What ChatGPT and Burger King Have In Common

Sam Altman is one of the smartest people in Silicon Valley. His OpenAI project and ChatGPT tool are proof.

It also would not be surprising if Altman was a fan of Burger King. Yes, the greasy, all-American fast food chain that ranks second to McDonald’s, but first in the hearts of its fans.

Actually, Burger King could very well have been one of the ultimate inspirations for ChatGPT.

Your way

In the early 1970’s Burger King rolled out a long-running ad campaign around the slogan “Have It Your Way”. While the personal computer had not yet come on the scene and mobile phones were a thing of science fiction, Burger King captured the spirit of personalization.

‘Have It Your Way’ refletected the personal freedom movement that flared up in the 1960’s. It also positioned Burger King very well vis-a-vis McDonalds.

Since the first Burger King ads hit the street, the trend towards personalization has only increased.

The personal computer is one, the mobile, smartphone is another. Social media itself is a manifestation of the ever-increasing focus on the individual. Thanks to Instagram, Facebook and co, billions of people can represent themselves just the way they want and build an online image just about them - for better or worse.

Some areas have resisted personalization. The local grocery store (usually) only has two or three kinds of milk. On-demand cheesecake flavors are unpractical at scale. But Starbucks, of course, has managed to perfect the science of serving grande, extra hot, skinny chai tea latte with two pumps of caramel and one of chocolate pretty well.

The Big G

Google, however, is the greatest example of hyper-personalization. When its founders set out to “organize the world’s information” they accelerated - consciously or unconsciously - the move towards letting people “have it their way.”

Type in a search query to the Google Search Engine and based on what the browser knows about you, it will spit out the response which is most likely to suit your needs. In some cases, it is entirely correct, in others less so. In either case, the entire tool is set up to give the searcher exactly what he or she may want.

On another level, the news feeds of Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter operate the same way. Their algorithms are specifically designed to surface the most engaging and desirable content for a given user base on the millions of data points that he or she has produced.

When things go well, users are happy. When things go south, millions of users are stuck in self-confirming feedback loops that harden them into political fanatics.

Think Facebook and American political elections.

Special order

All this brings us back to Sam Altman and ChatGPT.

This fantastic tool is designed specifically to give each and every user (almost) what they want.

Just like the Google Search Engine, it returns results that are based on a user’s input. Ask for an essay on the War of 1812 that will pass a Harvard history exam and you will get one.

Request a poem about Christiano Ronaldo and Manchester United and the result is pretty interesting.

It is clear to see where this kind of tool can lead to. Now “having it your way” has become a thousand times easier and infinitely more powerful.

But is it actually better?

Maybe the standard Burger King Whopper would actually taste better than the vegetarian, peanut butter, ketchup and horseradish variation with carrots that I ordered.

Then again - that’s what I asked for…