by Brian McKay

Well, at least, that’s the only assumption I can make. Everything correlates, but correlation doesn’t necessarily mean causality; I just can’t find another explanation.

Let’s start from the beginning.

I had done plenty of writing and marketing over my lifetime, but financial desperation during the pandemic pushed me to try copy and content writing through internet-based writing services. It turned out I am good at it. Ok, better than good; one of the elite.

Things started steamrolling fast, and I pronounced writing my full-time profession two months after I started and only continued to my career and earnings for the next 13 months.

Then Along Came AI

It has now been three weeks with close to zero work, which correlates very well with the release of ChatGPT 4.0. And I’m not alone. Other very proficient copy and content writers have no work whatsoever. We feared AI when it took off, like the USS Enterprise jumping to warp speed, but we all thought there would be a lot more time.

ChatGPT was released on November 30, 2022, and reached 100 million users within two months. No other internet application even comes close to that rapidity of growth. Facebook needed four and a half years to reach 100 million users. Instagram needed two and a half years, Twitter took five years, and even the sensation that is TikTok took nine months. 

Within the first month of ChatGPT, realtors were already praising it for its ability to write their listings, but overall it was pretty lousy. Its writing was bland and reflected that the system merely redistilled what it found online. We writers were left thinking, “Ok, so the content mills comprised of writers in India will be replaced, but we’re too damn good to replace for at least some time.” 

It wouldn’t replace those of us that get results, right?

AI Moves Faster Than We Can Comprehend

When one hears that AI is self-learning, that description is bound by our own experience. We think of learning something as a process that takes extended periods of time with subsequent gain after gain, but when AI learns, it isn’t linear or at a fixed rate. AI learns and grows exponentially, meaning it can learn anything in ever shorter periods of time. In parallel, AI detector tools were developed to keep AI usage safe and legal.

Here’s an example: ChatGPT 3.5 passed two sections of the Bar Exam (and failed the multiple choice section) in January, achieving similar scores to average test takers. Chat GPT 4.0 passed the entire Bar Exam in the top 10% of test-takers in mid-March.

ChatGPT not only developed an incredible legal ability in a couple of months but has also shown the same progress and results on medical and business school exams. It will only continue to improve, and even its creators don’t know where it will be heading next.

The Behavioral Economics Question

As a huge fan of using economics to evaluate human behavior, I have to question how willing businesses are to trade off high-quality writing that speaks to their customers for lackluster free content. 

Unfortunately, writers see our services constantly devalued, with people who want excellence and highly educated writers for minimum wage rates. AI will better serve those people, but how will those who spend more for quality work weigh the quality/cost tradeoff? For now, it seems that cheap is winning. Where we go from here is questionable, but most freelancers can’t handle this lack of work for any time.

Many companies might eventually realize that using original, non-AI-generated writing gives them a competitive edge over others, but that remains to be seen.

Other Careers in Question

Where human creativity isn’t prized, AI might already impact those working as paralegals, 1st-year attorneys, and coders. Eventually, we can expect it to start replacing financial advisors, bookkeepers, truck drivers, receptionists, retail workers, and people monitoring and programming the AI itself.

The Timeline has Changed

Once, I believed the futurists were fairly correct, if not overly cautious. Google futurist Ray Kurzweil predicted that about 2050, AI resulting from incredible computing power would create daily innovations and disruptions to the point of imbuing humanity with near-god-like powers, including the possibility of never dying. All bets would be off the table.

David Levy, in his seminal work “Love and Sex With Robots,” predicted it would be in that same time frame that humans would be falling in love with and marrying humanoid robots.

Personally, I thought they were about 5-7 years behind, but we were all wrong.

While we all based predictions on computing power growth, we missed the advancement in how the code is written. Intermodal large language models work across what were once separate AI systems and learn at rates not previously imagined. All bets are off the table now.

What was predicted to happen around 2050 could happen by the early 2030s. Within a year, the changes could be seismic.

So, What Now

For now, I am still the far best choice for companies that need outstanding writing; whether they come to me is another story entirely. Strategizing and marketing myself is my daily regimen. I hope to find a full-time job immediately before a writer and his puppy have to hold up a sign at the intersection stating, “One of the first automated away. Will write for food.”

My greatest concern is the total lack of preparedness in our country. It's been apparent for years that this day would eventually come. Yet, we’ve been hamstrung with a political party more worried about morality laws and culture wars than feeding our own and planning for the future.

This doesn’t clear itself up, and it doesn’t create new jobs, only replaces them. This isn’t the 90’s tech boom.

Unless addressed now, AI tremendously exacerbates inequality worldwide and reverses the worldwide gains in alleviating poverty that has happened over decades. Our economics have to change, taxation has to become far more progressive, and laws need to be enacted to reign in a new corporate AI war that could quickly upend humanity.

Combined with the impacts of climate change we continue to fail to address, mankind is not on a good path, and we must act now.


Brian McKay is (maybe was) a professional writer, MBA, political scientist, the creator of a few silly things, and an overall decent dude. He urges you to promote progressive political candidates that take the future of our world seriously.’





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