CHAT GPT and the rise of virtual assistants: What businesses need to know

Image Copyright © Dall-E

WARNING! Parts of this article (or the whole thing) may have been written by AI. 

I’ve struggled with the concept of Artificial Intelligence (AI), or what had become the generally accepted definition, for some time. Up until late 2022, what most technology companies pushed as AI was Machine Learning. Popularly considered a subset of AI, and certainly a massive technological leap, but Machine Learning is not something that we saw directly in our everyday lives. 

Then in late 2022 came, seemingly out of nowhere, Chat GPT and the rise of Large Language Models. Since then, various other tools, some new, some old, have popped into our general awareness. First things first, if you have not tried Dall-E, Chat GPT or Bard then do so, they are truly amazing and to understand their impact, you must understand what they can do. 

Chat GPT is a powerful language model that excels in generating human-like responses and engaging in conversations. It has been trained on a vast amount of diverse data, allowing it to understand and generate natural language text.

The opportunities these tools present should not be underestimated, potentially enabling small businesses to offer services and support usually restricted to larger enterprises. Including, round-the-clock customer support without the need for a large support team. Virtual personal assistants that can handle customer inquiries, provide information about products or services, and assist with basic troubleshooting.

Routine administrative tasks can be automated, appointment scheduling, order tracking, invoice reconciliation, client communications. Already application vendors are scrambling to integrate these tools natively into their apps, Microsoft 365 Co-Pilot (Introducing Microsoft 365 Copilot – your copilot for work - The Official Microsoft Blog) is just the tip of a very large iceberg. 

But with every opportunity, comes risk, and these need to be taken seriously. 

1. There are potential copyright risks with the use of these tools. These tools scour the Internet, collecting images, audio and text, sometimes without proper authorisation. Using material generated could open you up to future litigation. 
2. The data you enter into Chat GPT and other tools, can be used to improve the model and support the requests of future users. As Samsung found out (Samsung bans use of generative AI tools like ChatGPT after April internal data leak | TechCrunch), once your data is in Chat GPT, it can be hard to get out. 
3. The content generated has been seen to create biased or inaccurate content, relying to heavily on the tool could lead to incorrect decision making, or reinforcement of racial and gender stereotypes. 
4. Security risks will only increase, the tool can highly realistic content in many languages, allowing bad actors to use the tool to generate Malware and Phishing attacks. 

The rise of virtual assistants presents businesses with an exciting opportunity to enhance customer support, automate routine tasks, and deliver personalized experiences. By adopting this technology, businesses can improve operational efficiency, customer satisfaction, and ultimately drive growth. But over reliance and unrestricted use of the tool will introduce risks to your business that need to be carefully considered. Keep a close eye on this space, but ensure you are talking to your team about acceptable use within your business.