At a recent meeting of The Presidents Forum, the members spent considerable time talking about Chat GPT, the newly released and free generative AI (artificial intelligence) chatbot. Most at the meeting have already been using Chat GPT, though primarily for entertainment, even though their experience with previous generations of machine learning proved disappointing. Is this one any better? One way to think about artificial intelligence is to compare it with spring training.

Baseball’s spring training is like AI’s current state in that both are at a stage of preparing for the main event. Just as baseball players spend spring training honing their skills and working out any kinks before the regular season begins, AI researchers and engineers are working to improve and refine the capabilities of AI systems before they are widely adopted and used in various industries and applications. Baseball’s spring training and AI’s current state involve a lot of experimentation, testing, and fine-tuning to succeed in the future.

Several members of The Presidents Forum already had plans to see a couple of spring training games in Florida this year, knowing they might see split squads, minimal time for pitchers, and less than stellar performance. Chat GPT is similar, it will continue to improve over time, and like baseball, it is here to stay.