Inflection Point with ChatGPT?

A few weeks ago I wrote about Meta’s Scientific AI (I think it was called Galactica) and it did not succeed. The company had to take it down maybe after 3 days.

But now there is a new AI in town, and it is sending Richter scale ripples.

Back at the end of November 2022 or maybe in December 2022, OpenAI released its latest generative AI product called ChatGPT, and the universe of internet lit up like a storm. My newsfeed has been inundated with news stories about its capabilities and the potential outlook for the future.

And boy is it amazing.

It’s an AI designed to be a conversational bot where you can talk to it or throw questions at it, and it can respond accordingly. The company threw it out to the public as a beta for testing, so it is still buggy and prone to mistakes. The responses it provides might be incorrect or biased.

But it is still amazing.

I’ve been writing since around 2013 or 2014 about the coming automation, mainly in finance/FP&A departments, so I’ve been wondering what I would do when everything is automated in the finance department.

But this ChatGPT is all encompassing. It will affect way more than just finance departments. The areas that could potentially be disrupted are vast: copywriters, marketers, social media writers, content creators, bloggers, journalists, coders, programmers, Lawyers, researchers, etc. Basically, a large part, if not all, of the white-collar workforce needs to be aware of this development and may need to be worried.

A new and more advanced version of the AI is slated to come out later this year, maybe around May. One of the OpenAi insiders said the new version is another level up, or maybe even multiple layers.

Potential Scenario and What It Means

What does this development mean? Well, it is kind of worrisome. The quality of your work will have to better than the level the ChatGPT displays. If you are an average person, I would start looking at this and see what you can do. If you are average and it can do just as well as you (never mind better) but faster, like in lickety split faster, and for free, you are hosed.

Here’s a scenario that could happen. Say you are a small business owner and you have been utilizing some copywriter to do some writings for your ads or for your web because you are a crappy writer. You hire this copywriter who maybe presents two or three versions of the writings that you requested. You tell him what you want, he goes away for a few days, and comes back with 2 or 3 writings. You pick one and you pay him for it.

I don’t know if that is what happens – I’m just speculating here.

Now, with this ChatGPT, you can ask it to present you 3 or 4 writing samples, based on your requirements and it will present you 3 or 4 samples in maybe 5 minutes. Certainly not a couple of days. Not even a couple of hours. It’s in minutes. And it’s free.

So, it will come down to quality. Are the copywriter’s writings better, more creative and more engaging than ChatGPT? That is probably what it will come down to: which writing will do the work better.

ChatGPT learns from only the data that is fed it and it is said to be a probabilistic program. To me, it is going to generate something that has the highest probability of being put together. It kind of sounds like the writing will be the average of all of the writings on the internet, which by the way is only up to 2021. It has not been fed with anything after 2021.

If your writing is better than the average of the internet, and you can really generate results, then you might have a chance.

For companies that have shareholders, there will be intense pressure to automate everything with this AI, especially if it is free. At the first instance of economic trouble, there will be pressure to cut costs and where do you think that will come from? Where the AI can do a somewhat similar job, if it is free. The speed is not in question; it is faster. Like in an eyeblink faster. You can’t compete on that score. And if it’s free, you can’t compete on that.

Even if there is no economic trouble on the horizon, investors will apply immense pressure to replace people with AI because the money will flow to them. That’s all they care about – their own pocketbooks, not society in general. We’ve lived under the Milton Friedman doctrine for a couple of decades now that doing good for society is not part of our discussion anymore. There have been some surprising discussions in the last few years, but a pushback has been generated from the activist investors focused on the Milton Friedman doctrine. That whole push against ESG and “woke” capitalism is a call to go back to the Milton Friedman doctrine of profit maximization for shareholders only.

What Can You Do?

Right now, I don’t know what to say other than to explore ChatGPT to see how you can use it to your advantage. You will still need to know how to write and whatever the topic you work in but now add in ChatGPT.

Right now, its writings are kind of bland and generic because it feels like an “average” of all of the writings on the internet. You will need to get your writings at least to that level as minimum table stakes and then you need to add interests or creativity to stand out. Imagine everybody using ChatGPT for all of their writings. Then all of the outputs will start sounding the same and we human beings actually crave for new things (just as long as it doesn’t impact us). I think this is where “being human” comes into play.

Its current version was fed data only up through 2021, so it doesn’t know anything about 2022. It is going to be up to us to stay on top of what is happening in our industry. I don’t know what future versions of ChatGPT will be like, so this thought or idea might not be applicable in the near future.

It is also prone to errors because it does not understand what it is saying, although you would be fooled into thinking it does. If you use ChatGPT, you need to know the topic very well in order to spot any fallacies or errors. You are going to have to be its editor.

At the moment, I’m thinking, pretend you are the manager, and you oversee ChatGPT. You instruct it on what to do and how to do it and you review and correct its output.

Try to figure out how to use it as a tool.

An Example of Its Output

When I was exploring ChatGPT, I started with very generic questions as I did not know what to ask. The example below is paraphrased as I did it over two sessions.

Me: generate a short list of FP&A topics for a blog

ChatGPT: Here are a few ideas for topics related to FP&A (financial planning and analysis):

1. The use of financial forecasting in budgeting and long-term planning
2. The role of FP&A in identifying and mitigating financial risk
3. The implementation of a rolling forecast process
4. The use of financial modeling and scenario analysis in decision making
5. The integration of FP&A with other departments within a company
6. Best practices for creating and maintaining a financial forecast
7. The impact of technology on FP&A, including the use of automation and data analysis tools
8. The challenges and opportunities of integrating ESG (environmental, social, and governance) metrics into FP&A
9. The role of FP&A in M&A (mergers and acquisitions) due diligence and integration
10. The benefits of a centralized FP&A function versus a decentralized approach.

Please let me know if you have any specific questions regarding any of these topics.

Me: Can you tell me more about number 5 in the list you provided me?

ChatGPT: Sure! The integration of FP&A with other departments within a company is an important aspect of effective financial planning and analysis. By working closely with other departments such as sales, marketing, operations, and human resources, the FP&A team can gain a deeper understanding of the drivers of the business and make more informed financial decisions.

For example, the FP&A team can work with the sales department to develop realistic revenue projections based on historical data, current market conditions, and the sales team’s pipeline. Additionally, working closely with the marketing department can help the FP&A team better understand the costs associated with customer acquisition and retention, which can be used to develop more accurate budgeting and forecasting models.

Operations team can give insight on the cost of goods sold and the supply chain, and human resources can provide information on the headcount and salary expenses.

The integration of FP&A with other departments also helps to ensure that financial decisions are aligned with the overall goals and objectives of the company. By taking a more holistic approach to financial planning and analysis, the FP&A team can help to ensure that the company’s resources are being allocated in the most efficient and effective manner possible.

Please let me know if you want to know more about any specific example.

As you can see, it writes well in typical corporate fashion. I imagine that all blogs talking about this topic are kind of writing in this same vein. It’s actually kind of like a textbook. Imagine all writings devolve to this style because everyone uses ChatGPT.

Continuing on…

Me: If you were asked to write a LinkedIn post, how would you write about this?

ChatGPT: Here is an example of how I would write a LinkedIn post about the importance of integrating FP&A with other departments within a company:

“Effective financial planning and analysis (FP&A) is essential for any business looking to achieve its goals and objectives. But for FP&A to be truly effective, it must be integrated with other departments within the company.

Working closely with teams such as sales, marketing, operations, and human resources provides the FP&A team with a deeper understanding of the drivers of the business. This enables the team to make more informed financial decisions that are aligned with the overall goals and objectives of the company.

For example, by working with the sales department, the FP&A team can develop realistic revenue projections based on historical data, current market conditions, and the sales team’s pipeline. By working with the marketing department, the team can better understand the costs associated with customer acquisition and retention. And by working with operations and human resources, the team can gain insight into the cost of goods sold and the headcount and salary expenses.

Integrating FP&A with other departments also helps to ensure that the company’s resources are being allocated in the most efficient and effective manner possible. So, if you’re looking to improve your company’s financial planning and analysis, be sure to involve other departments in the process. #FP&A #financialplanning #financialanalysis #businessstrategy”

Me: Have you heard of a “hook” that draws the reader in?

ChatGPT: Yes, a “hook” is a technique used in writing to draw the reader in and capture their attention. It’s typically the first sentence or two of an article, post, or other piece of writing, and it’s designed to be interesting, intriguing, or thought-provoking in order to make the reader want to read more.

A hook can take many forms, such as a question, a surprising fact or statistic, a quote, a personal anecdote, or a bold statement. The key is to make the hook relevant to the topic and to the audience, and to use it to set up the main point or theme of the piece.

For example, in the LinkedIn post I wrote earlier, I used a question as a hook “Effective financial planning and analysis (FP&A) is essential for any business looking to achieve its goals and objectives. But for FP&A to be truly effective, it must be integrated with other departments within the company.”

This question is relevant to the topic of the post and it makes the reader curious to read more and find out the answer.

You can also use other forms of hooks like

• “Did you know that…”
• “Imagine a world where….”
• “Have you ever wondered why…”
• “The biggest mistake most people make when it comes to…”

Let me know if you want me to re-write the post with a different hook.

Here’s where the first error came in. It said that it used a question as a hook in its LinkedIn post, but I couldn’t find the question. But this is minor though.

Continuing on…

Me: Yes, try re-writing the post because most people are not really interested in FP&A and the first sentence you provided was uninteresting.

ChatGPT: Sure, here’s an example of how I might re-write the post with a different hook:

“Are you struggling to make sense of your company’s finances? You’re not alone. Financial planning and analysis (FP&A) can be a tricky business, but it’s crucial for any business looking to achieve its goals and objectives. But for FP&A to be truly effective, it must be integrated with other departments within the company.

By working closely with teams such as sales, marketing, operations, and human resources, the FP&A team can gain a deeper understanding of the drivers of the business and make more informed financial decisions. This helps to ensure that the company’s resources are being allocated in the most efficient and effective manner possible.

Don’t miss out on the opportunity to take your company’s financial planning and analysis to the next level. Learn how integrating FP&A with other departments can lead to better decision making and increased success. #FP&A #financialplanning #financialanalysis #businessstrategy”

In this post, I used a hook “Are you struggling to make sense of your company’s finances? You’re not alone.” which is relevant to the topic and it makes the reader curious to read more and find out the solution. The hook is also relatable to a wide range of people who may be struggling with the same problem.

Conclusions

My approach would be to ask it for potential topics to write and ChatGPT would give me a list that everyone else on the internet has written, so I would avoid these topics, unless I have something very different to offer.

If I were to use one of those topics, I would pull something from my experience that no one else would have encountered. I would try to turn it into a story.

I would try not to be so bland as the accompanying copy but try to add spice. Of course, FP&A as a topic will be hard to make spicy.

I would also try to find topics that ChatGPT did not offer up, maybe from my own experience or someone’s experience that I learned. ChatGPT would be a very good tool to tell me what has been written.

Yes, it is going to be a brand new world out there.