We already have AI platforms like ChatGPT which provide reviews sourced from the internet, will it be long before they become the source?
BHPian CentreOfGravity recently shared this with other enthusiasts.
Artificial Intelligence. A topic that has garnered quite a lot of interest in the past few years. All this while, we were talking of a future where AI would take over many jobs. That ‘future’ isn’t too far away now…
A few days back, I was discussing with my parents about my dream job, automobile journalism. We were talking about its pros and cons when they raised an important point – the relevance of automobile journalism with the onset of AI. That was when it struck me; will the current crop of media houses fall prey to AI? Will we have AI-generated reviews instead of Team-BHP reviews? If it does indeed take over, how will the system function? Though I feel that AI cannot replace human opinions and feelings about a car, I know that my defense may not be good enough. So, my question to the esteemed members of this forum – Do you think AI will take over automobile journalism along with other jobs? If so, how?
I really hope and pray that automotive journalism is here to stay. We already have platforms like ChatGPT which provide reviews sourced from the internet, will it be long before they are the source? Looking forward to your views and opinions.
Here’s what GTO had to say about the matter:
Some thoughts on this topic:
- AI isn’t going to give you solid + unbiased + accurate observations that can only come from test-driving the car. AI isn’t going to drive a new model and tell you what’s hot or what’s not. E.g. the Harrier’s sensitive steering at speed, only expert reviewers will tell you.
- AI isn’t going to engage in an intelligent pricing debate with opinions from real car owners.
- AI is easy to manipulate as – among other things – it is based on existing data. You can bet that car manufacturers will spend crores & crores of rupees to manipulate that data & give you AI answers that favour them. Just like they buy out magazine content & social media today.
- That being said, AI will wipe out the smaller to medium-sized car websites & auto magazines that are already struggling. Many have shut down in recent years and there will be more to come. Reason 1 = AI-generated articles will come to dominate Google / Bing search results (already the case if you search for a comparison between Phone A & Phone B). Reason 2 = many people will start their search on AI. The small-to-midsize automotive magazines & websites that depend on ad revenue will be delivered a body blow.
Net net, there will always be a place for high-quality content in the world. Be it Indian cars & Team-BHP, or international sources such as NYTimes, Bloomberg etc. AI will make things challenging for sure, but the human race will always consume content that is original, intelligent, informative & fun.
I recently read a mind-blowing Bloomberg article about a sneaker Ponzi scheme. AI won’t give you this – I happily pay an annual subscription of 20 grand to Bloomberg for quality articles like these. Neither will AI give you a Thar ownership report like this, a motorcycle review like this or an emotionally-charged travelogue like this.
In comparison to such beautiful writeups, AI articles can be JUNK – check out CNET’s money-making machine based on AI content.
Here’s what BHPian Dr.AD had to say about the matter:
I run a small AI/Data Science company that builds exactly the kind of solutions and business applications of AI you are worried about, and we discuss such questions in our day-to-day job, with our customers, colleagues, peers, investors and other entrepreneurs too. I am a mathematician, scientist, engineer and finally an entrepreneur and have seen many such new technologies emerge over the last 25 years and closely seen how they affect jobs and careers (and seen my own career affected, evolved, and emerged through all this “mess”, if I could joking call it so). My answers below come from that perspective.
The short answer to your question: No!
AI can not “take over” automobile journalism as you are thinking of. In fact, based on my understanding (and of course, I could be wrong), AI is hardly “taking over” anything and will not take over anything. Most of those are unfounded fears.
AI will for sure revolutionize automobile journalism, or the entire field of journalism, just like it is revolutionizing many fields! And to a good extent that is already happening. But revolutionizing something is not the same as taking it over or eliminating it, or making it redundant.
Human intelligence, human creativity, and human emotions, especially in fields such as automotive journalism, will always rise above the AI-generated text, and the AI-generated text will merely be a tool (and a very powerful tool) at the hands of humans to write even better reviews! Of course, a few can try to misuse AI but those will eventually fade out, or will not get any more importance than those “copy-paste” internet news channels that already exist today.
In my own experience, I am seeing that such fears are expressed in all fields – manufacturing, banking & finance, healthcare, corporate governance etc. And we develop AI solutions in all those fields. Eventually what ends up happening, and what will continue to happen at just a lot more rapid rate, is that the humans quickly learn to use these AI tools as their assistants and rise above those to add new value (through their own insights of those jobs and their intuition and creativity) to their own organizations or businesses.
AI + Human is a tremendously powerful combination that will outclass most AI applications in the foreseeable future. Having said that, there are some developments in the field of “Artificial General Intelligence (AGI)”, which might be able to reach the same level as human intelligence in some of the job roles. However, that does not exist today (AGI is still a future vision and not a reality today) and moreover, even when AGI comes to reality, it remains to be seen to what level it can match human intelligence in day-to-day life.
For some jobs which are purely mechanical and repetitive in nature (such as some of the assembly line jobs in manufacturing), those are the most likely to be made redundant by the AI. But those jobs are and were being made redundant by simple “automation” which is and was available in plenty, long before this AI became so popular. So again not much changes there.
The relatively intelligent jobs such as journalism, legal practices, scientific research, medical research etc are least likely to be “taken over” by this generative language models or the models are ChatGPT as you mentioned. These jobs will hugely benefit from the advances in AI, but will not become redundant for humans!
In fact, coming to your specific question, and since you would like to become an automobile journalist as you said, I would say the future looks very exciting. Instead of worrying about AI, think about how you would use this powerful tool as your assistant and how you would use your human creativity to create something next level to what exists today. There are unlimited possibilities and the sky is the limit! I am actually looking forward to AI revolutionizes some of these things.
So in short, yes AI will revolutionize things and I am excited about that and looking forward to the future. And no, I am not worried about human jobs or human roles because I feel confident that we will rise above that and create a more beautiful future for ourselves!
Here’s what BHPian Samurai had to say about the matter:
While I am not an AI expert, I did try to become one for 2-3 years before giving up. Now I provide software stack to multiple AI companies, so I do have some exposure to the latest trends in enterprise AI.
Some time ago I answered a similar question, regarding IT jobs. But your question is in the generative AI area, which would require a different answer.
Recently I read a wonderful farewell message by a business acquaintance, directed at my team. Everyone was very happy to read the glowing tribute. However, my AI antenna started buzzing. The message was too articulate, using words that person seldom uses. Also, the whole message was generic, without any personal anecdotes. Plenty of adjectives, but not one example of why such adjectives were deserved. So, I checked the message at copyleaks, and it reported 94% chances of AI-generated content. That’s almost 2 sigma or two standard deviations away from the mean (human content).
Soon most of us will be able to detect AI content either instinctively or by using an AI-checking tool. Why should anyone read AI-generated content? It is just a word salad. Sites using AI-generated content will lose viewers in a hurry. Those who write genuine content will continue to thrive.
Here’s what BHPian SmartCat had to say about the matter:
- These days, automobile journalism mostly equals Youtube reviews of cars & bikes. Manufacturers too give tremendous importance to these reviewers/influencers. Most of them are invited to media launches. Video production quality of the likes of PowerDrift is on a different level. AI cannot help here. But then, all bets are off if we have an AI-powered humanoid in the future that can say “Koi dikkat nahi, bahut comfortable hain” (no problems, it is very comfortable) while jumping over a large road hump.
- My exposure to AI is limited to ChatGPT/Bard. It is great at analyzing past news/events but not an event that happened yesterday/today (eg: media launch & review of a new car/bike).
Keyword: Future of automotive journalism in India: Would AI take charge