My new assistant – Chat GPT

A Letter from the council. I received a letter from the council informing me that I would potentially receive a $400 fine, and if I didn’t respond this could increase to a $1500 fine if I didn’t respond right away. The letter sighted illegal dumping, accusing me of dumping rubbish (3 pieces of bread for the birds at the top of my driveway where I live!).

  1. Feeling very flustered and unhappy with this letter, I turned to Chat GPT, putting in a request for how I should respond to the letter, with one sentence defining the problem statement.
  2. Within 3 seconds it started typing out a graceful and thoughtful response that referred to there being no bylaws against feeding the birds, and that my intention was to feed birds, not dump rubbish.
  3. All I had to do was check for errors, put the Council person’s name in the greeting, and my name in the signature. I chose to soften the response, as I simply won’t feed the birds on the side berm anymore, and I will stick to my own garden.
  4. I got the most wonderful response using the letter created by Chat GPT, and the complaint was closed out by the council. I also learned that it is ok to feed the birds, if you stay while they eat it. Who knew! I realise the council is cash strapped but going after people for feeding three bits of bread to the birds is a bit rough.

I am happy with my new assistant – Chat GPT! What else I am using Generative AI tools for: –

  1. Blogging – I also use Chat GPT for framing up ideas for blogs on my Wedding photography site (I only use them for inspiration, and add my own content, images and links to ensure it’s relevant to my audience and useful). But it’s great for this type of content support.
  2. Novels – While the tech will improve, currently I don’t recommend using it for creating stories, so far, I have tried many AI tools, and quite frankly they aren’t up to writing novels with depth, they are good for checking language and simplification or planning a structure for you to write within.
  3. Business Plans: There are so many uses for Chat GPT, from writing a business plan, to task lists for a building job (a lot of folks are facing that daunting task in NZ currently post the cyclones, floods and tornadoes) I recommend you have a play and see what it can do for you.
  4. Prompt Engineering: you can buy some incredible scripts, or create your own to automate some tasks involved in blogging and content creation, I am currently investigating and will create a new blog on the new field of Prompt Engineering – where you basically learn how to tell Chat GPT (or another LLM) what to do to get the results you want. Automating repetitive tasks is key here, and there is lots of opportunity ahead.
  5. Always fact check the results. But remember it can be wrong, so always double check the facts before you use them.
  •  (Image created using Dall-e 2)