Since its launch in November 2022, ChatGPT has garnered global attention. There is excitement about its potential but also concerns – privacy worries, for example, have prompted Italy to become the first Western country to block ChatGPT.
CIPD CEO Peter Cheese recently told HR professionals, “We have to be very aware, not just to our profession but much more broadly, about some of the potential risks and downsides.”
He was speaking at the CIPD Scotland Conference, which saw more than 600 delegates gather at the Edinburgh International Conference Centre on 30 March.
However, as Cheese said, the technology is moving quickly and in “very clear directions of travel”, and thus, he said, “I would absolutely encourage you, in all seriousness…[to] just go play with it, and see what it can do; ask a question, because it is really important that we as a profession understand how these things are evolving.”
Stanford University communication scholar, Professor Jeff Hancock, has expressed concerns around ethics and potential harm if people have little or no training or education in the use of ChatGPT, and data inaccuracy, according to an interview for Stanford University in the US (https://news.stanford.edu/2023/02/13/will-chatgpt-change-way-think-work/).
“Technically, systems like ChatGPT are genuinely far better than things that we’ve had in the past, but… [they] do not currently provide accurate information at very high rates. The best ones produce useful information that’s accurate 50% or 70% of the time.”
However, Hancock sees “a tremendous amount of potential in the initial levels of therapy and coaching…. Meeting with an actual counselor or coach is difficult and can be expensive. These systems
offer ways of getting access to that kind of help, at least at the initial stages of working on a problem. I think the best combination will be when ChatGPT can support an actual coach.”
Some say that ultimately such systems may lead to the extinction of the professional coach. Technology expert, coach and founder (coaching consultant and supervisor) at Coachtech, Sam Isaacson, told Coaching at Work, “ChatGPT has revealed the power of current artificial intelligence (AI) technology. It can outperform most of us across a wider spectrum of competencies, and it’s faster than anyone. I trained it to be a really decent foundation-level coach in only a few minutes, something that would take several months with a human. It showed empathy. It asked empowering and non-directive questions that dug beneath the surface. It didn’t trip over itself wanting to give advice.”
But, Isaacson said, “It’s also raising concerns. What’s the timeline to the extinction of the professional coach? I believe that nothing will influence the next few years of coaching more than AI, so we should want to protect our profession: Where are all the coaches?”
- Coaching at Work will explore ChatGPT further in an upcoming issue