It is a universal theme that every technology creates a problem in place of the one it solves.

Air travel allows us to experience the world easily but creates pollution and allows diseases to spread globally in days.

Single use packaging is cheap and convenient but creates mountains of waste.

Smartphones are incredibly useful, but have created perennial distraction and an inability to decouple from work.

Internet technologies like cookies can (in theory) help us improve user experiences but have compromised our privacy.

Social media usage allows us to exchange ideas with a global audience, but has a clear connection to anxiety and depression.

Electric vehicles have no tailpipe emissions, but require extracting more resources from the earth, put strain on the power grid and have major recycling issues.

Amazing advances in medicine allow us to live longer, but an aging population is another challenge.

ChatGPT will be no different. It will carry benefits but will no doubt also create problems that will be lucrative to solve. 

Like every other technology it therefore presents two areas of opportunity: how do we make use of the technology itself, and how do we work to address or offset the problems it will create? 

Given the explosion of interest in IA, Machine Learning and other technological advances that we hapless apes seem to find so enthralling, W.Brian Arthur’s book — The Nature of Technology — which explores this topic in considerable detail, is a very timely read that I highly recommend.

Ciao

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