New ChatGPT AI Tool inspired excitement and concern with his ability to instantly answer complex questions. In the days since its debut, people have found plenty of ways to make their lives easier, five of which we’ve found to top the rest.
ChatGPT is a chat-based tool built by the OpenAI research lab that answers questions with somewhat conversational dialogue. Its natural language capabilities will delight anyone who has had to rephrase questions to get answers from Siri or Alexa. The AI, trained on the vast expanses of text available on the Internet, only knows information until 2021. But it contains an abundance of information on the most basic details and big concepts. This worries some educators, but as long as you use it carefully, it can be a kind of bonus brain.
To be clear, ChatGPT isn’t a perfect substitute for doing your own research – it doesn’t separate fact from fiction, like CNET’s Science Editor Jackson Ryan noted while detailing his current weaknesses in critical thinking. ChatGPT can answer questions and explain complex concepts, but its potential for inaccuracy led StackOverflow to Temporarily ban ChatGPT generated software.
That said, ChatGPT can make your life easier in several ways, concocted by people looking for the benefits of AI. If you just want to save time on certain tasks – and don’t cheat on your Lit English paper – here are some great ways to use ChatGPT.
Get a chatbot to save you money
Within weeks, a GPT-powered bot could lower the price of your bills. Joshua Browder, CEO of Not paying — the “world’s first robot lawyer” that helps people fight traffic tickets and other bills — tweeted that the company is building a Chrome extension based on ChatGPT’s technology base to negotiate lower bills from ISPs, hospitals, and more.
The expansion will enter closed beta testing in mid-December, before an open beta the first week of January. Although DoNotPay has been reducing bills for years, its rules-based model could only cause fights wherever users could submit complaint forms online. After integrating the conversational technology behind ChatGPT, DoNotPay can negotiate back and forth with any service that has a customer service chat, opening up the range of bills that can be disputed to include medical bills, reports credit and disputes between landlords and tenants.
“You can tell the bot, ‘Go get me a refund for poor in-flight Wi-Fi’; your personal data will be saved and sent [the complaint]”, Browder told CNET. He thinks the more natural language of the requests will be less suspect than the rigid form letters DoNotPay had sent out before, allowing it to challenge more demanding — and expensive — institutions, like hospitals.
The GPT-powered extension will be free for part of its beta testing phase, then will eventually be added to DoNotPay’s current subscription service, which costs $36 every three months.
Like Google’s Duplex AI making voice calls for you, the future could be bots doing all the tedious legwork to get you better deals and cheaper bills.
Make a diet and workout plan
Changing your diet and planning an exercise routine takes work. To make things easier, Alex Cohen, Senior Product Manager at Carbon Health, used ChatGPT to make a health improvement plan with a daily calorie goal, exercise suggestions, a meal list for a week, and even a shopping list for all the necessary ingredients. He tweeted his method in an illuminating thread:
I mean it sincerely when I say ChatGPT might be the most amazing technology to emerge in the last decade.
Here’s how I did it to create a weight loss plan, complete with calorie goals, meal plans, grocery list, and workout plan 🧵:
— Alex Cohen (@anothercohen) December 4, 2022
Cohen broke down his plan into a series of steps, calculating his personal health metrics, asking for meals that would meet his daily calorie and nutrient needs, asking for a shopping list, and then an exercise plan to meet his needs.
ChatGPT is not a substitute for a doctor and dietician who can meet your specific needs and physiology – a caveat the tool will point out if you repeat Cohen’s search terms. But it’s an easy way to sketch out a health plan outline that you can check out yourself or take to a medical professional.
Generate next week’s meals with a grocery list
A variation on the last point is worth noting for anyone planning a multi-person meal week.
First, ask ChatGPT for a list of meals, explain how many people you’re cooking for, and whether you’re interested in dinners, breakfasts, or lunches. Include any dietary preferences and restrictions. Detail how many days you want meal ideas, and poof, you have a meal list.
Then ask for a shopping list for those meals. You’ll get a pretty basic list of ingredients, so if you want exact amounts, you’ll have to narrow down your request. For example, you can request the total amount of ingredients for all meals listed. GPT produces a shopping list with the number of cans, ounces, pounds, and cups of each ingredient you’ll need for a week’s worth of meals.
Create a bedtime story for kids
ChatGPT-generated prose is yet to top bestseller lists, especially since it lacks the flair for creative style. But the tool can craft a passable tale for kids, whipping up simple plots and language from basic prompts. For example, I chose a cat who wanted to go to space, and ChatGPT told me the story of Max, who fought his way through many obstacles to achieve his dreams among the stars.
Eric Zelikman, Stanford graduate student in machine learning tweeted the idea to use ChatGPT to generate a bedtime story and then feed that text into OpenAI GIVE HIM image generator tool for illustrations.
It will not replace traditionally published children’s books. But if you’re pressed for time or far from your child’s treasure trove of tales, generating one through OpenAI’s tools can be useful.
Preparing for an interview
If you need to prepare to interview an exciting source, you can ask ChatGPT to generate thought-provoking questions, like entrepreneur Seth Bannon tweeted.
This could come in handy if you’re a journalist, or if you’re grooming someone on stage at an industry conference, preparing for a job interview, or cooking dinner with someone you want to impress.
You can even use it as a chat partner to set up mock conversations to practice what you’re going to say. You can also ask him to respond in other languages or translate specific phrases. You can also use it to sharpen up your cover letters and emails for a bit of professional polish. ChatGPT isn’t perfect, but when there are lots of copycat examples on the internet, it can be a good communicator.