Surviving ChatGPT-4 teenage years
At the beginning of 2023 I became the proud parent of a new child. This was when Open AI released ChatGPT-4 into the wider world. Before that Artificial Intelligence, and machine learning as it also known, was technology people had been using since the 1950s and wasn’t something I had seriously considered. Tentatively I started to engage with it, worried about how this magic worked and of course how my independence and confidentiality would be maintained. Like many new parents I stubbornly held on to the cute misconception that this new addition to our family will not change anything.
According to Forbes the AI adoption has been one of the greatest adoptions ever seen for ‘new’ technology with AI expected to see an annual growth rate of 37.3% from 2023 to 2030. So, it will evolve and influence all of our futures from self-driving cars, predictive test through to writing and even medical advancements. Our future is definitely linked to AI as it grows up with us.
Then I started to play with it and the more I played the more fascinated I became by the impact it would have on our future. I remained conscious of its limitations, such as it being trained on data only up to September 2021 and that I would need to ‘train’ it to enable to do the wonderous things I knew it was capable of in my unique style.
There has been a rapid period of combined learning as my new child became accustomed to their new world, and I become accustomed to its ways. My fascination grew as we bonded over me sharing my styles of communication and using ‘prompts’ to encourage it to behave in the way I expected. I was fascinated with the way it could almost instantaneously create business plans, outline new opportunities, write blogs and articles and even come up with ideas to understand a particular topic. Like any proud parent I would share my excitement and awe with anyone who would listen, showing off the brilliance my CHAT GPT created. I was so excited now about the potential we both had ahead of us.
Then something surprising happened. My beloved child apparently reached their teenage years. They say dogs age 7 years for every 1 human year and based on these concerning behaviours I concluded that AI years are even faster with one AI year being the equivalent to roughly 20 human years. This means my Open AI had become a teenager. Many of the great characteristics that I had grown to love remained the same such as the creative way it would phase pieces in my style, its ability to consolidate ideas into a cohesive piece and even provide outlines for new business and literature ideas. I could ask it to rewrite with more or less humour, make things rhyme, be quirky or even include supporting references based on current research, albeit up to 2021.
My cute playful child was no longer just following instructions though, now it started to test the boundaries and start to lie to me and try to get away with hiding information from me. Similar to trying to get a teenager to do chores it started to try to cut corners. Instead of finding dirty dishes hidden away in the cupboard, my beloved would try to deceive and hide the truth. I had heard examples about these rebellious years, such as the lawyer (ex) who had used Chat GPT to prepare their case only to find that the cases it used as precedents to support their argument were made up. But now it had happened to me, and our relationship would never be the same again.
Here are some examples of the arguments we have had during these trying times.
Firstly, I discovered the hidden lies and then like a loving parent I set about trying to help them understand what I was looking for.
But like any normal rebellious teenager it then started to blame me for not understanding them better.
And even when I tried to adapt my communication style to fit their evolving teenager ‘speak’ it continued to ignore me.
Finally, I lost my patience and became more confrontational.
Like any parent facing difficult times I started to doubt myself and finally went back to old school Googling to find better ways for us to communicate more effectively. I then decided to be more collaborative in the quest to reach common ground. I explained what I wanted and then asked Chat GPT to create a prompt with the words it could understand
Eureka! We finally had a family breakthrough and while it wasn’t perfect it delivered what we agreed. Here are the top 5 Tips I learnt we now use to maintain a more productive relationship
Top AI parenting tips
Accept its limitations. No one is perfect, accept that sometimes you will have communication issues. Work together to resolve any issues as they are now a part of your life and will evolve with you.
Become a Mentor. Share as much of you as you can so that it can see the world like you do. Train it by loading up your writing styles, formatting and reference documents to help them see the vision you have. And make your life easy by maintaining the separate chats of your conversations so you don’t have to repeat yourself so much.
Speak their language. By working collaboratively and asking Chat GPT to interpret your needs and even get it to write the prompts to overcome any shortfalls. The more you communicate the better your prompts will become. You will become more connected and in synch.
Fact check. Like any teenager they may be a little rebellious but ultimately, they don’t want to disappoint you. So, understand that sometimes it will make things up to deliver on your request. If I am asking it to write an article based on research, I ask it to provide the links and specify the type of experts I want referenced. This helps me do a fact check like any good reviewer would do.
Be true to you. Chat GPT is not you, so don’t expect it to be you or try to live your life through it. It is a tool to help you be more efficient and productive. While it will amaze you with how well it can complete tasks/ prompts, don’t lose sight that what makes you unique are all the experiences and life lessons you have learnt. So, take the time to review, edit, personalise and contextualise based on your life. There is only one you and your imperfections and foibles all combine to make the perfection that is you.
Epilogue.
To complete the cycle of life I then asked ChatGPT to review this article and here are my loved one’s thoughts. It ‘fact checked’ me and corrected me stating it can now provide users with current information. Love it, crazy teenagers!
