CEO - David Alterman takes a moment to reflect on embracing new AI

I am often late to the party, literally and metaphorically. And so it is with Chat GPT. Maybe it is the spectacularly unengaging branding, maybe it is an age thing, but Chat GPT hadn’t captured my attention until 2 weeks ago when one of my colleagues urged me to check it out.

And now I can’t avoid it. All the usual social media channels are obsessed. The advertising industry is exercised greatly – ‘Generative AI and the future of the creative industry: ‘there is going to be pain’’ shouts The Drum headline this morning.

Does it threaten the future of market research? Jane Frost MRS Chief Exec remarks in Research Live this week, ‘we need to own the new, not let it own us’.

Does it herald the end of education as we know it, or is it simply more evidence that ‘AI’ is the future and ‘I’ am not?

But every time new technology arrives, we are riddled with anxiety about it chipping away at our identity and our ability to reason, create or simply function as individuals.

All I know is that over the years certain technological developments have made my life better and I like that:

Spotify – I mean any song, any time. Do I miss my cherished record collection? – No they all went to the charity shop.

Contactless Payment – I am not sure it saves time but it is so much more empowering to casually, triumphantly gesture towards a payment terminal than messing around with pins.

Heating App on my phone – I can turn the heating on just before I get home from a holiday and arrive in a warm house  - luxury.

Remote car door locking – on a cold day your hands don’t leave your pocket.

ChirpOMatic – my favourite lockdown app – like Shazam but for Birdsong. Not sure I can tell an Alpine Chough from a Barnacle Goose but I am getting much better at spotting blackbirds.

SkyTV Box – no more failure to record TV programmes (years of wrestling with VCRs – showing my age)

BBC Weather App – I no longer need to look outside to see if it is raining.

So all you AI sceptics out there, life will improve – enjoy it.