Anyone can have ChatGPT answer questions or perform tasks. However, according to OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, this popular chatbot is particularly useful for workers in three specific industries.

"Programming is probably the single area we're most excited about in terms of productivity gains. It's been massively deployed and used so far," Altman said in a recent episode of the "Unconfuse Me" podcast hosted by Bill Gates. "AI is being used more in healthcare and education."

Altman's company created ChatGPT, and he specifically noted that today's AI systems "definitely can't do all the work for you." However, in these three fields, workers may benefit from using chatbots as a productivity tool.

Programming

ChatGPT can help programmers complete their work at three times the usual speed, according to Altman. He added that the system can assist with tasks such as checking for errors in code, writing test cases, answering programmers' questions, and even autonomously generating new code.

The keyword here is "assist." According to a study by researchers from Stanford University and the University of California, Berkeley in 2023, OpenAI's GPT-4 had an error rate of nearly 50% when answering programming questions.

Programmers using ChatGPT for assistance should proceed with caution and carefully verify everything the chatbot says - this process may be faster than manually performing these tasks.

Altman said the goal is not just to help programmers accomplish more work in less time: this productivity shift can, and should, give people more leisure time to break out of conventional thinking.

"They can - at a higher level of abstraction, using more brainpower - think of completely different things now," he said. "Like the transition from punch cards to high-level languages, it not only made us program faster but also made us take a qualitative leap."

Education

Currently, AI systems can help teachers design courses or create personalized teaching plans for specific students. They can also save teachers time by performing various administrative tasks, such as tracking attendance or sending automated homework reminders.

It may also be useful for learning new languages: education technology companies like Duolingo have reportedly started laying off employees while relying more on AI, which has sparked some controversy.

Gates also praised ChatGPT's ability to power tutoring programs, and he hopes to expand opportunities for personalized tutoring for students in remote and underserved communities. Last year, he predicted that people would soon be "amazed" at how AI tutors could help improve students' reading and writing skills.

"AI will reach a point where it becomes a tutor that no human can surpass," Gates said in a keynote speech at the ASU+GSV Summit in San Diego last April.

Some educators worry that tools like ChatGPT may make it easier for students to cheat on assignments. Research has not yet shown an increase in cheating - but the mistakes it may make mean that parents and teachers should remind students not to rely solely on AI.

Healthcare

OpenAI's chatbot has already passed the US medical licensing exam, but experts warn that its tendency to make errors makes it unlikely to be trusted by most patients in the foreseeable future.

However, AI tools can benefit doctors by serving as digital assistants to help with time-consuming administrative tasks, such as insurance paperwork, said Jesse M. Ehrenfeld, chair of the American Medical Association, last year.

These tools can also analyze and summarize patients' medical histories, the American Medical Association noted last year. Additionally, they can save time and educate patients by answering their most frequently asked questions, according to research.

Outside of your doctor's office, some pharmaceutical companies are using ChatGPT to automate parts of the drug discovery and research process, Gates wrote in a blog post in 2023.

"One of the Gates Foundation's priorities in AI is to ensure that these tools are used to address the health issues of the poorest people in the world, including HIV, tuberculosis, and malaria," he wrote.

Altman responded to this excitement on Gates' podcast, noting that this technology is still in its early stages.