Is Chat the Future of AI?

Chat—and ChatGPT—kicked off the current AI wave. OpenAI took existing technology, wrapped it in a chat interface, and set the world on fire. 

But there’s a lot of questions about chat’s future: is it actually a useful creative tool? Or is chat just a way-station on the road to some other way of interacting with AI to produce creative work?

Here’s what I think:

Chat isn’t great at making one thing incredible.

It’s inexact, it’s unreliable, it’s hard to steer precisely, it’s slow, and it forces repetition. Many next-generation AI creative tools won’t have a chat interface at all.

But, viewed correctly, these flaws are actually chat’s genius. It is inexact and unreliable—so it introduces you to new things. It is hard to steer precisely—so you’ll bump into things that you don’t expect and broaden your horizons in any new domain. It is great at filling a blank page; it will allow you to venture forth into ideas that you can barely put into words.

Chat can help you scratch the surface of an entirely new field of study, or build you a working prototype of a simple app, or help you test 15 variations of an idea you’re trying to write about.

No, chat—and ChatGP— isn’t great at making one thing incredible. It’s incredible at making 1,000 things. And therein lies its genius. 

Divergent vs. convergence in the creative process

Any kind of creative endeavor has two phases: divergence and convergence.

In divergence, you’re opening yourself up to new ideas and possibilities.