SINGAPORE, March 17 — An "employee” who can generate innovative marketing ideas, edit and craft proposals within seconds and perhaps, best of all, is willing to work for free.

For Ms Jane Neo, chief business officer and co-founder of maternity and baby products retailer Keababies, these are the attributes of ChatGPT, the artificial intelligence (AI) tool by OpenAI that has taken the world by storm in recent months.

She is among a number of Singapore bosses and workers who have been quick to embrace ChatGPT at work, with some caveats, while others remain decidedly wary of introducing the technology into the workplace.

Ms Neo said: "We have introduced ChatGPT to our employees and strongly encourage its use in the workplace for all relevant tasks except for website SEO (search engine optimisation) content.” Search engines penalise AI written content, she added.

She also said: "We have even provided a tutorial on how to effectively utilise ChatGPT in specific areas of our work. We believe that it is a valuable tool that can help our employees work more efficiently and effectively.”

In a Reuters news article last month, it was reported that the chatbot reached about 100 million monthly active users within just two months of being launched in November last year.

Employers and employees in Singapore interviewed by TODAY said that they often use it to come up with ideas and for copywriting. They are still exploring other ways to use ChatGPT for work.

One company that has recently jumped on the rise of ChatGPT is real estate firm ERA Singapore, which integrated the commercial version of the product — GPT-3 — into its in-house processes.

Since March 7, real estate agents at the firm have been using the GPT-3 function to perform administrative tasks such as copywriting, social media content generation, crafting of emails and making property listings, through a mobile application to which all employees have access.

Mr Marcus Chu, chief executive officer of Apac Realty and ERA Asia Pacific, told TODAY: "Ultimately, it is a tool to make (agents) more efficient by saving their time.”

Companies in the creative industry have also hopped onto the AI bandwagon, such as video game publisher Ubisoft Singapore.

Mr Darryl Long, managing director of the firm, said that the company’s designers use in-house AI tools to design and develop games.

"Using AI supports our level designers to iterate faster, without interrupting their creative thought process, thereby allowing them to spend more time on high-value tasks.

"The AI tools manage to reduce the time taken to rebuild our game worlds from about three hours to a mere 13 seconds.”

Some bosses wary of ChatGPT’s shortcomings

However, employers in industries where writing is central to the business may have a different take on using ChatGPT for work.

One example is Ms Juliana Chan, chief executive officer of media and publishing company Wildtype Media Group, who sets guidelines for her employees on the use of ChatGPT and is cautious about using it for clients’ projects.

"There are a lot of positives to ChatGPT, particularly in background research and summarising large blocks of text. But it cannot substitute for original writing,” she said.

"I have sent an advisory to my employees not to use ChatGPT in their writing beyond search queries.”

Ms Chan added that the other reasons for disallowing the use of ChatGPT for writing projects include plagiarism concerns and the potential for generating inaccurate information.

"ChatGPT has a tendency to produce ‘vanilla’ or bland responses that don’t provide a unique perspective. There is no personality in its written output, which is why it cannot replace the creative element of a human being,” she said.

Workers embrace ChatGPT, mindful of limitations

Employees, too, have been using ChatGPT for work, mainly for its editing and proofreading capacities.

One is a civil servant in her 20s, who uses ChatGPT to edit her email and proposal drafts, and even compose case report drafts based on information that she feeds into the chatbot.

Speaking on the condition of anonymity, she said that her writing had significantly improved since she used it to proofread and edit her work.

"I use ChatGPT to write event proposals and case reports,” she said.

"Usually higher-ups don’t understand what I’m trying to propose in my programmes because they don’t work on the ground and they will call me to clarify what I mean. But after using ChatGPT, they call me less often and my supervisor also said that my writing is satisfactory.”

The young woman said that she also used ChatGPT for writing challenging case reports where there is a lot of information to digest.

"With ChatGPT, I just input all the data and it produces a clear, short and simple summary of the case.”

However, she is still mindful of ChatGPT’s limitations and the negative perceptions of using technology such as ChatGPT for work.

"One flaw is that ChatGPT is not consistent. There are cases where the bot barely edits my emails so I have to do that myself. And if there are too many people using the bot, I will have to wait for about an hour before I can use it,” she said.

For senior media analyst Muhammad Iylia Mohd Hutta, ChatGPT does more than copywriting.

The 27-year-old, whose job entails media trawling and data cleaning, uses the chatbot to produce basic coding formulas and to process data.

"My role is to customise and create analytical reports for clients and to optimise workflow, which is where ChatGPT comes in,” he said.

He added that his employer and colleagues encourage its use for work.

"My workplace is very flexible in using ChatGPT. Everyone uses it and there are no guidelines set in stone about how to use the bot. We just make sure to fact-check and not take its output at face value.”

He noted that ChatGPT does have its limitations but it does not hinder or affect his work. For example, the bot relies on historical data up to 2021 only, which may lead to outdated information, and may fabricate information.

Another employee, who is in social work and wanted to be anonymous, said that she uses ChatGPT for "literally everything”, from writing emails or WhatsApp messages or social reports to brainstorming ideas for programmes.

The social worker who is in her 20s uses the chatbot by inserting her draft into the bot and prompting it to edit and refine her ideas.

"I love ChatGPT. It provides a more tailored response than Google Search and saves me a lot of time, especially on administrative duties,” she said.

"This allows me to focus my attention on more important things like speaking to clients and stakeholders and case planning.”

She added that she does not tell her colleagues or employer that she uses ChatGPT for work for fear of being seen as incompetent or plagiarising her work.

"I think there is some sort of preconceived notion about using AI tools like ChatGPT for work — that it’s not your original idea and it’s plagiarism. And therefore, if you use it, you are not demonstrating competency in doing your job.”

She added: "I don’t think this is true. The bot just supports what I can and already do, it just makes my work faster and saves a lot of my time.”

Even before starting work, prospective employees can use ChatGPT to clean up their resume and boost their chances of securing a job.

Human resources analyst Adrian Tan said that people are already using the chatbot to draft and edit resumes and cover letters.

"The bot is especially helpful for those who are not natural good writers to meet the benchmark of a good prospective employee,” he said.

He added that companies, especially multinational corporations that receive many applicants, have already been using AI to filter out unsuitable hires and pick the "best fit” candidates.

Apply ‘Goldilocks rule’ when using ChatGPT

When it comes to using ChatGPT in the workplace, Associate Professor Karin Avnit at the Singapore Institute of Technology said that one should apply the "Goldilocks rule” of not too much and not too little.

"This means we shouldn’t completely abandon ChatGPT, but also not go to the other end of using it for everything without caution,” Assoc Prof Avnit said.

"Employers should be mindful of the need to train people to work with such tools well and understand ChatGPT’s strengths and limitations, so that employees can be productive in their work with these AI assistants.”

Mr Gerry Chng, risk advisory executive director at consultancy firm Deloitte, who specialises in cybersecurity and risk management, agreed.

He said that companies should learn how to adopt AI in their workflow processes.

"Companies that disregard the advancement of AI are putting themselves at a dangerous disadvantage of being left behind. This technology has the potential to change how we work and make work more efficient.”

However, because ChatGPT has some limitations, such as providing output that is inaccurate or not factual, he recommended that companies and employers set guidelines for their staff members.

This includes not disclosing confidential information and always fact-checking ChatGPT’s output.

"There should also be transparency, in the sense that employees should acknowledge that some parts of their work were generated by AI, if any,” he added. — TODAY