Chat GPT explorations
The other day, I was having coffee with a friend, and he started telling me about this new gadget he bought and how much money he saved. What really caught my attention was that he kept shopping around for the same item even after he'd already bought it, which is something I never do—I usually stop looking for deals the second I make a purchase. But he explained that after buying something online, like from Amazon, he keeps checking other sites like Walmart or Target. And, more often than not, he finds it cheaper. The kicker? If he does, he returns the original and buys the cheaper one. Sure, he’s saving some money, but honestly, all that effort for a few bucks? That’s way more hassle than I’d want to deal with.
This story stayed with me and got me thinking: what if there was an easy way for me to know, after I bought the item that it's available somewhere cheaper, within the time that I have to legally return the item and buy it somewhere else for a cheaper price. What if something like AI could assist us in the process of finding when it makes sense to return a package within the time window to save by buying it somewhere else. And if that could be automated, that would be amazing.
In this post, I wanted to start documenting my thoughts on ChatGPT because I've found myself asking the same question lately over and over: Can ChatGPT help with that? I plan to share some of the ways I've been using ChatGPT, and this post might evolve over time as I discover more. Depending on the amount of content I generate, I may split it into separate posts.
Let's get down to business:
ChatGPT is all the hype these days, and for good reason. I've used it on multiple occasions so far, and I have been pleasantly surprised. In fact, what you just read was re-written with ChatGPT! For fun, I also wanted to keep the original version of my text:
Here we go:
This morning, I brought my wife to UPS to return some packages. On the way there, she was telling me a shopping tip. When you buy something online, say on Amazon, it's important to continue searching for that item on other sites, even after you've bought it. She told me that she often finds the same item at other stores for a cheaper price, like Walmart or Target. Given that there's a window where you can return the items, she often sends the item back so she can purchase it at another store for a much cheaper price. Sometimes, the price difference is not worth it, but in other cases, the difference is considerable enough to make the extra effort worthwhile.
To me, that sounded like a lot of work, and I wondered if something like ChatGPT could help us do this. More on this later in a follow-up blog post.
In this post, I mainly wanted to start jotting down my thoughts on ChatGPT because lately, a lot of things I've been thinking about come back to the same question: Can ChatGPT do that for me? I want to share with you some of the things I've been using ChatGPT for. It's probably going to be a post that keeps being updated. I might end up splitting into different posts depending on how much content I can produce.
See the difference? Which one you like better?!
Doesn't matter! The fact is there is probably already tons of information you are reading on the web that is re-written by ChatGPT.
Grammar companion
For example, I've used ChatGPT to help me correct some grammar (you'll see in this video that I can't even spell "grammar" correctly; that must be from me being an ESL person!).
Interestingly, with all the hype comes the expectations. Recently, ChatGPT has had a hard time keeping up uptime with their expectation and the ones from their users.
There's actually nothing wrong with being in this situation; it can be seen as an opportunity for improvement. They'll eventually figure out scaling and this issue will become a thing of the past.
Coding companion
On a more exciting note, ChatGPT can even write code for you! Yes, you heard that right.
This is super cool, honestly. It's incredibly useful for those learning to write code and can serve as a helpful companion when learning a new programming language. While I don't believe it will replace software engineers, I do think it has potential as a day-to-day resource.