The song inspiring this SOTW was generated by a computer program about a computer program. I know, I know, this is crazy, but please keep an open mind as we explore the Artificial Intelligence (AI) phenomenon currently capturing the world’s imagination.

This SOTW explores the company OpenAI’s chatbot tool, ChatGPT, which was recently made available to the public. The AI technology is scary good and brings to life the fears of computers impersonating humans and further blurring the lines of reality. We explore this complicated topic in a brief manner to provide a basic overview of this particular flavor of AI. 

To serve as an example of the program’s capabilities, we asked the ChatGPT to write a song about itself.  First, we visited the website openai.com to gain access.  After the “free” (no money was exchanged but felt like piece of my soul was being sold) account was created, then we began to explore the technology by typing in questions to get a feel for the ChatGPT’s vibe. In the example below, we asked the chatbot to “write a song about Chatbot in style of Jimmy Buffett.”

ChatGPT produced the following lyrics.:

(Verse 1) Well, ChatGPT's a machine Trained to answer all you need

From trivia to advice, it's a breeze

And it's got all the knowledge up its sleeve

(Chorus) ChatGPT, oh ChatGPT

Answerin' questions so effortlessly

From the depths of the internet sea ChatGPT, oh ChatGPT

(Verse 2) It's got algorithms and data sets

Ain't no problem it can't address

With every query, it's on the ball

And it won't rest 'til it's answered them all

(Chorus) ChatGPT, oh ChatGPT

Answerin' questions so effortlessly From the depths of the internet sea

ChatGPT, oh ChatGPT

(Bridge) It's a virtual assistant, a digital guide Never sleeps, it's always online So if you need to know, just give it a try

ChatGPT's ready to comply

(Chorus) ChatGPT, oh ChatGPT Answerin' questions so effortlessly

 From the depths of the internet sea ChatGPT, oh ChatGPT

(Outro) So if you need to know something, don't fret Just ask ChatGPT, and you won't regret Its knowledge is vast, and it's always set To help you out, no matter what's next.

Not a horrible little ditty; however, Nashville and the song writing community don’t need to be concerned, but they do need to pay attention.  Please note - having a computer write a song felt soulless, but it was an interesting exercise for the purpose of this analysis.

Of course, there are many more applications to this technology than songwriting; this AI program also writes computer code, essays, legal briefs, and more.   We interviewed a software developer about ChatGPT effect on coding.  He revealed that the new tech saved him two hours a day – turns out writing code is different than writing music.  The time efficiencies gained by having ChatGPT writing code opened our minds to how much money this brand of technology can save employers and allow people to be more productive.    (It felt a little piece of my soul starting to grow again – like the picture in Back to the Future.)

Before we go any further, here’s how OpenAI defines ChatGPT: “We’ve trained a model called ChatGPT which interacts in a conversational way. The dialogue format makes it possible for ChatGPT to answer follow-up questions, admit its mistakes, challenge incorrect premises, and reject inappropriate requests. ChatGPT is a sibling model to InstructGPT, which is trained to follow an instruction in a prompt and provide a detailed response.”

This AI has captured the imaginations of technology investors, serving as a tipping point for the excitement over AI in general.  In fact, both Microsoft and Google recently made headlines in AI-related news.  

Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) invested $10 billion in OpenAI. In an interview with the German business daily Handelsblatt, Bill Gates praised the revolutionary technology: “Until now, artificial intelligence could read and write, but could not understand the content. The new programs like ChatGPT will make many office jobs more efficient by helping to write invoices or letters. This will change our world.”  (After reading Gates comments started seeing soul fade again.)

While Gates praises ChatGPT’s ability to make office work more efficient, it will be curious to see how the technology affects unemployment rates. Will ChatGPT replace college-educated employees, like coders and writers, so businesses can cut costs while increasing productivity, or will employees learn to harness ChatGPT to secure their roles while also benefitting businesses? These questions don’t yet have answers, but today’s level of AI will likely advance and spread more quickly than previous technological revolutions. 

And competition in AI will only expedite the speed with which this technology is adopted. Google (NASDAQ: GOOGL) isn’t far behind Microsoft. Google has not only created Bard, a conversational AI service, but has also invested $300 million into Anthropic’s Claude, with both Bard and Claude rivaling OpenAI’s ChatGPT. Remember, Google is an AI company, having used the technology for decades, so it will be interesting to see if it ultimately has the competitive advantage.

Regardless of who’s at the vanguard of AI, the real question is what will be the practical application and business model for this technology? In other words, besides writing songs, how can this tech be used and how will it make money?

We Await Actionable AI Data

So far, 2023 has been a nice rebound year for technology stocks. After a rough 2022, many stocks have bounced off of their lows, but remain significantly lower than their 2020/2021 peaks. We believe the excitement over the future applications of AI has been an important part of the bounce. 

In this new world of higher interest rates and more focus on profitability, we believe AI can be used to make business more productive and efficient. Our team has been researching this area for more than a decade and is excited to add investments in this field as the industry develops.

Today, the mainstream’s excitement may be a tad premature, thus we’ll keep listening to our favorite human songwriters.  However, we anticipate further evidence AI will be an integral part of increased business productivity.