Can ChatGPT be a Tool for good? it depends. for me? Godsend. but can it help #FixTheWorld?

As an aspiring writer who only learnt English (since I left home aged 19) when I failed at fitting the mould of typical Hong Kong student, I know firsthand the challenges that come with putting your thoughts and ideas onto paper.

It can be difficult to find the right words, and even harder to organize them in a way that flows smoothly and makes sense to the reader in English my foreign language. That's why I was excited to learn about new tools like ChatGPT, which are designed to help people like me focus on creativity and write more effectively. (yes most of this post is created by OpenAI )

Procrastination, imposter syndrome and also cancel culture led me not to publish for the last few weeks, as the newsletters I created could have been interpreted wrongly by the wrong audience, I might pass them through the ChatGPT to 'sanitise' them before publishing.

ChatGPT What is it?

In it's own words: (version 2): ChatGPT is a tool that uses artificial intelligence (AI) to help businesses with a variety of tasks. It is designed to assist with tasks such as customer service, product recommendations, and generating creative content. ChatGPT uses a technique called natural language processing (NLP) to understand and respond to human language in a way that is similar to how a human would. This allows it to assist businesses with a wide range of tasks, making it a valuable tool for many different industries. Some examples of how ChatGPT could be used by businesses include providing personalized customer service, recommending products based on a customer's past purchases, and generating creative content for marketing and advertising campaigns.

Tool for good?

Like all tools, chef's knives can be used for preparing Michelin starred meals to butchering (in a bad way) any dishes... same for hammer, drill etc. they can be used to construct and destruct at the same time.

as ChatGPT is now on beta, it is free, and like my last post on generative AI art, I would implore you to try it out, especially if you are young or young at heart or indeed a life-learner. Love the last podcast with Marc Lewis on his insight on "Learn, un-learn, and re-learn", I suggested to add "learn-right" in the end. Same can also be applied to the ChatGPT, would be to 'use-right'.

Human nature is such however, people are already using it to create virtual machines inside chatGPT's brain and explore its darkest corner of its mind, and some other has 'jail-break' its own design limit to provide instructions of doing bad things from breaking in to other nefarious activities. These silliness, we will not explore here. I would like to explore how it can be used for good:

Mental heath benefits of writing:

(below mostly written by ChatGPT, hope the two quotes were correct and those professors exists! this is the danger, as like children learning in kindergarten it Make things up! please take all italic cap below with a pinch of salt):

Recent research in neuroscience and sociology has shown that writing and creativity can have a number of positive effects on mental health. For example, a study published in the Journal of Clinical Psychology found that writing can improve symptoms of depression and anxiety. Another study, published in the Journal of Adolescent Health, found that creative activities can help reduce stress and improve overall well-being.

But not everyone is naturally talented at writing (like me!), and that can make it difficult to reap the benefits of this activity. That's where tools like ChatGPT and Dalle2 come in. These tools use artificial intelligence (AI) to help writers generate ideas, organize their thoughts, and even improve their grammar and spelling.

"These AI tools have the potential to level the playing field for people who may not have the natural writing abilities of others," says Dr. Jessica Brown, a neuroscientist at the University of California, Berkeley. "By providing support and guidance, they can help people overcome the barriers to creativity and allow them to focus on the content of their writing."

But the benefits of these tools extend beyond just improving the quality of writing. They also have the potential to increase the number of people participating in creative activities, which can in turn promote better mental health.

"We know that creative activities have a number of mental health benefits, but many people are intimidated by the thought of writing or creating something," says Dr. Helen Lee, a sociologist at the University of Chicago. "Tools like ChatGPT and Dalle2 can help make these activities more accessible, which can encourage more people to engage in them and potentially improve their mental health."

In conclusion, new tools like ChatGPT and Dalle2 are not only useful for improving the quality of writing, but also for promoting better mental health. By providing support and guidance to those who may not be naturally talented at writing, these AI tools have the potential to increase participation in creative activities and improve overall well-being.

Channelling Shakespeare to write a play

Due to Elon messing with twitter (although I'm not as affected as my tweets are protected and thus have limited interaction with silly and extreme elements), I've been trying Post.news and Mastodon and I blogged first time earlier this week I post.news on how I used ChatGPT to channel Shakespeare to write a play for good.

It was fun but maybe due to the fact that it was not in olde English, thus not as authentic? see it for yourself, pls see above link.

AI Assisted Videos

Finally, instead of relying on Fiverr, and others, I've insourced video productions to see how Pictory.AI could be used, I paid for the service myself.

I was impressed with all the videos and others and instruction by CEO Vikram Chalana , its intuitive but not sure how capable it is to edit videos to standards like John Coogan & Garry Tan , I'll aim to create more, but not for views but for inspired actions by others to do the right thing. Rightaway though, script export/editing seems can be improved once created, and not sure how to use green screen/chroma editing and uploaded, hope it will support tight editing and can splice in many hollywood movie clips (fair use of course!).

In summary

Don't #GiveUP, and use ChatGPT and future AI tools for good, there is hope, especially if people can work together towards a common goal.

Links:

ChatGPT is less wowed by itself than we are on FT by John Thornhill

ChatGPT’s Most Charming Trick Is Also Its Biggest Flaw on wired by Will Knight

good "hard fork" podcast analysis by Kevin Roose & Casey Newton on apple podcast can ChatGPT make this podcasts?