--- title: "Copywriter Fired After Bosses Started Calling Her “ChatGPT”" description: "Imagine not only being referred to interchangeably with ChatGPT, but finding proof that your employers chose the OpenAI chatbot over you. " date: "2023-06-06" modified: "2023-06-06" authors: - name: "Noor Al-Sibai" job_title: "Senior Staff Writer" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/nooralsibai" url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/copywriter-fired-chatgpt" categories: - "Artificial Intelligence" - "OpenAI" tags: - "chatbots" - "chatgpt" - "OpenAI" - "the digest" --- # Copywriter Fired After Bosses Started Calling Her “ChatGPT” ![Imagine not only being referred to interchangeably with ChatGPT, but finding proof that your employers chose the OpenAI chatbot over you. ]() *\Image: Getty Images\* ## New Lows Will creative workers be replaced by AI? Some say yes, while others argue the tech will just give them new tools to do their jobs. But in at least some cases, the evidence that AI is replacing specific workers already feels compelling. In an [anecdote published by the *Washington Post*](), a San Francisco-based copywriter named Olivia Lipkin recounted how, on the Slack workplace messaging app, managers began assigning things to "Olivia/ChatGPT" — referring to her and the chatbot interchangeably — not long after the groundbreaking program became a household name. Though she used to be her previous employer's only copywriter, Lipkin saw her assignment count grow smaller and smaller. By April of this year, she was let go without explanation — though she eventually saw on Slack that her managers had been discussing how it was cheaper to use ChatGPT than pay a writer. "Whenever people brought up ChatGPT, I felt insecure and anxious that it would replace me," she told the paper. "Now I actually had proof that it was true, that those anxieties were warranted and now I was actually out of a job because of AI.” ## It's Getting Worse While Lipkin's story and others like it are indeed egregious, they're far from alone. Last week, the [Challenger, Gray & Christmas job placement firm released a report]() estimating that nearly 4,000 had been eliminated by AI in the month of May alone. Though some folks have begun training to become "[prompt engineers]()," using tech like ChatGPT to bolster their careers, Lipkin is not among them. Instead, as she told *WaPo*, the 25-year-old has replaced her content marketing side hustle with dog walking as a means to support herself as she pursues creative writing on her own time. "I’m totally taking a break from the office world," Lipkin said. "People are looking for the cheapest solution, and that’s not a person — that’s a robot." **More on ChatGPT and work:** [*ChatGPT's Dirty Secret: It's Powered by "Grunts" Making $15 Per Hour*]() ## Author At Futurism, I've often been drawn to unpacking the narratives that underlie technological, scientific and medical progress, with a special interest in areas of conflict and ambiguity that end up setting agendas and steering the fates of both elites and the hoi polloi. I'm a committed generalist, but I often find myself returning to work involving NASA and the private space sector, the effects of AI on media and society, and the mechanics of the pharmaceutical industry, with a specific focus on the spread of GLP-1 drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy. Prior to Futurism, I worked for publications ranging from Media Matters and Truthdig to Raw Story and Bustle. I'm also the author of "Myspace Scene Queens," a 2024 title in Instar Books' acclaimed "Remember the Internet" series. My work at Futurism has been cited by outlets including the New Yorker, Slate, Nieman Lab, the Verge, the MIT Technology Review, the Sunday Times, and the Daily Beast. I grew up in North Carolina, attended the University of North Carolina at Asheville, and now live in Brooklyn, New York. In my free time, I'm an avid reader and music fan; you can probably find me at a local poetry reading, concert, underground rave, or DJ set. I'm the proud parent of an ineffable orange cat named Mee-Mow. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()