Experimenting with Generative AI: Does ChatGPT Really Increase Everyone’s Productivity?

Generative AI technologies such as ChatGPT, Gemini, and MidJourney have made remarkable progress in recent years. Recent literature has documented ChatGPT’s positive impact on productivity in areas where it has strong expertise—attributable to extensive training datasets—such as the English language and Python/SQL programming. However, the literature is still limited regarding ChatGPT’s performance in areas where its capabilities could still be further enhanced. In this paper, we asked participants to perform writing analysis tasks in a non-English language (specifically, Thai) and math & data analysis tasks using a less frequently used programming package (specifically Stata). The findings suggest that, on average, participants performed better using ChatGPT in terms of scores and time taken to complete the tasks. However, a detailed examination reveals that 34% of participants saw no improvement in writing analysis tasks, and 42% did not improve in math & data analysis tasks when employing ChatGPT. Further investigation indicated that higher-ability participants, as proxied by their econometrics grades, were the ones who performed worse in writing analysis tasks when using ChatGPT. We also found evidence that participants with better digital skills performed better with ChatGPT. This research provides insights on the impact of generative AI. Thus, relevant parties can make informed decisions regarding appropriate strategies, policies, and educational systems. It also highlights the critical role of human skills in addressing and complementing the limitations of AI.