On February 21, Professor Hang Wei, the Associate Executive Dean at College of Business, Shanghai University of Finance and Economics, published an article entitled "Borrowing Power, Using Power, Forming Collaborative Power and Liberating Power" in Liberation Daily. In the article, he showed his thoughts on how ChatGPT could potentially contribute to the development of artificial intelligence and digital economy in Shanghai and benefit the transformation and upgrading of the "Five Centers." He also quoted Elon Musk's comment on ChatGPT that, "The goodness of ChatGPT is scary. We are not far away from an AI which is powerful to an extent that it can be dangerous", and Bill Gates' comment that "The significance of the birth of this technology is no less than that of the Internet or personal computers."  

ChatGPT, an AI chatbot, was launched at the end of November 2022, and quickly got popularity on social media. In just 5 days, the number of registered users exceeded 1 million, and two months later, this number surpassed 100 million, making it the fastest-growing consumer application software in history.

A study by Stanford University suggests that ChatGPT only has the mental capacity of a 9-year-old child and is still in an immature stage. Meanwhile, since some answers are automatically generated by the application, it sometimes talks nonsense in a serious manner, and many of its responses appear very “evasive”.

Experts also point out that ChatGPT faces several general risks of artificial intelligence, such as legal compliance of the data source, bias in data usage, generation of false information, and copyright disputes. Many academic journals begin to revise their guidelines for authors, emphasizing that "No large language model tool will be accepted as a research paper's author.", etc.

However, some industry insiders and entrepreneurs point out that over the years back, there have been no "blockbuster" products in the field of artificial intelligence. The emergence of ChatGPT can be regarded as the "iPhone moment" of the AI era, which indicates a revolutionary turning point for artificial intelligence.

It can write imaginative poetry, make executable programs, quickly generate abstracts, automatically make data tables, correct grammar and expression errors in articles, summarize weekly events into news digests. ChatGPT can not only understand many people’s questions and carry out multi-round conversations fluently, but also demonstrates the ability to solve various general problems in an increasing number of fields.

With the explosive popularity of ChatGPT, it has not only represented a breakthrough in the field of artificial intelligence and the entire information industry, but also may have huge impacts on urban economy and social development. It triggers more imaginations and reflections on future intelligent living. In the face of these changes, what kind of attitude should we hold looking towards the future?

Shanghai currently has built a new industrial system which is led by three leading industries, including integrated circuits, bio-pharmaceuticals, and artificial intelligence, and supported by six key industries, including new energy vehicles, high-end equipment manufacturing, aerospace, information communication, new materials, and emerging digital industries. This new industrial system has accelerated the growth of new industries and has created a forward-looking layout for future industries.

In the new circumstances, it is essential to combine artificial intelligence with the metaverse, and actively utilize the application of ChatGPT to form the "AI+" collaborative power so that it can lead the way towards industries such as healthcare, education, sports, gaming, entertainment, and business. Moreover, it is necessary to apply ChatGPT in line with the "14th Five-Year Plan for the Development of Shanghai's Artificial Intelligence Industry" and the "Action Plan for Cultivating the 'Metaverse' New Track in Shanghai (2022-2025).”

The artificial intelligence technology and industry represented by ChatGPT will bring impacts, changes, and improvements to many industries related to it.

For example, for international trade practitioners, ChatGPT has functions such as automatically recommending products to customers, answering questions automatically, and developing customers. It also has the capability to work around the clock to eliminate time differences.

In addition, for professionals in the financial industry, ChatGPT, as a natural language generation software, has the unique advantage in intelligent investment advisory, intelligent interaction and information processing.

In terms of financial information provision, ChatGPT can be used in customer service to deliver quick and accurate responses to customers. In terms of financial information analysis, ChatGPT can generate human-readable and formatted analysis reports by analyzing financial datasets. In terms of financial risk analysis, and quickly generate risk assessment reports based on historical trading data and a large amount of text data to provide reliable basis for the decision-making of financial institutions.

So far, Shanghai has been basically developed to an international economic, financial, trade, and shipping center and the international science and technology innovation center framework has also been established. The next step is to enhance the city's energy level and core competitiveness. The new technological power of "ChatGPT+" can be actively utilized for promoting the transformation and upgrading of the "Five Centers" to promote the industry and ecosystem transformations in international trade, financial services, as well as science and technology innovation.

In the new circumstances, large cities need to pay more attention to the elements of comfort and convenience, safety and agility, innovation and vitality, intelligence and efficiency, green and low-carbon, and humanistic appeal. It should be the top priority to make people's living conditions comfortable and safe.

,We can actively utilize ChatGPT's interactive knowledge to make cities smarter based on Shanghai's "Opinions on Further Accelerating the Construction of a Smart City.”

For example, artificial intelligence service platform should be developed based on ChatGPT which can effectively enhance public service capacity. In terms of application demonstration, likewise, it can actively expand the model of "ChatGPT + healthcare services, transportation, government affairs, education, culture and tourism" to promote the landing of application scenarios.

The development of human history is a process of constantly liberating "power.” The trend to the liberation path develops generally from "physical power" to "computational power" and then to "mental power". Humans constantly make innovations to promote the progress of economy and civilization in the process of liberation.

For Shanghai, a metropolis which is committed to constructing the "Five Centers" for driving the development of artificial intelligence and the digital economy, "ChatGPT+" can inject new energy into the city, making it more friendly, beautiful, and intelligent.