Is the ChatGPT hype justified?
Yes – but differently from what most people think. The AI revolution is hitting skilled knowledge work first, not simple manual tasks.
Is the ChatGPT hype justified? Yes – but differently from what most people think. In the Handelsblatt Friday cover story I described, together with our Silicon Valley and AI team, why the AI revolution is not hitting simple tasks first, but the skilled ones.
What is at stake
Programmes like ChatGPT understand natural language and produce text that handles much of what used to require trained professionals: ad copy, legal opinions, computer code, marketing strategies. More than 150 start-ups in Silicon Valley alone are working to translate the technology into new business models. Venture capitalists are investing billions. Microsoft is playing a special role – and the consequences are broader than they first appear.
Why the revolution looks different
For decades it was assumed that automation would hit simple, manual tasks first. Generative AI turns that assumption upside down. Those who process knowledge, write text, prepare research or work creatively are feeling the change first. That affects lawyers, journalists, copywriters, programmers and analysts. Not that their jobs disappear – but the way they work changes. Routines fall away; decisions and judgement remain.
How Silicon Valley is reshuffling
The boom is shifting the balance of power. Microsoft has secured exclusive access to OpenAI’s models and is embedding the technology into Word, Outlook and the search engine Bing. Google is reacting nervously; Meta is betting on open source; Amazon is building its own models. Between the giants, hundreds of specialised start-ups are emerging, building applications for industries from law to medicine to software development. Many will fail; some will become large.
What this means for Germany
For Germany this is a double challenge. The large foundation models are being built in the United States. Whoever wants to use them productively must integrate them – and that creates dependency. At the same time, a new opportunity is opening up: mid-sized companies, law firms, marketing agencies and medical-technology businesses can now build products that were unthinkable a year ago. What matters is how quickly the country learns to use the technology rather than merely fear it.
I wrote the full cover story with the Handelsblatt Silicon Valley and AI team.