The year ChatGPT changed almost everything

For years, tech companies used AI to make recommendations, detect harmful content online and power self-driving cars. With ChatGPT, however, AI wasn’t just something operating under the hood of products; it was the product. — AFP

When AI researcher Sasha Luccioni went to business conferences and speaking events last year, she would field basic questions like: “What is artificial intelligence?” Now, she said, the people she meets are not only familiar with AI, they’re worried about whether it will “take over the world”.

What changed, she said, was ChatGPT. On Nov 30 last year, the public gained access to OpenAI’s chatbot, which could create expansive – though not always reliable – written responses to simple prompts from users. It fundamentally shifted how people think about artificial intelligence, if they ever thought about it at all.