ChatGPT has garnered a lot of attention since it was released for public use. Lots of people have begun experimenting with it to test its capabilities and see how it might augment their efforts. There have even been many posts and articles written about how to use ChatGPT that were written using ChatGPT. I have had multiple conversations with people considering buying content sites. My advice has been the same—don’t do it. The content game has changed forever and now is probably not the time for new entrants.

I have also tried a few prompts myself. It can give you meal ideas and recipes. It can help you create an exercise program. It can take prose that was written by one author and rewrite that prose in the (passable) style of another author. I’m sure it can do much more, but those are some of the things I’ve done with it thus far with my own limited creativity. It also makes some odd errors when asked for specific details. It will provide a link to a YouTube video but get the name of the creator incorrect. It will compile a list of academic studies on a particular subject, complete with authors and short summaries, but then you will find that those studies aren’t real. There may have been similar studies, but not the ones listed. ChatGPT does similar things when asked to provide biographical information, getting one’s alma mater incorrect or what have you.

I don’t know what to think about the program at this point. It, along with the neural network technology that underpins it, is sure to change many things. New business models will emerge. Old business models will falter. But the whole enterprise is something of a black box, and I’m not technical enough to parse the details of how the neural networks actually function. That gives me pause as to the larger implications but simultaneously won’t prevent me from trying to use the tool to improve my work.