I have asked ChatGPT on art, business and technology

“Never mistake knowledge for wisdom. One helps you make a living; the other helps you make a life.” — Sandara Carey 

ChatGPT is trained to follow an instruction in a prompt and provide a detailed response. This is the definition provided by its developers. As soon as I read it I immediately thought about schooling and domestication systems. Since we are a children, we are trained (the same way we train any domesticated animal) with a system of punishment and reward. The domestication is so strong that by the time we are a teenager we no longer need anyone to domesticate us (we can just ask ChatGPT). 

So, I have asked the trained ChatGPT on themes I continuously explore. I asked about: art, business and technology. 

I asked "What is the role of art ". It answered back that the overall role of art is complex ad multifaceted and varies on the perspective of the artist and the viewer. In summary art can have a significant impact on our personal, social and cultural lives. It has many important personal, cultural, and economic benefits that should not be overlooked.  

Then, I asked what is divine about art and about business. It answered me that in art the concept of divine often reflects a sense of awe and wonder that is associated with the mysteries and beauty of life and the possibility to connect with something greater than ourselves. In business, the concept of divine reflects a sense of purpose and meaning that goes beyond material gain and an awareness of the potential for business to contribute positively to society and the world. 

I asked then what is divine about ChatGPT this is the exact wording I got as a response: "As an AI language model, ChatGPT does not possess any inherent qualities of divinity. It is a machine learning model that has been trained on a vast corpus of text data to generate human-like responses to text based prompts. While some people may attribute supernatural or divine qualities to advance technologies like AI, it is important to recognise that these systems are ultimately created and controlled by humans. ChatGPT's abilities are the results of human ingenuity and expertise in the fields of computer science and artificial intelligence, rather than any sort of intervention or supernatural power."

“It is the imagination that argues for the Divine Spark within human beings. It is literally a decent of the World's Soul into all of us.” ― Terence McKenna 

I asked myself then, if ChatGPT and any technology, shifting cultural norms, is a burden or a blessing. Machines have been taking our jobs for centuries. Yet, today, we assist to a faster pace at which machines increasingly replace humans in performing tasks in and outside the workplace. It feels like experiencing a scenario from a Sci-Fi movie where the march of technology and artificial intelligence becomes more powerful than humans, seeking to assert control over humankind (we may deserve it as it is exactly what we did over other species). Technology can only be as human as we are able to be (and as un-human as we are capable to be). We must start to value the journey of a human, the human personal struggle for achieving something great. It’s that human journey and struggle with failures and profound fragility which will become important in the future more than ever.

I have no doubt on the convenience of using tools like AI, Tech, ChatGPT but, what about wonder, purpose, mystery; why giving them up for convenience?

The divine in us humans manifests with this desire to connect and contribute, to immerse in beauty with purpose... but then, why we choose convenience over divinity? When our ultimate goal is convenience and only convenience for the sake of it, we fail to create anew.

Now, I am asking you, what is divine in asking an app or technology to write a poem, a letter, or substitute our lived stories with already fabricated ones? Where is the embodiment of creativity and wisdom without practice?

I want to know, not from ChatGPT but from us, humans, if we are capable and if we care to embody and practice soul, divinity, heart...That is what we fail to see when we ask if technology is capable to replace humans. It can and it will if we forget we have a soul, if we "train and reward ourselves for performing and providing detailed responses as a machine". It can when we overlook wisdom chasing knowledge. It can when we seek only tools and overlook that character is made through practice. It can when we focus on the achievement and overlook the behaviour. 

 “Maybe the value of art...is that it upends other value systems. Art unmakes the world made by work...” - Eula Biss

The value of art is in thinking, acting and feeling like an artist (not asking a machine to do it for us). What wor(l)ds get unmade when we do so? Are we willing to value the artist within each and everyone of us as we value the doctor, engineer, teacher and the new tech innovation?

So, to close, I asked Chat GPT to write me a poem on art and business.

Art in business, a match made in heaven,

A beautiful blend of the practical and creative,

A marriage of minds, so diverse and exciting, 

A perfect blend of the structured and spontaneous.

Art brings a new perspective to the mundane,

A splash of color, a touch of grace,

It transforms the dull and uninspired, 

And makes the ordinary a masterpiece.

Art inspires us to dream and create,

To think beyond the limits of the norm,

It gives us the courage to take risks,

And to break through boundaries and transform.

Art brings us together in a common vision,

A shared purpose that ignites our passion,

It creates a sense of belonging and unity,

And brings to life the heart of any organization.

Art is the soul of business that thrives, 

It brings depth, meaning, and value to our lives,

It helps us to see beyond the bottom line, 

And to create a world that is truly divine. 

Of course it can write a poem, it has been “trained” to do so (an all sorts of things. But, the point of writing a poem, of making art isn’t the outcome or the final product, is what we feel and who we become as we make art (or as I say It is art that makes us when we say we make art)

This is my invocation to you:

 hands on heart

practicing art

heARTists reclaiming artistry

to the minister of industry

To be a poet, a painter, an heartist is to inconveniently re-write the convenient narratives that separates us in super-heroes, super-powerful, high-tech gurus and the victims of such technologies, winners and losers, saints and devils, divine and mundane…

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