Background: What Happened?

OpenAI, the firm behind the disruptive ChatGPT, at the time of this writing, cryptically fired the CEO and founder, Sam Altman (Greg Brockman resigned too, among others).

Without warning, this changed everything. Headline news and shock across the tech and business world was immediate. At the moment, we don’t really know what happened, except that there was a “deliberative review process by the board, which concluded that he was not consistently candid in his communications with them, hindering its ability to exercise its responsibilities.” Maybe we will never know.

How Is ChatGPT Helpful as a Reputation Tool?

ChatGPT can be an online reputation repair tool (among other things, of course). It suggests content topics, assists in writing blogs, and summarizes white papers to be submitted elsewhere.

(Note, however, when used improperly, AI can actually lead to further reputation damage if clients discover poorly written, unedited articles leading to an inauthentic experience).

Remember, it’s just a tool, not a replacement for well-thought-out content development, and should always be used as such.

Who Does This Impact?

The reason this affects everybody is that AI swiftly infiltrated businesses at all levels at an astonishing rate. If further development is impeded at OpenAI due to internal turmoil, this could have a ripple effect across multiple industries, including your own.

Could This Affect Online Reputation Management?

If you are using ChatGPT to correct or build a poor reputation, this could certainly have an impact. If you hire someone, an agency or reputation firm, they might use ChatGPT—either to cut corners to churn out poor content or to legitimately streamline their process. Development suppression due to “brain drain” and continued internal struggles might thwart application development. This, in turn, could ultimately weaken the work you are making—after all, if AI is helping to write a blog post, it might take more work than planned.

Bottom Line

Stay informed of developments. Be flexible and ready to shift strategies. Be ready to jump to a new platform and quickly pivot to another solution.

As always, the best solution is to develop personal, well-written articles that lead to improved trust.