Guess Who Stole My Job?

I think one of the worst things we can do to ourselves as humans is to live in self-denial. It’s really sad when you see it. You know about the existence of something. You know what it is and what it can do but you choose to pretend not to know it, not to see it for reasons only you know.

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It's a bit like in an abusive relationship, forgive my digression. Probably you guys are courting or whatever and each time you both argue, he keeps raising his hand like he’ll hit you then he stops. Or say things like “If I slap you….” Now you realize that the only thing holding him back is that you both haven’t tied the knot yet, but once you do, those very sweet promises of his would come to reality but you decide to live in self-denial and say things like “I just got him angry. It was my fault.” Well, everyone knows that the self-denial you’re living in will cost you something. Just a matter of time.

Now that you get my concept of self-denial, I can now switch to the topic at hand. When ChatGPT came, I won’t say I knew it firsthand because I’m sure many others saw it from scratch but my cousin is a web developer/programmer. I don’t know all his titles, but he’s basically a techie. So, he told me early on about the phenomenal AI called ChatGPT.

Now, his reason for telling me this was because he knew I write and so, writing and researching just got several ways easier. And as most of the world did, I latched on to it. Eager to see just how wonderful it is.

However, I failed or just refused to see what the fuss was all about. Okay, it could research things and format your work alike, dash in some wry sense of humour here and there but what else? That was just it. In essence, I limited what ChatGPT could do because I wasn’t ready to admit just how powerful it is and how it was quickly and surely dominating the world.

So, my cousin, who’s a tech consultant for an organization said he had a job for me as an assistant. As their programmer, there was a small part of the proposal he had issued them which he stated he won’t do as it was too small for him to handle and hence just eat up his time and distract him from the main work. So, in the proposal, he requested an assistant that he would personally train to take care of that part of it.

He gushed about the job so much to me even before the proposal was accepted but by the time he told me what my salary would be just for putting in four hours on that job every day for the next two weeks, my eyes became the animated dollar sign we see in cartoons.

Safe to say that I’d already spent the whole money in my head. Dutifully allocating it to different portions of my life. So, each day, I’d call eagerly and ask if the proposal had been accepted and he’d say it was coming and I should be patient. I did that for three days and when I was just about giving up, he called that he had a meeting with the CEOs scheduled for the evening.

And so, I waited with bated breath because let’s face it, with the way I’d gotten all jittery over that job, I was ready to draw blood if it didn’t come to materialization. Just kidding….I wouldn’t. Or maybe I would. Lol.

So, the next day, as I skipped to his office, greeting everyone that I’d probably never greet, smiling and showing off my pearly whites, I wasn’t prepared for the news I got.

“Your job was given to another person I’m afraid.”

This was said by my cousin as soon as I walked into the office. I just looked at him warily because whoever that person was would have it coming. He went on to say that I wouldn’t believe the person that had the audacity and when I enquired, he said “ChatGPT.”

He saw the confusion on my face so he went on to tell me that the proposal was accepted and then later on, the same night of yesterday, he was called again and told rather excitedly that he needn’t bother about the assistant bit. That they had just imputed what they wanted into ChatGPT and it gave it to them exactly. My cousin as their programmer confirmed it himself and saw that ChatGPT had carried out my job perfectly.

As I stayed back at the office to stress eat a bit, I started thinking. People had already complained that the invention of AI and all its subsidiaries were taking over their jobs. And it suddenly sank in that I had inadvertently become one of those people whose job had been so graciously stolen by ChatGPT.

I realized how much I’d been limiting AI as a whole. Refusing to accept that part of it because you know…what you don’t know can't harm you and all that. Well, it did. Very well in fact. And while I’m incredibly wary of it now, I have reluctantly accepted that it is the new best thing and that there are so many wonders of ChatGPT that we are yet to explore.

I hope it doesn’t graciously steal any more jobs of mine because I’m this close to searching for ways to kill an AI. But till then, I’ll just begin my ChatGPT exploration. Rediscover just how wonderful it is.