The World ChatGPT Built: Three Years of Geopolitical, Economic, and Cultural Upheaval | World Biz Magazine

The World ChatGPT Built: Three Years of Geopolitical, Economic, and Cultural Upheaval

World Biz Magazine | Tech News Section

Three years ago, on November 30, 2022, OpenAI introduced a product with a deceptively simple description: “a model called ChatGPT which interacts in a conversational way.” This understatement belied the seismic shift to come. Overnight, ChatGPT transcended its status as a tech demo to become a global phenomenon, a catalyst that irrevocably transformed business, technology, and the very fabric of society.

Today, ChatGPT remains a dominant force, consistently topping app store charts, but its true legacy is the generative AI ecosystem it spawned. We now inhabit what commentator Charlie Warzel termed “the world ChatGPT built a landscape defined by unprecedented potential and profound precarity.

Rewiring Geopolitics and the Human Experience

The impact extends far beyond productivity hacks. As Karen Hao, author of Empire of AI, argues, entities like OpenAI have accrued influence rivaling nation-states, actively “rewiring our geopolitics, all of our lives.” This rewiring manifests in a pervasive societal anxiety. Younger generations face a destabilized career landscape, cautioned that traditional paths may vanish. Older workers confront the potential obsolescence of hard-won skills. This shared uncertainty, as Warzel notes, creates a world “perpetually waiting for a shoe to drop.”

The AI Stock Market Frenzy: Winners and Bubble Fears

Financially, ChatGPT’s launch ignited one of history’s most spectacular market rallies. The clearest beneficiary has been Nvidia, whose essential AI chips propelled a staggering 979% stock increase since November 2022. The fever has buoyed the entire “Magnificent Seven” tech cohort, Nvidia, Microsoft, Apple, Alphabet, Amazon, Meta, and Broadcom. Their collective growth accounts for nearly half of the S&P 500’s 64% gain over this period, concentrating market weight dramatically: these seven firms now represent roughly 35% of the S&P 500, up from 20% three years ago.

However, this meteoric rise is increasingly accompanied by whispers of a bubble. Even AI insiders voice caution. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman recently warned, “Someone is going to lose a phenomenal amount of money in AI.” Bret Taylor, Sierra CEO and OpenAI board chair, explicitly compared the climate to the dot-com boom, predicting a shakeout where individual companies fail, but the foundational technology, like the internet, ultimately creates immense economic value.

The Road Ahead: Perpetual Beta and an Uncertain Future

This sentiment underscores a defining paradox of the generative AI era: its core technology is viewed as being in “perpetual beta,” never final. This constant evolution fuels both investment and instability. The industry waits to see which bets will pay off and which speculative ventures will collapse.

As we mark this three-year milestone, the question is not if AI will transform the economy, but how and for whom. The optimism of investors is tempered by the geopolitical concerns of analysts and the career anxieties of the workforce. The next three years will likely separate the durable infrastructure players from the speculative ventures, testing whether today’s optimism is a prelude to sustained value or a pre-correction mania. One truth is already evident: there is no going back to the world before ChatGPT.