Abstract
ChatGPT became the most popular Artificial Intelligence (AI) and digital technology platform in history after its launch in November 2022. According to the Diffusion of Innovation Theory, because it reached one million users within five days, and 100 million users within two months, ChatGPT marked an inflection point in society. This study presents a scoping review of the sentiments on ChatGPT in scholarly discourse from 67 publications on the topic. The sentiments were thematically analyzed manually, using ChatGPT and using the new AI function in Atlas.ti®. ChatGPT offered the most comprehensive and versatile analysis even though its results were only used for demonstrative purposes. The key findings reveal a majority positive sentiment from scholars on ChatGPT mainly citing how academia should co-exist with the tool, and for researchers, organizations and society to use ChatGPT to stir greater creativity and productivity. The limited negative and risk sentiments centered around ethical concerns, contradictions, and apprehension about the impact of ChatGPT, through dependency , on human social and cognitive functions in decision-making and judgement. The main recommendations comprise a call for educational reform, training on better usage of ChatGPT, and making the world a better place. The main non-technology focus of ChatGPT research is on " human " , " ethics " and " decision making ". The study similarly makes a recommendation for educational reform given the transdisciplinary effect of AI, and for academia, society and organizations to intentionally take advantage of the inflection point to create progressive policies on the maximal use of ChatGPT and other AI tools.