By now, almost everyone knows what ChatGPT is. A chatbot that has become available to everyone since late 2022 thanks to a US start-up, OpenAI. Ask the tool questions and you get a perfectly structured written answer. Needless to say, ChatGPT is hugely useful and many are already immediately seeing the benefits for their businesses. What about this for freelancers? Does this make for less work?
How easily do you use ChatGPT?
It's super simple to use it, in case you haven't tried this yet. You go to chat.openai.com and create an account. Ask your question on a topic or give a command. For example, think of: "Write a white paper on freelancing". Within seconds, you will have a fully written whitepaper. Well fetch ChatGPT this information from somewhere.
Where does ChatGPT get its information from?
Unfortunately, the chatbot does not mention sources. So you will never know exactly where the written information comes from. So if you are not very familiar with the subject yourself, the information may not be 100% correct. So always check the texts when using ChatGPT. What ChatGPT mainly does is old-fashioned Google scouring and gathering information it comes across. Obviously many times faster than if you were to do it yourself, but so definitely put time into checking the information before use.
You should also be careful that it does not contain outdated information. Currently, the information ChatGPT retrieves only runs until 2021. As a result, there is no recent information that can be used by ChatGPT.
Is ChatGPT free?
At present ChatGPT still free, but this will not last long. In fact, there are already plans to make it paid for certain features. Still want to try it? Then now is your chance!
ChatGPT and freelancers. Enemy or friends?
The freelancers who could possibly be bothered by ChatGPT are mainly the content creators, branding experts or specialists, writers, translators etc. We understand that they initially shuddered at the idea of ChatGPT. Would this make them lose their jobs or get fewer opportunities?
I am sure there are freelancers who feel this way, yet we read online many freelancers who see ChatGPT as a positive development. After all, it can save a huge amount of time, allowing them to do more jobs in a day. There are also some copywriters who see ChatGPT as the solution to their 'writers block' or to give structure to difficult texts. We hadn't looked at it that way yet!
Also freelance recruiters use ChatGPT to prepare interview questions, write sparkling job ads or give employer branding a new sauce, for instance. Still, you notice with this group that a healthy dose of their own information and a little personal touch are very important.
What else can you do with ChatGPT?
Think, for example, of putting together teaching packages, fully developed cases or drafting standard contracts.
Ask yourself these questions
To determine whether ChatGPT is a friend or foe, you can ask yourself these questions:
- Are you willing to fully check all information retrieved and provided by ChatGPT? After all, you are not aware of your sources. Whose information are you using and are there any copyrights attached to it?
- Do you know enough about the topic to be sure ChatGPT's information is accurate and complete?
- Are you sure that the information provided by ChatGPT is up to date?
There are different questions to ask for each profession, speciality or expertise. So prepare well and decide for yourself whether ChatGPT is a friend or foe.