I used ChatGPT to write my emails for a week: This is what happened

Ok, so I exaggerated a bit there. I used ChatGPT to write SOME of my emails for the week. Nevertheless, I was both delighted and impressed!

Let me start from the beginning. Artificial intelligence has been all the rage for several years in both the academic and business disciplines. The topic has captured the public interest for as long as I can remember, although some depictions are not exactly accurate or realistic (think 1999 Disney Channel Original "Smart House"). Until recently, my fascination has been largely theoretical, based on what I read and hear about the endless possibilities of machine learning technology, but not apparently experienced in my day-to-day life. I am aware that lighter versions of A.I. technology are essentially everywhere, but they do not exactly capture our imagination in any significant way. That was until I learned of ChatGPT.

I was a bit late to the ChatGPT party. I heard the technology referenced a couple of times on my podcast playlist. The first reference I can remember was John and Hank Green comparing ChatGPT dad jokes on their podcast Dear Hank and John (or as John Green prefers to think of it, Dear John and Hank). It wasn't until I listened to the December 13th episode of Today, Explained, "Art-ificial Intelligence", when I was truly exposed to its genius as I experienced a somewhat poorly performed, but expertly written song about cheeseburgers in the style of Beyonce.

There was no turning back from there; I was hooked and had to experiment. I started first, of course, with play and amusement! My first prompt was "Write a silly poem about chapstick that tastes like bologna in the style of Edgar Allen Poe".

Once upon a midnight dreary, as I chapsticked my lips, weary,

Over many a quaint and curious flavor of chapstick I did pore.

Suddenly, a taste unpleasing, made me feel quite uneasy,

It was a taste I'd never known before.

I grabbed the tube with trembling hand, and held it close to understand

What flavor could be so uninviting, so bizarre.

I held it up to my nose and sniffed, my lips still fee ling stiff,

When lo and behold, the taste was bologna, that's bizarre!

I tossed the tube with a start, my lips now fee ling quite smart,

No longer needing that chapstick I'd deplore.

I vowed to never use it again, that flavor I can't comprehend,

The taste of bologna on my lips, I'll abhor.

I was captivated! After another 15 minutes or so of light-hearted amusement, it became clear to me that this technology was useful in both the "change the world" and every day practical kind of ways. I decided to put it to the test at work with the "Monday Motivation" email series I send weekly to staff. Writing these emails can be enjoyable, but time consuming (like writing this article). There is a lot of thought and detail that goes into selecting the perfect words, sentence structure, and punctuation. Don't even get me started on things like tone and messaging (mainly balancing the need to be concise with my need to sound smart and use fancy words is not easy)! In all seriousness, there is both an art and a science to writing great emails (and other professional communications). Many underestimate it, I think, and I do not when or how I learned. Well, it turns out that what takes me an hour of focused writing, takes ChatGPT roughly 8 seconds. With effective prompts and some minor edits, ChatGPT allowed me to write 6 weeks worth of motivation emails in the time it normally takes for me to write one. With some practice on my prompting skills, I could probably crank out 10 or more in that time frame.

Since that experiment, I have continued utilizing the bot to create everything from clever social media captions to heart-felt holiday greeting emails! I have used the technology to compose important email responses while also continuing to write ridiculous poems (ask Mitzi Manzo-Silva about our poem about tricking our boss into eating chocolate-covered brussels sprouts disguised as Ferrero Rocher candy in the style of Dr. Seuss). The more I use it, the more curious I become about how we will see this technology change the way we live and work in the coming years. There are sure to be some ethical sticky wickets to navigate, but I feel energized and hopeful by this marvel of human intellect and ingenuity. I am not a scientist, but as someone with boundless curiosity and a love for learning, my imagination is running wild these days.

References:

Green, H. (Host), Green, J (Host). (2018-Present). Dear Hank and John [Audio Podcast]. Complexly.

Rameswaram, S. (Host). (2022, December 13). Art-ificial Intelligence [Audio Podcast Episode]. Today, Explained. Vox Media

OpenAI: https://openai.com/blog/chatgpt/