harm than good? 😳 In my latest livestream, I share the problems with these measurements –– and what we really need to pay attention to if we want to make transformational progress.

• We all need a reality check. Probably for multiple reasons, but in Leading Disruption, I shared the reality of stakeholder capitalism and how (or if) it’s really being practiced.

• Time for some mythbusting! On Tuesday, January 31, I’m busting the win-lose tradeoffs argument myth –– and sharing how to ensure stakeholder capitalism is actually a win-win. See you then!

Good Things:

• What I’m reading: Crying in the H Mart by Michelle Zauner. Having just celebrated Lunar New Year, I’m finallyreading this book about a mother-daugter relationship and a journey of self-discovery. My musician daughter gave to me a while ago and reading it is raw, emotional, and deeply personal. There’s a good reason it was named one of the best books of 2022!

• What I’m eating: I travel – A LOT. Over the years, I’ve landed on the perfect assortment of travel foods. My favorite is dried blueberries: sweet, yummy texture, not sugar-heavy like other dried fruits, not as processed as a bar, and tons of fiber! I also

pick up plastic-wrapped apples from the airport lounge because they’re not as messy as oranges, they’re bruise-proof, and they last for ages. And I’m never without tuna, mayo, and relish packs, so I always have my DIY tuna salad kit. A new favorite is boiled eggs!

• Gear I can’t live without: 34” LG Ultrawide Monitor. I’m often working on multiple documents and presentations at the same time. While two desktop monitors can work, I’ve found that having an ultrawide monitor – like the ones gamers use – to be a gamechanger. I can have three Word documents side by side for editing, move slides easily between two PowerPoint presentations (see the photo below), or look at spreadsheet data while writing a report. It’s seamless moving between windows without that awkward mouse skipping that happens between two monitors.