AI is Coming For Our Jobs

A reflection on the Planet Money podcast episode where AI made the whole thing

A Podcast Made Entirely with AI

I’m a diehard Planet Money fan. It’s an amazing podcast that explores the economy, finance, and everyday life in an easy-to-understand and fun illustrative way. I’ve listened to it for probably a decade regularly at this point. If you don’t listen, you should consider checking it out.

And with all the talk of AI, ChatGPT, LLMs, Planet Money did something interesting. They used AI to create an entire episode of the podcast over the course of three episodes. In the first episode, they used AI-ingested research, posed questions to experts, synthesized the information, and wrote the script for an episode of Planet Money. Then in the second episode, they created a synthetic voice by training a computer on recordings of former Planet Money host Robert Smith. And in the final episode, they play the episode largely created by a machine and listen and react to it.

Much handwringing has been done over AI lately. And for good reasons.

• ChatGPT became the fastest-growing consumer software in history

• Eating Disorder Helpline Fired their Staff and is Transitioning to Chatbot After Unionization¹

• ChatGPT can pass the Bar, get above the 85th percentile on the SAT, pass many AP Exams, and more²

• The share price of Buzzfeed increased 120% after announcing OpenAI technology adoption for content creation (it’s since cooled)³

• The Writers Guild of America is striking, and a key point is AI writing

ChatGPT, AI, and LLMs going to replace us all?

Are we all vulnerable, soon to live to be subservient to our Artificially Intelligent overlords, or worse, the corporations that control them?

Honestly, maybe. What I’m most convinced of are a few things that this Planet Money series did a great job of intentionally and unintentionally revealing.

There is real displacement coming with AI

1. Knowledge (data recall) and synthesis aren’t all that special. And we knew that already since so much information is stored in computers.

2. Using AI effectively takes expertise - Planet Money did not just hire an intern to peck at the keyboard to make this AI episode. They consulted with professionals and large companies to make it happen.

3. AI can do a lot, and people are finding creative ways to use AI. I mostly feel that creatives will be ok and continue to work. I’m more excited about the different applications of AI tech, especially in health and science.

4. AI is getting better faster and faster, and it’s going to be scary how it gets better.

But The Uncanny Valley is There, and Quality is King

1. Still, LLMs (in my humble opinion) are mediocre writers. They know how to put together words, but entire pieces are often overwritten and dull.

2. Yes! An AI could put together an entire podcast episode. Or an entire article. But for most, the goal is not to create a glut of content. There’s plenty out there, and cheaply mass-produced mediocre writing is not what anyone in the world is begging for.

3. And even with its best efforts, letting AI take the wheel entirely just doesn’t reach the quality standards of great people working together to make something great. Planet Money is an incredible podcast - and if you’ve never listened, you may have listened to the AI-created episode and thought, this is pretty good. But, honestly, it’s garbage compared to the average episode they put together. Listen to some great Planet Money episodes, and you’ll know you never want to hear something produced by an AI again.

4. And still, even after the Planet Money staff listens to the AI episode, and agrees it’s not a great episode, they still want to use AI to make their lives easier. People will accept AI cutting corners for them, but not EVERY corner.

And yet…

AI will get better. 1% improvement over time does meaningfully add up. I think a lot about an episode of a podcast that came out forever ago about the singularity, and the guest’s hilarious and real argument was technology will compound on itself, and we don’t know what that looks like on a long time horizon.

I don’t think AI doomsday is coming. But I’m convinced of this:

1. More AI is coming.

2. A lot of mediocre content is coming from that AI.

3. People, people who master their work, will make better things than AIs for a long time.

4. You should learn to work with AI well, you and your team will want it to save time.

I really want to hear more hot takes on creatives, AI, content, quality, podcasts, all of it. What do you got?

1. https://www.vice.com/en/article/n7ezkm/eating-disorder-helpline-fires-staff-transitions-to-chatbot-after-unionization

2. https://www.businessinsider.com/list-here-are-the-exams-chatgpt-has-passed-so-far-2023-1#usa-biology-olympiad-semifinal-exam-5

3. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-01-26/buzzfeed-bzfd-triples-on-plans-to-embrace-openai-for-content#xj4y7vzkg