What will ChatGPT do to SA's knowledge economy?

[View in browser]( [Mail & Guardian]( M&G Mornings | Thu 09 Mar   One of the country’s most talented economic writers that luckily for us works at the Mail & Guardian in Sarah Smit poses the question of [whether ChatGPT will power or inflict pain on our moribound economy?]( Yes, I am being a bit melodramatic I suppose about the state of our economy, moribound is a rather morbid description – but can anyone mount a strong argument that it isn’t at the point of death. We are in yet another recession, given that it’s likely our economy is going to contract once again at the end of this quarter after its 1.3% decline in the fourth quarter of last year. In Sarah’s opening sentence to her piece, she makes the point that it’s difficult to think of a more economy-defining phenomenon than electricity. Sitting on more than 120 consecutive days of load shedding, it’s definitely our most immediate crisis. But we shouldn’t, shouldn’t lose track of both the threat and opportunity of artificial intelligence to our knowledge economy. It’s not a tomorrow world anymore. We need to be awake to this technological development. We once thought we’d live in a world of flying cars after the year 2000 — thinking transportation was where all the world’s advancement would come after the invention of the automobile and steam trains. Clearly that didn’t change much in the more than 130 years since the car was first patented in 1887. Instead, it’s been in communications where the revolution has really unfolded over the past 100 years. Maybe, just maybe we’ve reached the pinnacle of the communication revolution. The next step is what tech commentators of a more conspiracy mindset call the singularity — a hypothetical future point in time where technological growth becomes uncontrollable and irreversible. It’s a fascinating topic — something we will look to continuously explore. 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