Robert,
It is a change in relationship to data. Look at LLMs and the move away from structured data. When you're not looking for 100% accuracy, you can increase your dataset significantly and still have good performance.

https://towardsdatascience.com/what-are-the-data-centric-ai-concepts-behind-gpt-models-a590071bb727

I'm still working on wrapping my mind around the signigance of each aspect of the changes in the last 12-18 months, but my view is that we're not in a hype cycle, but rather ignorant about the effect that the transition to a data centric world now coming to fruition will have on our daily lives. More pondering required---

This is a great subject!

AI is changing very fast. I have been using AI to create articles since 2021 where I was paying $100 per month to Jasper (Formerly Jarvis).  They use OpenAI as the core and put their own spin on it. At first, they did much better than when ChatGBT was available. At this point, I use ChatGBT and it is just a matter of playing with prompts to see what works. Actually, I have learned a lot from TikTok for these hacks.

Beyond tech help, there are verticals popping up everywhere. Any type of data analyst job will be changing drastically because you can throw a lot of data at AI and get answers.

I see it as a natural progression. In the 90's we used data cubes and fuzzy logic sitting on a VAX and it would take an hour to set up the prompt/query and at would take another hour to get data back and then more time to put that data to something useable for others. By the early 2000's the features we were using became incorporated in more modern desktop software and the process was cut down from 2 hours to 30 minutes or more.

Today, there are many web based software applications that allow end users with little technical experience to do these very tasks in minutes. AI is taking this to the next level.

Just every day searching is so much easier using AI over a google search. You can ask a question as you would your friend and get a very good answer. Yes, some of the technical answers may have a slight flaw here and there and for now, but so far, I have not found anything terrible and it just gets better.

We need to properly embrace AI. Again, going back in time, when I was in grade school the Bowmar Brain? disrupted hand held calulators adn the big debate was if we were allowed to use calculators for math tests because the fear was you would not have access to them in the real world. By the time I was in highschool, they were telling you which Texas Instruments calculator to purchase for the school year. If we can look back at how we treated hand held calculators and their quick progression to be very economical and used by everybody including on your watch.... that is how we need to look forward to AI and embrace the technology.

So yes, sites like SO or EE may be affected .This is where EE shines though. SO is geared to just getting a quick answer. And it really helps if you know the subject matter but you are lost if you are a, "noob".  EE on the other hand is a community that thrives on wanting to not only help solve an issue, but help you learn, no matter what level you are at.

I foresee a good mix of AI and human interaction to get the best outcome.

Scott, I totally agree with your last statement.  It is a mix of AI and human interaction that is the key.  What concerns me right now with the hype over ChatGPT is that the focus is on the AI alone and not on the human interaction which is required.

AI is an evolving technology.  It is evolutionary, not revolutionary, and still has a long way to go.  ChatGPT is a step in that evolution, but only a step.  It is valuable and useful, but not the answer to everything.  Not without a lot of help.

What concerns me right now with the hype over ChatGPT is that the focus is on the AI alone and not on the human interaction which is required.

We humans gravitate for the easy and cheap. Working with people creates some degree of friction in one form or another. I would prefer the mix, but with the very low barrier to entry, it makes for a potentially bad situation.