The new ghost in town: ChatGPT

Ghost writing is not new. In the medicine and science world, the prevalence and definition of ghostwriting remain unclear. Increased transparency and auditable authorship practices that align with specific guidelines may aid in the avoidance of ghostwriting. In addition, MeSH or clearer indexing terms may be helpful to separate usages of ghostwriting in scientific settings (e.g., genetic research) versus biomedical publishing.

Ghostwriting in medical literature is an awful breach to the ethics in dissemination of information obtained from scientific/medical research. This practice of ghostwriting has widely attracted the attention of medical writers and the scientific community and has been criticized by them. Ghostwriters are the ones who are hired by pharmaceutical companies for drafting scientific articles for the purpose of marketing their product. Such papers incorporate favorable effects of product while making exaggerated promises and omit its side effects that might adversely affect its usage/ approval/marketing. The articles written in this manner are credited with the authorship of physicians and academicians in the field to enhance the credibility of given information projecting the same as an unbiased source

Now there are new AI technologies that can make ghost writing as easy as setting up an account with OpenAI playground or ShortlyAI, typing in a title and then just copying, pasting, and submitting the result of your blog, term paper or personal statement.

Late last month, OpenAI released ChatGPT, a new AI tool that can tell stories and write code. It has the potential to take over certain roles traditionally held by humans, such as copywriting, answering customer service inquiries, writing news reports, and creating legal documents. As AI continues to improve, more and more current jobs will be threatened by automation. But AI presents opportunities as well and will create new jobs and different kinds of organizations.

However, there are many unanswered societal, legal and ethical issues about generative AI.

As noted recently, instructors, hiring managers and anyone who requires you to submit something in writing to decide something, be it your grade, whether to admit you to Princeton or hire you. will have to adapt to this new reality.

I gave it a test run. I asked ShortlyAI , "What is physician entrepreneurship?" The result was:

There are many definitions of entrepreneurship, but the one we feel most comfortable with is adding value to an organization by developing and implementing new ideas. You can be an entrepreneur regardless of your title or job description, and in fact you can even be a physician entrepreneur.

Physician entrepreneurship may sound like a contradiction in terms, but it's not that uncommon – many physicians become entrepreneurs because they want to develop their own venture, or they find themselves getting bored with their current job position.

Here is a blog I wrote about "What is physician entrepreneurship?" the old-fashioned way... almost, since I used a grammar app to help me.

My two observations are that 1) ShortlyAI has neither soul, nor 2) a sense of humor, nor 3) originality.

Here is a writing assignment due next week: Write two 750-word essays comparing the AI generated blog with the blog I wrote. You should write one version yourself and use ShortlyAI to generate another. You can even include an AI selfie is you wish.

Here are some examples of what you might want to post on LinkedIn after ShortlyAI gives you the pink slip and you are looking for another job.

If all this is getting much too confusing, here are some ghostbusting tips.

There is nothing new under the sun.

Arlen Meyers, MD, MBA is the President and CEO of the Society of Physician Entrepreneurs