ChatGPT won’t take over from humans

Nothing can beat the human mind — not even AI-powered chatbots like ChatGPT, says Narayana Murthy, founder of Indian information technology services giant Infosys, in an exclusive interview.

The internet is abuzz with all the things that ChatGPT can do, ranging from essay-writing to coding to conversations like a human.

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Launched by U.S.-based OpenAI in November, ChatGPT has also spun clones — Chinese tech giants Alibaba and Baidu have launched their own versions.

“ChatGPT is an excellent addition to knowledge generation, to doing certain tasks, for example, writing an essay,” Murthy told CNBC’s Tanvir Gill in the latest episode of The CNBC Conversation.

The human mind is what differentiates one from the other, said Murthy.

“If there is a competition between you and me, you will use the ChatGPT output as your base, and then you will add your own differentiation, your own smartness, your own tweaking,” continued Murthy. “And that’s when the teachers will be much more impressed with you than with me.”

“The lazy guys will get C. Only smart people will get A,” said Murthy. “Therefore, I am not so much worried about ChatGPT.”

In 1981, Murthy and six other engineers founded Infosys with an initial capital of only $250. Infosys provides business consulting, information technology, software engineering and outsourcing services.

Today, the company has grown into a multibillion dollar brand with a market capitalization of $62 billion and employs more than 346,000 across the globe from Asia-Pacific to North America to Europe and the Middle East.

Infosys was the first Indian company to be listed on the Nasdaq in March 1999 and subsequently listed on the New York Stock Exchange in December 2012.

Murthy said he will use ChatGPT as an instrument, an assistant in producing better quality of work and output — but not as a human replacement.

“At the end of the day, I am a great believer in the theory that the human mind is the most powerful imagination, machine. There is nothing that can beat the human mind.”

Infosys is the world’s third most valuable IT services brand with a brand value of $13 billion, trailing behind Accenture and Tata Consultancy Services, according to brand valuation firm Brand Finance’s Global 500 2023 report.