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ChatGPT caused 90% drop in income, panic attacks for 22-year-old Kolkata girl: Report
Sharanya Bhattacharya revealed that by the end of 2022, her workload had reduced to just 1-2 articles per month.
A 22-year-old woman from Kolkata said that ChatGPT had led to a 90 per cent reduction in her income, New York Post reported. Sharanya Bhattacharya, who used to work as a copywriter and ghostwriter while pursuing her degree, shared that the artificial intelligence tool had led to her workload decreasing drastically last year. She was earning a monthly income of roughly $240 ( ₹20,000).
The student used to work on SEO-optimised articles at a creative solutions agency. Since November 2022, organisations have been cutting down on the commissions given to Bhattacharya, opting for ChatGPT instead, she claimed in the report.
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The number of articles written by her had come down to around 1-2 per month as companies attempted to cut down on costs. She also accused companies of not providing clarity on the reduction in her workload.
As she was able to earn barely ‘10 per cent’ of her previous income, she said that the AI revolution had been ‘really tough on her family’, too. The girl’s 45-year-old mother - a saree seller - who was dependent on her income, said that they were forced to spend only on necessities. The report quoted Bhattacharya as saying, “We've had to monitor how much food we consume, and we no longer do things we used to enjoy doing like going out to eat - we can only do that once every couple of months now. We've had to focus our money on the necessities, like food and bills, to make sure we can live fine.”
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She expressed her hope for a world where AI can be integrated with human skills for optimum results as several good copywriters were being impacted by this technology. Adding that the reality of potential unemployment and an uncertain future had caused panic attacks and anxiety, Bhattahcarya urged companies to realise the "huge difference" between manual and AI-generated labour.
