“Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery” is a well known saying attributed to Oscar Wilde (It’s also attributed to Charles caleb Colton). Recent happenings made me think about it. OpenAI’s ChatGPT has been the rage past couple of months. It’s a chatbot that interacts in a conversational way and many think that’s going to be the future of internet searches and many other applications. Microsoft has invested a significant amount of money in OpenAI’s chatbot. Google, which specializes in internet searches, has been working on its version of AI-powered chatbot Bard. In the wake of ChatGPT’s popularity and probably perceiving a threat to its online search dominance Google demonstrated Bard. The demo did not go smoothly as Bard’s response to a question was inaccurate. Microsoft decided to cash in on ChatGPT’s popularity and decided to release a beta version of Bing chatbot powered by ChatGPT’s AI with mixed results. Some who have tested have reported it makes up information and some have said the chatbot’s response has, to put it politely, not always been polite. Surely misery seeks company (or should I say “Companies seek misery”?)! 😄
Obviously long-term outlook for AI is promising but recent stumbles indicate it’s not quite ready for prime time wide usage yet. Since this piece is about imitation and technology I was struck by the announcement preceding layoffs by big tech companies in the recent past. Most announcements declared that the companies overestimated the demand in the wake of COVID pandemic, expanded too fast, hired in excess and the CEOs took personal responsibility for that. The language was strikingly similar it seemed as if all the companies had an aha/eureka moment at the same moment or each company decided to imitate the response of the other organizations’ that announced layoffs! 😊 In many fields (sports, business, technology, politics, entertainment etc to name a few) it appears the temptation to imitate, especially a bad example, is simply irresistible. Don’t know if it’s hubris or just a human tendency to take a bad example and prove it could be done even worse! Up there Oscar must be thinking “Imitation as sincerest form of flattery” has even exceeded his Wildest dreams! 🤣
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