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Its hard to believe that ChatGPT has only been around since November. Half a year later, OpenAIs robot has taken the world by storm.

The tech startup upped the ante this May, when it released its latest artificial intelligence model called GPT-4, which, with the right prompts (and a $20 monthly subscription), can write songs, code software and process images.

Now, young Canadians across various industries are using the software to brainstorm campaigns, elevate their writing and scour the internet for resources.

The Star spoke with five young people working in Toronto and the GTA about how and why theyre using the software and what changes it has brought to their workdays. Several of them said they see AI as an imperfect tool that requires a skilled and thoughtful person to work well. Some also said they think its important to learn how to use the robot now so that they can hold onto their competitive edge in the workforce.

Anusha Sheikh, 23, says she and her coworkers began exploring ChatGPT when clients started asking how the marketing consultancy would be implementing the cool things that AI can do. As a result, the team spent a few days studying and testing out ChatGPT, and creating guidelines for how and how not to use it.

I look at ChatGPT as my minion, she said.

It can be helpful, but its not entirely trustworthy, she explained. Thats why Sheikh said she only gives ChatGPT mundane tasks, like mixing up her vocabulary or making an email sound more professional. When shes overwhelmed and neck deep in data, she also might feed it a few different ideas that will help her better articulate the theme of her points, she says. She would also use it as a starting point, for example, asking ChatGPT for questions that could be used in a survey about customers experience with a product.

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However, Sheikh highlighted that she takes privacy precautions and never feeds private information about clients or primary market research, which could potentially be stored and shared elsewhere. She recounted an experience using the software for research, in which a request for a facts source prompted the bot to disclose that the information it sent her was fabricated.

It literally just wrote back to me saying, I cant give you the source for this fact because its fake, she said.

Jaylen Banton, also known on stage as Blue Rivers, is a Brampton rapper who has used ChatGPT "a couple of times" for rhymes. (Kian Gannon)

Jaylen Banton, known on stage as Blue Rivers, said hes only used ChatGPT a couple of times to help him through a writers block.

The Brampton-based rapper recalled his experience writing a song about having fun with his friends, and trying to rhyme with Wu Tang Clan. At first, the words and phrases ChatGPT suggested werent cutting it, so the 25-year-old refined his input to clarify he wanted something with three syllables that also referred to a group of people.

He finally went with the suggested cool jazz band.

Those are things that I would usually be able to do, but I just couldnt that day, so I asked the robot for help, he said.

The more concrete ideas that I had, the more concrete help I can get from ChatGPT, he explained.

Nev Golubovic, a business development representative at a Toronto-based tech sales company, has only been using ChatGPT for about a month and a half since a friend showed her the ins and outs.

While she originally thought it would be the end all, be all, she quickly realized its a tool that requires her skills to work well.

At work, Golubovic uses AI to edit emails although she warns that ChatGPT can sometimes produce a Victorian era tone that needs its own editing and to find research sources. Additionally, she uses the software to find out more about her clients, asking questions like What does the vice president of construction at a highrise company in Vancouver care about?

Given Ive been in my role for over a year now, Im sure it would have been much more useful for me in the very beginning, she said. Now that Im really good at my job and I know my resources and whatnot, it doesnt do that much for me.

(Using ChatGPT is) almost like youre co-creating with someone and youre bouncing ideas off someone, she said.

Huy Tran is the marketing lead for a fine dining restaurant group. He has been implementing the use of AI across his team of eight people. (Supplied)

Huy Tran is the marketing lead for Aburi Restaurants, a group offering fine dining Japanese concepts in various Toronto and Vancouver properties. Although the Millennial said he and the CEO were initially reserved about adopting ChatGPT, Huy spent time learning about the tool and researching best practices, and ultimately rolled it out to his team of eight.

Ive been hearing great feedback in terms of reducing resources and time and effort into doing certain tasks, he said.

The team uses ChatGPT and Grammarly for copywriting on social media, blog posts, basic nondisclosure agreements and menu text.

We use various traditional Japanese ingredients that sometimes are not very common to non-Japanese folks, he said, adding that they have used the software to translate and explain ingredients from Japanese to English.

When it comes to precautions, the team never enters private information into text-based AI. They have also used Adobe Firefly an AI art generator which is meant to be for inspiration, but not meant to be for application. The software is still not legal to use for commercial purposes, he explained.

Working in marketing in todays economy, Zoe S-G said they feel the need to adapt or die. Since April, the Toronto brand manager and creative director has been using ChatGPT to help guide their market research, copywrite and generate ideas.

For example, in their role, the 24-year-old plans social media posts. They could tell ChatGPT about their company and what they would like to focus on, and then ask for 30 post ideas for the month. They also may ask broad questions about marketing research and use the answers as a starting off point.

With marketing, automation has always been a really big source of innovation, so ChatGPT and AI was like the next step, they said about the decision to adopt it.

However, S-G said theres a harmful misconception that ChatGPT can do and solve way more than it actually can.

It cant replace fields where people work on the needs of other people, they said.

Original post:

Translating Japanese, finding rap rhymes: How these young Toronto-area workers are using AI - Toronto Star