The official birthdate of the internet is considered to be Jan. 1, 1983 when the Advanced Research Projects Agency Network (ARPANET), previously an exclusive network within the Defense Department and its contractors, transitioned to a new communications protocol. Transfer Control Protocol/Internetwork Protocol (TCP/IP) allowed for open communication between computers on different networks.

Since then, the extent of technology has been growing expeditiously. The first notable period of growth started in 1990 with the development of HyperText Markup Language (HTML) by Tim Berners-Lee and in 1991 CERN introduced the World Wide Web to the public. After that, 

Though the development of artificial intelligence was happening back in the 1950’s, it seems like we have experienced a recent wave of AI development. New systems are changing the way we interact with our devices and chatbots are redefining the limits of business communications. The surge of interactive AI technologies, came with a great deal of backlash in its wake. 

AI is constantly learning from a myriad of content which exists on the internet already. If a student were to ask an AI program such as ChatGPT to write an essay about a topic, it would, but the information will likely be pulled directly from published works causing plagiarism concerns. 

The introduction of AI in businesses, especially through customer support models, can influence a businesses reputation and by extension, final profit sometimes negatively. There is no doubt that by now you have screamed “representative” at a robotic menu or gone in circles with a company’s “virtual assistant” at some point.

A publication from the National Center for Biotechnology Information’s National Library of Medicine argues, “If chatbots do not perform as well as consumers expect, consumers will distrust them. As a result, they will no longer trust the sellers, or companies that use them.”

But that isn’t to say all AI is bad and in fact, it can be a valuable, cost-effective tool for small businesses. 

On Oct. 17, the Mexico Chamber of Commerce invited local businesses to join Michael Moore, an MHS mathematics teacher and Brooke Oliver, executive director of the Mexico Area Family YMCA for an “AI Lunch and Learn” to see how AI, specifically ChatGPT, can be an asset for small businesses. 

ChatGPT is an open source AI language model which means people can continuously write code for it, feeding the program more information allowing it to learn as we use it. It is the basis for many of the available AI sites that offer similar assistance.

“Most of the teacher websites that talk about generating AI content, they're just putting a bow on it and calling it their own, but the source code comes straight from ChatGPT,” says Moore.

Moore has been using ChatGPT for a few years now to free up time and improve efficiency in his teaching career and his presentation translates his experience into how the small businesses in attendance can use it too.

“Dynamic product description is probably the most key thing for most retailers,” says Moore. 

Small business owners tend to wear a lot of hats, so to speak, in their day to day completing tasks that would be delegated to someone else at a larger company.

“How many people here have a full time social media manager? A full time HR specialist or a dedicated executive assistant?” Oliver started off asking. “Most of us don’t, so in my specific role, I rely on ChatGPT for a lot of those functions.”

Oliver uses ChatGPT frequently to help her with the mountain of housekeeping tasks she needs to complete in her position at the YMCA and also to provide a sounding board for creative future events. 

Most recently, she used ChatGPT to hone in on the idea for the Boo Bash Obstacle Dash. Something that could have taken weeks to design, plan, implement and market took less than a day.

“If Ashley came into my office, I wouldn’t be like, ‘hey, plan an event’. I would say ‘plan an event for families at the Y that’s fall themed that engages physical fitness’,” says Oliver. “That’s how you talk to people so that’s how you should talk to your chatbot.”

Perhaps more important than asking what ChatGPT can do is learning how you should be asking ChatGPT to complete a task. The important thing to remember is to interact with the chatbot as if it is a person.

Oliver has three methods to write an effective prompt in ChatGPT. The first is to give context, establish a goal and request a specific output. 

For example, instead of asking, “give me a plan to get in shape,” she writes, “I am a beginner runner who has never run a 5k before. Help me run my first marathon in six months by providing me with a detailed workout schedule and diet plan for each week until my race.”

Similarly her second method is to provide a role, give a task and outline instructions. Instead of giving context you would apply a specific role or title to your chatbot such as, “you are a coach…”.

The final method is to speak to the chatbot as you would following your chain of thought, or rather, just have a conversation.

“What’s really interesting is, you don’t have to restart the conversation every time you type into the box,” says Oliver. 

Oliver utilizes the power of AI technology to plan events, start emails and help improve her marketing. Moore uses it to organize his classroom, redesign tests and streamline project creation. Both encourage the use of AI platforms such as ChatGPT to alleviate some of the many stresses of operating a small business. 

“AI tools are not a replacement. You have to guide it to where you want it to go,” reminds Moore. “It is an assistant, not a replacement.”

Moore also warns individuals who may be considering implementing AI about data breach concerns and suggests not inputting any sensitive information and also use trustworthy programs that have been well researched and documented. 

“Always review anything that it puts out,” says Moore. “Don't assume that it’s giving you what you‘ve asked for.”

There is definitely a learning curve to AI. The more we interact with this technology, and the more we learn about its capabilities, the more we expand AI’s knowledge and databases. The thought of growing with this evolving technology may be concerning to some but already we have seen  the benefits it can have for our small businesses.