Upon ChatGPT’s arrival at the scene for the first time, I felt terrified. It was light years ahead of virtual assistants like Siri, Google, and Alexa, and it seemed like it would render my job obsolete, and maybe even all jobs.
Fortunately, we now know that ChatGPT is actually just a decent chatbot and is far from ready to replace real-world workers, let alone take over the world. Some have even swung in the opposite direction, claiming that AI-powered chatbots are new and fundamentally useless gimmicks.
I won’t go that far, though. In fact, when I tried using ChatGPT in my daily life, I was surprised at how useful it was. It’s a tool, and like any tool, you need to know how to use it to get any value from it.
Here are some real things I did this year using ChatGPT and the various ways it has already helped improve my life.
ChatGPT Helped Me Learn How to Code
Is ChatGPT good at coding itself? That depends. If you ask most programmers if ChatGPT can do their jobs for them, they will affirm how far we are from that reality so far.
But as a tool for guidance and assistance in understanding syntax, concepts, and other things related to coding? It’s not bad at all. So while ChatGPT developers were working on improving their capabilities, I was using ChatGPT to help me learn how to code.
I’ve wanted to make a game for years, but I didn’t finally sit down until 2024 and took the necessary steps to make it happen. I had learned BASIC language about 30 years ago and dabbled in Python and Flash’s ActionScript in the early 2000s, but realistically I was diving into this as a complete beginner – and here is where ChatGPT proved to be really helpful.
After I told it what I wanted to develop, it helped me choose a game engine in Game Maker. Then, after creating some educational games, I started working solo with ChatGPT guiding me all along the way.
If I didn’t know how to do something in Game Maker, it directed me in the right direction. When I didn’t know the differences between an array and a DS map, it explained them to me. When I made fundamental syntax errors that I couldn’t catch, ChatGPT found them in seconds.
Of course, I also tried to make ChatGPT write code instructions for me, but this is where I struggled. It often executed things very inefficiently, or had too many comments, or didn’t work correctly. And even when it did work, I – a complete beginner – couldn’t understand how it succeeded, so when something went wrong, I could never fix it.
Now, after months of my programming journey, I don’t use ChatGPT much because I can navigate most problems on my own. But when I can’t envision how to create something (because I lack the programming expertise to understand how to do it), ChatGPT remains extremely helpful. I’ll ask it to give me three ways to tackle a problem, ranked by efficiency or commonality, depending on what I’m doing, and in this way I still make all the big calls but also have the little helpers in the chatbot program do some of the grunt work for me.
ChatGPT Is a Great Roleplaying Partner
I love tabletop role-playing games (TTRPGs). With a good group, it’s one of my favorite activities. Call of Cthulhu was my first real love, but with a kid roughly a decade old Dungeons & Dragons part of it, I’ve had a few solo scenes in different systems over the years.
But now I am eager to run something new, and it has been a long time since I have managed a game. Frankly, I’m a little nervous and feel out of practice. What can I do other than grit my teeth and see how things unfold?
ChatGPT to the rescue!
I’ve always trained on high-pitched role-playing before sessions, manipulating my characters’ voices with accents or different inflections, and pulling organic backstory out just from what I can pull out of my hat through improv.
But with ChatGPT, I can do what I do best – by engaging in real interactions with imagined players – and it’s actually very effective.
Using advanced voice mode in ChatGPT, you can have seamless conversations with the chatbot and it does a great job at understanding any characters or personalities you present to it. It can’t change its voice during the conversation, but can play multiple characters and give them different vocal styles and ticks.
And while I haven’t tried this next idea myself yet, you can also make ChatGPT play a character in your game during a session. This could be great when someone flakes at the last minute and leaves a gap in your party, or if no one wants to play a certain role. ChatGPT isn’t perfect, but it can fill in as needed.
Related: A new report reveals how people are using ChatGPT
ChatGPT Answers My Kids’ Questions
I’m so grateful to be alive at a time where my young children (ages 4 to 6) can ask me questions that I don’t know the answers to, and I can simply say « I don’t know, but we can look it up! » before pulling out my phone and finding the answers within seconds. What an improvement over a trip to the library or searching through an encyclopedia.
But there’s something missing in the modern process of discovering information. It’s little more than staring at my phone screen for 30 seconds while they patiently wait beside me. And since I deliberately try to limit the amount of time they see me staring at my little black mirror, this process is doubly disrupted.
For this reason, I appreciate the advanced voice mode in ChatGPT, which can be a more fun and engaging way to answer our questions. We all sit and listen to the answers together – I’m not the only one searching for them and conveying the knowledge, but they discover it with me. It’s more interesting and exciting this way. It also allows my kids to practice speaking clearly when asking their questions.
With this, you have to consider that OpenAI is likely gathering voice data of your children and the questions asked for algorithmic training, so I won’t use this for anything sensitive.
Additionally, there’s a chance that the answers may go over their heads or be completely wrong, so I won’t do this when I want to ensure accurate answers. Again, this could be a good opportunity to teach them to always fact-check their sources when it comes to information.
ChatGPT Can Be a Virtual Counselor
Like many people, I struggle with anxiety about (hints about the state of the world), and I must manage it on a daily basis. I have sessions with a therapist, practice mindfulness, exercise regularly, monitor my diet, and try to reduce destructive scrolling as much as I can.
But that doesn’t mean that my anxiety is completely under control. It’s a constant threat to productivity, mood, and gut health, so I’m always eager to try out new ways to manage it.
One of the things I’ve been trying is « talking » to ChatGPT. I’ve asked for help with mindfulness, requested coaching through breathing techniques, and even presented some of my more complex personal struggles for a different perspective.
I’ve found it really helpful to be able to choose to chat with ChatGPT through text messages alone (when I’m not in a very loud voice) or through quiet voice (when I don’t want others to hear me nearby. The recently implemented advanced voice mode in ChatGPT makes it more accurate as well, and therapist-like conversations are not impossible. In fact, ChatGPT can sometimes seem genuinely caring. (Of course, it does not in reality have feelings, but it still works nonetheless.)
It’s somewhat strange to turn to artificial intelligence for human communication, and there are very real privacy concerns when using ChatGPT in this way. But I can say that this method suits me well, at least partially.
ChatGPT certainly doesn’t come close to the quality of a real counselor’s insights, and I don’t expect ChatGPT’s conversational abilities to be a sole replacement for the real social experiences we go through with our fellow humans. But when I’m stuck and just need a little support at that moment, ChatGPT is a great alternative.
ChatGPT Researches Faster Than I Can
World War II has been one of my recent interests, so I’ve enjoyed a lot of documentaries, videos, and historical podcasts on the subject over the past few months. And like with any major historical event, I can’t help but imagine a million « what if…? » scenarios of the possible outcomes if simple things hadn’t happened as they did.
If I were more academically inclined and had the time, perhaps I would conduct some real research on such « alternative histories » and write papers that might be useful to others. In reality, it’s just wishful thinking at the moment – and here is where ChatGPT can be a lot of fun.
I’ve asked ChatGPT to come up with alternative battle plans assuming that a different general was in charge. What would have happened if Hitler wasn’t obsessed with taking Stalingrad? What would have happened if the Allies entered Russia after defeating Germany? What if Churchill took his government’s advice to surrender in 1940? What if the United States didn’t stop at owning two nuclear weapons?
And of course, these are all extremely complex to the point that the answers cannot really be known. But if I wanted to get an approximate estimate of the final outcome myself, I’d have to do a lot of historical research and know the subject way better than I do, that it would take weeks or months to deal with these questions even with a sense of accuracy.
ChatGPT can be one of those history buffs with accessible insights at the moment. It could be wrong, but there’s no way to prove it, and it’s likely to be more accurate than anything I could come up with myself. And most importantly, it’s an interesting « what if » scenario I can explore, all because ChatGPT has the necessary knowledge repository to quickly generate an idea of what might happen. It could have happened.
I assume you can ask it to think of an alternative future as well, but that seems somewhat real at the moment. I’ll stick to having it describe things that cannot happen. It’s more comforting.
Further Reading: Cool things you can do with ChatGPT
