Exploring ChatGPT

 Welcome back fellow explorers, 

This week we dive into the world of AI! Specifically, chatbots. My experience with chatbots is fairly new, but I tend to use ChatGPT because this is the one that I was first introduced to, and my introduction was fairly recent. 

Let's start from the beginning! When I say the beginning, I mean back about 24 years ago when I was just 4 years old. One day, my dad was trying to figure out how to work the remote to the TV. He just couldn't figure it out and couldn't find the right button to press. Then, 4-year-old me walks over to him, grabs the remote, and pulls down a hidden panel on the remote that revealled a slew of buttons and controls! Just the ones he was looking for! From then on, I was the technology genius in my family. Everyone thought I was just so advanced. I could hook up computers, troubleshoot television issues,
and much more. I must say, my family is not necessarily a tech-savvy family, but still, I thought myself to be quite capable. After all, I was the generation who had been born into a world where I could remember a time before cell phones, but I was still young enough to adapt to the new technology quickly and without issue.

Fast-forward to about 4 months ago. I was at my job in the ISU Wellness Center along with my Career Path Intern, who is about 8 years younger than me. We were trying to brainstorm titles for a wellness challenge that we were about to launch. The intern suggested that we use ChatGPT to generate a list of ideas for us. All I could think was, "huh?" I had heard about ChatGPT, but I had never tested it out and I didn't understand its purpose. In fact, one day, the option for a chatbot appeared on my Snapchat account, and I actually rolled my eyes. I was feeling quite elderly as I thought, "AI is taking over the world." Anyway, so I responded to the intern, "you can do that?" 

"Oh yeah!" She responded. "I use it all the time. It's a great tool for brainstorming and generating ideas." She quickly typed in the prompt on her laptop. Just like that, in a matter of seconds, ChatGPT came up with at least ten options for titles for us to choose from. She expressed how there are ways to condition your chatbot and that it can learn with the more information that it is given. We ended up choosing "Open the Door to Wellness: A Wellness Journey". The title fit our challenge perfectly as the entire idea of the challenge was to have ISU students stop by the Wellness Center's door each week to participate in an activity for wellbeing. I was thrilled to see that this technology, which seemed out of touch to me, was actually user-friendly and had a variety of uses that could be used as a helpful tool. 

In the following weeks and months, I tested ChatGPT to see what kinds of questions I could ask, to see how it functioned with more variables, and to understand the uses for it. In fact, I even showed my supervisor how amazing of a tool it could be and we spent a great deal of time typing in the most random prompts for it to follow. We asked it to generate a weekly meal plan that used strawberries in every dish. BOOM! Instant results. What couldn't this thing do?

Finally, my technology genius status came full circle just about two weeks ago when my dad asked me to help him create a resume. My dad had drafted out a quick professional summary and had jotted down his previous roles with some quick bullet-points of his responsibilities. It was definitely a rough draft and it needed some polishing. So, I told him, we could enter his resume into ChatGPT and get an improved resume. Just like my original reaction, he was quite skeptical about AI and didn't quite know what to expect. Right in front of his eyes, ChatGPT generated a resume that was well written, but still maintained the integrity of my dad's background and experience. He was astounded! He could not believe that in a matter of seconds, his rough draft was turned into a professional document. 

My dad was so shocked that he decided to call his mom (my grandma). "Listen to this!" He said. So, I read to her the original, and then the generated version, and she was also blown away. I then told them that we could change it even further and could prompt it to do whatever we asked. So I prompted ChatGPT to make the resume hilarious. In seconds, the resume told a hysterical story about my dad's background in car sales. Then, I asked ChatGPT to make the resume incredibly heartbreaking. Instantly, my dad's career history was turned into a sob story that was incredibly touching. My dad and grandma were in tears from laughter about how amazing the technology seemed to them. (See picture below of my dad and grandma using technology)

Each time I use ChatGPT, I learn a little bir more about how it can be refined, adjusted, and manipulated in just the right ways to garner the desired results. Even small adjustments like "a little more casual", or "a little longer in length", or a "bit more serious in tone". All of these specifications can help to inform the technology in a way that is desirable to the user. 

Later on we had a pretty lengthy conversation about the implications of technology such as this, and how a useful tool also must have limitations, especially when used in the world of academics, where I work. Thanks to ChatGPT, I have continued on my legacy in my family as the technology genius. 

Thanks for exploring with me!

-Tech Explorer