Jumping onto the ChatGPT bandwagon

In the context of ChatGPT, I totally agree with Elon Musks’s comment, “Lot of people stuck in a damn-that’s-crazy ChatGPT loop 🔁”.

So was I. And before you wonder, this note is 100% original piece of writing with no inputs taken from ChatGPT. (Oh, plagiarism in the era of ChatGPT?)

Moving on, here are some notes I have on this experience.

Activity 1

At first I asked it to write a note on a topic that I had written about. It did a good job of hitting the key points with very fact-of-the-matter style. The interface was hitting a network error in the middle of the article and I had to ask again, and it turned out that the responses was becoming more refined upon iterations. Here is a snippet of the third and the fifth attempt.

Third attempt

Not-for-profit organizations play a crucial role in addressing some of the most pressing issues facing our communities and the world at large. From fighting poverty and promoting education, to protecting the environment and advancing human rights, these organizations are dedicated to making a positive difference in the world.

Fifth attempt

Not-for-profit organizations play a critical role in addressing a wide range of social, cultural, and environmental issues. From providing essential services to vulnerable populations, to advocating for important causes and raising awareness about important issues, these organizations are dedicated to making the world a better place.

Activity 2

Then I tried requesting a very simple SQL query with some following requests. It worked beautifully (watch it here)

People have already tried doing a lot more complex things with it. It’s definitely a game changer. The experience is like talking to Siri or Alexa over text for a lot more sophisticated requests, without having to bother to scout google entries and assimilating it. That means

The days of ‘looking up’ information are gone. It’s about ‘getting answers’ now.

ChatGPT’s implication for the world of analytics

There is a lot already being discussed about the algorithm, its pros & cons. I would, instead, focus on what this means for the domain that I work in - Analytics.

ChatGPT definitely makes coding, debugging and many other aspects a lot easier (ignoring the element of fictional outcomes it sometimes offers). However, it also means that there is going to be a wave of adoption by analysts which is not such a problem in itself. But it will intensify the challenge in recruiting analytics talent. In the last 5 years there had been a huge influx of talent that studies so many courses, diplomas, degrees offered in Analytics and data science. A decent proportion of this pool graduated believing that building a model is the heart of analytics, that if they a built a good model they would have made it. I have interviewed a lot of young talent holding these certificates, only to realise that many don’t even understand the circumstances in which a particular type of model needs to be chosen over others. This kind of general eagerness for modelling leaves a big gap. While hiring talent in analytics, technical skills are required. But those are only qualifying in nature. Analytical thinking & reasoning, curiosity with data, ability to connect with the business context are the skills that heavily influence a candidate’s selection.

I see ChatGPT, in the analytics world, as a massive upgrade in the democratising coding and modelling skills with a lot of ease.

Unfortunately, it will also amplify the relative importance of analytical thinking and its weightage in recruitment process.

Foretelling

Hiring managers in the ChatGPT era would eventually craft the selection process as application based as possible. This is the best way to identify the candidate’s fit.

Analysts and candidates may use ChatGPT type capabilities in their learning process, but it would be in their best interest to be good with the fundamentals, and practise on real-life projects and problem statement. No shortcuts. This is the only fail-safe method to future-proof your career in the field.

Conclusion

The experience of interacting with ChatGPT is surreal. It’s inspiring too. It is bound to democratise technical skills in the world of analytics a lot easier & faster than any existing method of learning. However, it also going to amplify the dichotomy between technical skills and critical reasoning, business context understanding etc., which will be demanded more fiercely. Being more grounded in the application of the tools and technical skills in solving real life problems will be the hallmark of great talent.

Meanwhile, I would like to return to the loop to try some more things.