Opinion Paper: “So what if ChatGPT wrote it?” Multidisciplinary perspectives on opportunities, challenges and implications of generative conversational AI for research, practice and policy

• Published in: International journal of information management 2023-08, Vol.71, p.102642, Article 102642
• Main Authors: Dwivedi, Yogesh K., Kshetri, Nir, Hughes, Laurie, Slade, Emma Louise, Jeyaraj, Anand, Kar, Arpan Kumar, Baabdullah, Abdullah M., Koohang, Alex, Raghavan, Vishnupriya, Ahuja, Manju, Albanna, Hanaa, Albashrawi, Mousa Ahmad, Al-Busaidi, Adil S., Balakrishnan, Janarthanan, Barlette, Yves, Basu, Sriparna, Bose, Indranil, Brooks, Laurence, Buhalis, Dimitrios, Carter, Lemuria, Chowdhury, Soumyadeb, Crick, Tom, Cunningham, Scott W., Davies, Gareth H., Davison, Robert M., Dé, Rahul, Dennehy, Denis, Duan, Yanqing, Dubey, Rameshwar, Dwivedi, Rohita, Edwards, John S., Flavián, Carlos, Gauld, Robin, Grover, Varun, Hu, Mei-Chih, Janssen, Marijn, Jones, Paul, Junglas, Iris, Khorana, Sangeeta, Kraus, Sascha, Larsen, Kai R., Latreille, Paul, Laumer, Sven, Malik, F. Tegwen, Mardani, Abbas, Mariani, Marcello, Mithas, Sunil, Mogaji, Emmanuel, Nord, Jeretta Horn, O’Connor, Siobhan, Okumus, Fevzi, Pagani, Margherita, Pandey, Neeraj, Papagiannidis, Savvas, Pappas, Ilias O., Pathak, Nishith, Pries-Heje, Jan, Raman, Ramakrishnan, Rana, Nripendra P., Rehm, Sven-Volker, Ribeiro-Navarrete, Samuel, Richter, Alexander, Rowe, Frantz, Sarker, Suprateek, Stahl, Bernd Carsten, Tiwari, Manoj Kumar, van der Aalst, Wil, Venkatesh, Viswanath, Viglia, Giampaolo, Wade, Michael, Walton, Paul, Wirtz, Jochen, Wright, Ryan
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: ChatGPT; Conversational agent; Generative AI; Generative artificial intelligence; Large language models
• ISSN: 0268-4012
• DOI: 10.1016/j.ijinfomgt.2023.102642

Transformative artificially intelligent tools, such as ChatGPT, designed to generate sophisticated text indistinguishable from that produced by a human, are applicable across a wide range of contexts. The technology presents opportunities as well as, often ethical and legal, challenges, and has the potential for both positive and negative impacts for organisations, society, and individuals. Offering multi-disciplinary insight into some of these, this article brings together 43 contributions from experts in fields such as computer science, marketing, information systems, education, policy, hospitality and tourism, management, publishing, and nursing. The contributors acknowledge ChatGPT’s capabilities to enhance productivity and suggest that it is likely to offer significant gains in the banking, hospitality and tourism, and information technology industries, and enhance business activities, such as management and marketing. Nevertheless, they also consider its limitations, disruptions to practices, threats to privacy and security, and consequences of biases, misuse, and misinformation. However, opinion is split on whether ChatGPT’s use should be restricted or legislated. Drawing on these contributions, the article identifies questions requiring further research across three thematic areas: knowledge, transparency, and ethics; digital transformation of organisations and societies; and teaching, learning, and scholarly research. The avenues for further research include: identifying skills, resources, and capabilities needed to handle generative AI; examining biases of generative AI attributable to training datasets and processes; exploring business and societal contexts best suited for generative AI implementation; determining optimal combinations of human and generative AI for various tasks; identifying ways to assess accuracy of text produced by generative AI; and uncovering the ethical and legal issues in using generative AI across different contexts. •Generative AI can enhance productivity but may also lead to replacement of human employees.•Teaching, learning, and academic research will experience some of the most transformative impacts.•Biases, out of date training data, and lack of transparency and credibility are major concerns.•The effects of generative AI on knowledge acquisition and digital transformation need research.•It is critical to identify and implement policies to protect against misuse and abuse of generative AI.