Journal of Innovations

Vol. 2, Issue 1

What Would Joseph Schumpeter Say About Innovation in the Age of Generative Artificial Intelligence? A Conversation with ChatGPT-4

AUTHOR(S) 

Charles H. Davis 

ABSTRACT 

This paper reports a wide-ranging conversation in November and December 2023 between the author and ChatGPT-4 about how Joseph Schumpeter, the pioneer of modern innovation studies and the popularizer of the concept of creative destruction, might address innovation in the age of generative AI. I asked ChatGPT to perform four sorts of tasks: 1) produce plausible imaginary accounts of what Schumpeter would say about innovation and generative AI; 2) generate plausible and amusing cultural products in three common genres (a limerick, a formal verse, and an epic rap battle), all on the theme of Schumpeter and generative AI; 3) produce plausible and reliable accounts of Schumpeter’s thoughts on innovation, including identification and correction of a user’s deliberately erroneous statements; and 4) identify and produce an accurate assessment and summary of scholarly and scientific knowledge about Schumpeter and his thinking, with attributed sources. In the concluding section I offer some comments and thoughts on the strengths and weaknesses of ChatGPT-4 as a tool to explore, imagine, compare ideas, and support the production of reliable scholarship.

DOI

https://doi.org/10.62470/1a242298

CITE THIS ARTICLE 

Davis, C. H. (2024). What would Joseph Schumpeter say about Innovation in the Age of Generative Artificial Intelligence? A conversation with ChatGPT4. Journal of Innovations. 2(1), 1-30. DOI: https://doi.org/10.62470/1a242298