If AI is the death of publishing …

There’s a lot of chatter about all the jobs that will be lost due to artificial intelligence. It’s a pretty serious matter, and it’s upon us.

ChatGPT will — at a minimum — revolutionize search, and will most likely replace at least half the staff of most content companies. E.g., a newsroom with 20 reporters will be able to get along with 10 reporters who use ChatGPT. And probably fewer.

There will be similar changes in other areas, such as HR, legal services, or anything that requires the evaluation or creation of text. Programming will be hit hard as well. (Yes, ChatGPT can write programs.)

Services like Midjourney (which created the image on this page) will reduce the need for graphic designers. Who needs to hire an artist when AI can create an image in about 5 seconds?

For the short term, people won’t lose their jobs to AI, they’ll lose their jobs to people who are using AI.

My career has been in publishing, and I was hoping to ride that out before Skynet takes over, but now I’m wondering what publishing will be like two or three years from now. I’m very optimistic about what will be created over the next few years, but I’m not optimistic about the job prospects.

So I’m thinking about other lines of work. I have a new beverage idea that I’m experimenting with. I figure people will still (or maybe especially) need an adult beverage when they’ve become redundant.