A year ago most of us had never heard of ChatGPT. And for good reason: The artificial intelligence “chatbox” wasn’t introduced by OpenAI, its developer, until November 30, 2022. Now, less than six months later a Google search of ChatGPT produces hundreds of millions of results, making it the most talked about new technology since the previous most-talked-about new technology.

The big question is: How will it change our lives and the way we work? And the simple answer is: Nobody really knows.

Perhaps ChatGPT and its competitors will revolutionize the way we live and work as much as, or more than Alphabet Inc. (Google), Amazon, Apple or Microsoft. Or perhaps it will be muscled aside by something newer (and presumably better), which is what happened to Kaypro, one of the top-selling personal computers in the 1980s, and CompuServe, the dominant online service provider at that same time.

Ask me 20 years from now and I’ll give you my definitive answer. In the meantime, suffice it to say that ChatGPT, the Metaverse and many other work- and life-altering technologies we’ll see in the years ahead will send us on a wild ride. Don’t fight it; just hold on to your hat.