ChatGPT! - What is She Good for? Actually Something!

Yesterday, was a long time ago. I had just posted ChatGPT is blowing up the Internet - Or is it?

When I went to bed last night, I had a feeling that ChatGPT was that new person that I got introduced to. A friend told me: "You have to meet ChatGPT, she is absolutely awesome, the internet is blowing up, she will take over for Google Search".

So I met ChatGPT, I had heard that she was chatty, so I started the conversation with some simple questions, just like I would do with my old friend Google. It felt like ChatGPT gave me the cold shoulder, not only were her answers no better than Google's, they also lacked personality, and she never asked me for follow up information. I expected that from Google, but not from ChatGPT. She was not very chatty and she did not want to talk about any current affairs, it was like she had not been out of the house since 2021. Maybe she did not like me? I was feeling worried...

Then I kept seeing these rave reviews of ChatGPT; She was the best thing ever! Maybe it was just me? Maybe I could not see it? Am I getting too old? I observed how other people interacted with her; they were giving her tasks, not asking her questions. Some of the responses that they got back were actually insightful, some of them even funny.

I woke up this morning and said to myself, I am going to start over with ChatGPT, this time I am really going to get to know her. I would give her an assignment (not a question) to describe herself:

What??? I was confused. Had my friend introduced me to the wrong person? This time she actually responded with a question. I tried again:

Now we were getting somewhere. Her name is Assistant, she has been trained by OpenAI, but she has not been out of her house yet. I wonder who ChatGPT is?

I tried a more sophisticated approach:

Well, she was right about the first paragraph. The second paragraph showed that there was no lack of confidence, and the fourth paragraph showed that she was either a liar or did not know what she was talking about, maybe it was just the voice of Mark Twain. I tried other writers with same content as the response, just different styles of writing.

I recommend that she goes to see a psychiatrist to treat her personality disorders.

I needed some help to motivate my kids to clean up their rooms, so I tried:

I was rolling on the floor laughing.

It is clear that ChatGPT has the content of an enormous number of books and that she has been trained to overlay a tone onto someone else's content. But it is not just amusing, she has some real practical tricks up her sleeve.

It turns out that ChatGPT (or Assistant) is quite technical. She did not tell me this when we first met, but I tried this conversation:

Wow: Hardware recommendations, wiring instructions, software installation and code! This is impressive.

I tried with other questions about writing software, and yes, she is a geek. You cannot take her code and expect it to be production code, but you can definitely get some good ideas about how to solve a problem. I tried several languages, Rust, Lisp, Fortran, TypeScript, Python, Java, she masters them all.

I tried a request for a medical diagnosis, she refused to answer. I think the lawyers have roped off that part of her brain.

It is interesting getting to know ChatGPT. She is a different chatbot than I expected. I think she is an introvert with a sense of humor. She has read a lot, but she does not stay up to date with current affairs. She is a little full of herself, but she has great potential. She is not Google, they would be a great power-couple if they became friends.

I think I will contact her and ask how she would solve problems the next time I run into something new.