“There is a pre-ChatGPT and a post-ChatGPT world,” said the CEO of a leading AI company for national security to your author during a conversation in Palo Alto.
Some may at first look think this dichotomy in the commercial world was a result of what ChatGPT does — it is good, but large language models (LLMs) have been around for the last decade, and, well, Google’s GEMINI is slightly better or equally worse depending on who you ask. Rather, what was innovative about ChatGPT was that it exposed “AI/ML” to the masses. For the first time, consumers experience for themselves what AI could do for them. With one application, what had been hidden, poorly misunderstood, and known by only a few went viral. With one product, people and companies globally experienced intrigue, surprise, worry and saw opportunity, all at the same time.