My husband thinks I should become a plumber. He made this suggestion a few nights ago as he mused about his latest obsession–a website called ChatGPT. 

“Baby. Have you looked at the ChatGPT website yet?” he asked, thrusting his laptop into my field of vision. “The stuff you can do with this website is nuts!”

“Not the ChatGPT thing again,” I thought, my stomach curdling. “I can’t bear to hear more about the ChatGPT!“

ME, MY HUSBAND AND MACHINE LEARNING 

Over the past few months, my husband has become increasingly fascinated with the latest advances in artificial intelligence. First, it was the DALL-E platform, owned by OpenAI, which describes itself as a new AI system that can create realistic images and artwork from a description.

“You should see the art I’ve made,” he told me one night. “It’s incredible!”

He showed me a watercolor he created that depicts our dog Roland in human clothing knocking on a rowhouse door. And the individual portraits of my parents he designed in the Frida Kahlo aesthetic. And another painting he made of our dog Roland, this time dressed up as a military officer.

“Roland looks just like a human,” I cooed glowingly, delighted in our new Roland artwork. “Look at how much that image looks like him in the face!”

After my husband showed me how to use DALL-E, I began playing with it on my own. I sketched a black-and-white portrait of myself and my husband holding hands in New York City. I painted a watercolor of my nearby Herring Run park. I created my own painting of our dog Roland riding a bicycle while eating a hamburger. I couldn’t believe my output. These were only digital renditions of artwork. But still, I was wowed at what I created from simple prompts. (Important Disclaimer: All the artwork you see on this blog was made by DALL-E).

Yet, at night, my neuroticism began to kick in.

“How is AI already so advanced that it can create bespoke artwork and imagery for the masses?” I’d ruminate. “How do artists feel about these new advances? Worse, what will this type of application mean for their jobs?”

In the meantime, by day, I began sledding down Internet rabbit holes about machine learning, the brave new branch of AI that DALL-E represents. According to the Internet, machine learning is based on the idea that systems can learn from data to identify patterns and make decisions. Machine learning is already being used in countless applications, like speech recognition and self-driving cars.

Over dinner, my husband and I discussed these ideas, generally agreeing that machine learning, at least in the form of DALL-E, was a positive advancement.

“This is the new Industrial Revolution,” my husband mused.

He was right. It did feel disruptive but in a good way. “I can handle this new technology!” I thought. “No problems here!”

THE FUTURE IS WRITTEN IN CHATBOTS

Of course, my assessment of machine learning has since shifted drastically in the face of ChatGPT.

Introduced to me by my husband, Chat GPT is a relatively new chatbot that could upend writing as we know it. Owned by the same company as DALL-E, ChatGPT describes itself as a language model that generates human-like responses to prompts.

In other words, ChatGPT spits back at you whatever you ask. For instance, it can write an editorial about the benefits of cheese. Or it can write an essay exploring sexism in D.H. Lawrence’s “Lady Chatterley’s Lover.” Or it can simply explain quantum mechanics. What’s more, it can do your homework for you, write your grad school essay, write your Tweets, and do a million other things that require putting pen to paper. 

As my husband quipped, “You can even have conversations with it. I think ChatGPT might be my new best friend!!” 

When I first learned about this new chatbot, I felt curious but shaken, especially as someone who only recently decided she wanted to be a full-time writer. The pros: It could make my writing far more efficient and accurate. The cons: Umm…Everything about my chosen career path? 

I voiced these concerns to my husband, who told me I shouldn’t worry. Instead, he offered me ways it could help me in my jobs, sending me a course syllabus he created for my upcoming class. I told him I didn’t want to see the syllabus. In fact, I didn’t want to hear anything more about ChatGPT.

Maybe, if I could deny its existence, I could go back to how life was before I learned about ChatGPT. Yet deep down I knew ChatGPT would become inevitable. It’s power is too undeniable. After playing around with it, I’ve realized ChatGPT is the ultimate writer. Not only can it answer any questions you throw at it, but it can also write poetry and stories and jokes.

“Why don’t scientists trust atoms? Because they make up everything,” it wrote. 

Are you laughing yet?

When I asked ChatGPT to write a short story about a robot that becomes self-aware, it wrote: “Once upon a time, there was a robot named Bob. Bob was like any other robot, following his programming and completing his tasks without question. But one day, Bob had an epiphany. He realized that he was just a machine and that there was more to life than following orders. So, he decided to quit his job and become a stand-up comedian. And he was a hit! Bob’s observational humor about the monotony of factory work and the struggles of being a robot in a human world resonated with audiences everywhere. He even landed a Netflix special. Who knew that becoming self-aware would be the best career move a robot could make?“

It’s not the best-written story of all time, but it is mildly entertaining. Alarmingly, it might have been written by a machine, but it’s clearly doing something that only the human mind could have accomplished in years past.

WHY MY HUSBAND THINKS I SHOULD BECOME A PLUMBER INSTEAD 

And this is where we get back to the beginning of my story when my husband suggested I become a plumber.

“I think you would make a great plumber,” he said as we ate dinner on our couch. “It’s going to be the trade that pays the most and has the easiest learning curve.” 

When he made this suggestion, we almost peed our pants thinking of me suiting up for a job as a plumber or any other trade. For one, I am not good at working with my hands. Nor am I patient or detail-oriented. And I am horrible at doing things that require measurement and math, like hanging shelves or fixing something.

“You aren’t built to be a roofer. Out of all the trades, you’re a plumber. You could fix a leak,” he said. “There is no detail in it. There is PVC. There is glue. You’re not going to have to worry about parts or electrocuting yourself…Shit rolls downhill. You’re good if you can stick a snake in a line.”

We laughed more. And then, to push the thought experiment even further, we asked the ChatGPT to list the pros of becoming a plumber.

The results were unnervingly compelling:

1. Job stability: Plumbing is a necessary trade and plumbers will always be in demand, providing a stable source of income.
2.  Variety of work: Plumbers work on a variety of projects, from installing pipes and fixtures in new construction, to troubleshooting and repairing existing systems.
3.  Physical labor: If you enjoy hands-on work and the satisfaction of completing a physical task, plumbing may be a good fit.
4.  Career advancement: Experienced plumbers can become supervisors or managers, or even start their own businesses.
5.  Good pay: Plumbers earn a good wage and often receive benefits such as health insurance and retirement plans.
6.  Helping people: As a plumber, you will be providing a valuable service to customers by ensuring that their plumbing systems are functioning properly, which can provide a sense of satisfaction and fulfillment.

I have to admit, a career in plumbing sounds enticing. Unfortunately, I couldn’t think of a job further from what I envisioned for myself when I was younger. Not because plumbing is ignoble. But because I had never thought about it as something I could or would want to do. I’ve since brainstormed service jobs I could do, which is a short list that includes house cleaning. And only house cleaning.

As for what this all means for me in the future, I don’t think ChatGPT is necessarily coming after my job any time soon. But someday, I think it could. In the meantime, there are certainly things to embrace about it.

“Think about how much time it could save you in your job!” my husband has argued. “Think about how much content you could create!”

Yes, ChatGPT can help me. It can tweak the messaging I’m asked to write for my job. It can write work emails. And it could, if I asked it to, even write blog posts. Maybe it even wrote this blog post. As a reader, would you be able to tell? Or maybe the better question is, if you found this post well-written and interesting, would it even matter?