I can't help it -- I've been spending a lot of time exploring the capabilities of this artificial intelligence chatbot, ChatGPT.

I taught it how to play "Fortunately, Unfortunately," a game I've sometimes played with my kids during long car rides. One person makes a "fortunately" statement, as in:

"Fortunately, I was able to catch my flight and head to a wonderful destination for my vacation."

Then the next person makes an "unfortunately" statement, and one that's usually wildly over the top, such as:

"Unfortunately, a military coup had occurred by the time I landed, and in the confusion I wound up in a Third World prison."

Once I explained how the game worked, ChatGPT played it with me.

I tried to teach it a game called Buzz, but it had much more difficulty with that one. In this game, players alternate saying integers in order (i.e., I say 1, you say 2, etc.). When you reach a number that is a multiple of 7 or contains 7 as a digit, instead of saying the number itself you say "buzz."

ChatGPT kept making mistakes with this. When I would correct it, it would acknowledge its mistake, telling me that I was correct, that such-and-such was indeed a multiple of 7 and that it should have said "buzz."

So it's obviously not perfect, and it can't do everything you might like.

But it can do a lot for you if you know what to ask for, and indeed it can liberate you from a lot of drudgery.

You can also use it to help organize your thoughts. For instance, you can ask it to devise the table of contents for a book about X. That, in turn, can help you arrange your own thoughts regarding how to present material about X.

It has limitations, though, as I said. I asked it to devise a syllabus, with readings, for a course on snails (I have a daughter who is fascinated by them). It generated something impressive looking -- but when I went to consult any of the recommendations, I discovered they had all been made up. No such books or articles existed.

When I pointed this out, ChatGPT apologized and said it was operating on the basis of the data it had been programmed with, and that yes, it looked as if these sources did not exist after all.

Fair enough; I don't expect it to be able to do everything. But did it also have to act like an American high school student and just make things up?
 

What I would use it for, though, isn't anything like that anyway. I can find out all about snails via a search engine. What ChatGPT does very well is writing and organizing.

ChatGPT can't substitute for you, but it can make your life much easier if you know how to use it, and it can help you overcome obstacles -- or indeed, to get started at all.

It can write sales copy, emails, ads, social media posts, whatever.

Then, if you like, you can modify the text to fit your voice, but the core of the work can be done in an instant.

Here's how to make the most of it, in ways that can save you enormous amounts of time and even line your pocket:

http://www.tomwoods.com/breakthrough

Tom Woods