What does ChatGPT mean for ergonomics?
The buzz term of the moment belongs to the latest innovation in AI technology, ChatGPT (or Chat Generative Pre-Trained Transformer) to give it it’s proper name!
In ergonomics we concern ourselves with the relationship between people, the way they work and how factors impact on that work being carried out efficiently.
What this technology shows us is that artificial intelligence, and in particular natural language processing, is accelerating at such a speed that many processes will have a very different set of touch points for humans moving forward.
This technology is already being looked at in creative processes to provide writing output where people struggle to put together their thoughts coherently. For the same reason, educational organisations are looking at it in terms of improving accessibility. Do we have to assess someone on their written output if they can prove they have the ideas?
It is also being used in areas like sales, to pre-qaulify sales leads and further automate pipelines so that companies can get results faster.
To some end, we will see this technology reduce some ‘hands on’ input work for some people, but like most technology, what it will do is then allow more time for people to focus on other parts of the process, where the technology is not yet capable, or where humans are needed to provide the ‘human touch’.
For us as ergonomists, this means keeping up to date with where and how this technology is being implemented, in order for us to understand the new challenges that people are facing as their work changes. It will mean adapting our training and advice to fit the ever changing landscape, and utilising the technology ourselves to remain as agile as possible!
