From Bedtime Stories to Business Plans: My Adventures with ChatGPT

Earlier this year, I came across some buzz about “ChatGPT” in the news. Being a lover of all things computer-related, I had to see what the fuss was about. It turns out, this innovative tool is an absolute treasure trove for someone like me who’s always juggling multiple projects. I now use it in numerous areas of my life and work. Here are some of the many Artificial Intelligence (AI) tricks and hacks I’ve discovered…

Amazon Advertising

I create and sell easy piano sheet music books on Amazon. Standing out from the thousands of publishers and products on their vast website is difficult, and paid advertising is essential to get any book sales at all. Through targeted questioning, ChatGPT has helped identify thousands of suitable keywords for my Amazon KDP ads. In a fiercely competitive environment, this has improved my profitability from a small deficit to a small gain most months: a valuable win.

ChatGPT Web Development

I sell my books internationally via Amazon websites around the world. Getting visitors from my Easy Piano Teacher website to the right place was problematic: I needed to send potential buyers to the correct Amazon store based on their location. While there are paid software solutions available for this task, the costs were prohibitive. The solution? I used the chatbot to create original code for the geolocation links – for free! (Try it: click on the link in the previous paragraph, or here, and you’ll land on your local Amazon site.)

AI Church Resource Management

The worship music team at my church is expanding; organizing and sending out resources for all the musicians has recently become quite a task. I discussed ways to streamline the process with ChatGPT (yes, you really can have a discussion!) We landed on using a Google Sheets based system. With the AI’s technical help, I am creating and implementing the solution. It not only streamlines the distribution of music resources but also allows us to track song usage and frequency, ensuring our worship sessions stayed fresh and diverse: a useful new feature. So far, feedback from our musicians has been very positive.

Training Materials

Speaking of church music…in my recent post, Embracing Modern Worship in Today’s Church, I mentioned the difficulty for classically-trained church pianists moving from sheet music to modern worship lead sheets. This seems to be compounded by a lack of good-quality, well-focused training material. Sensing a potential gap in the market, ChatGPT and I brainstormed a detailed content outline which I hope to eventually turn into a book or online course. If you, or someone you know, might be interested, please leave a comment below or send me an email. Based on the interest, I might prioritise it!

U3a Talks

I joined the “Exploring Human Behaviour” group in my local U3a last year. Members are encouraged to contribute by giving talks. Preparing material for these takes time, but the chatbot makes it a lot easier and quicker. I’ve given two detailed presentations: one about Cognitive Biases, and the other about…can you guess? Artificial Intelligence and ChatGPT!

Business Coaching By Chatbot

Now I’ve “semi-retired”, my online teaching and publishing endeavours are more of a passionate hobby than a proper business (as demonstrated by my unimpressive profitability!) Nevertheless, every business benefits from periodic introspection. I can discuss my products and processes with the chatbot, and evaluate potential business ideas and strategies. The AI’s feedback is invaluable, providing perspectives I haven’t always considered. Free business coaching? Yes please!

Storytelling

One of the many joys of having grandchildren (we have three boys and a girl) is reading them bedtime stories. They have some great books, but how about asking them what they would like tonight’s story to be about? One of my boys asked, “Can I have a story about a ninja called Freddie who has a ninja team with ninjas called Florence and Thomas?” I told ChatGPT his age, and exactly what he wanted. It generated an original story – and he was delighted with it! (You can read it here if you’re interested in mysterious maps, secret treasure, huge dragons, and the importance of kindness, courage and friendship…) Unique bedtime stories to order, tailored to their interests and ensuring memorable moments every time!

Entertainment

My wife and I don’t often watch live TV, but we do enjoy binge-watching older series. I gave the chatbot the titles of series we had enjoyed, and it curated a long list of box set recommendations based on these, leading to many enjoyable evenings.

AI Music Research

My Easy Piano Teacher books feature music in the public domain, thus avoiding the minefield of copyright permissions. I’m often on the lookout for another well-known old hymn I’ve missed, or an unfamiliar folk song or classical melody. I feed the AI genre-specific prompts and it helps me uncover hidden gems for my sheet music collections.

Fitness Planning

This year, my wife and daughter decided to run a half-marathon. ChatGPT took the guesswork out of their preparation by crafting an 18-week training program, with weekly short and long runs starting at just 5km, and including the all-important tapering in the penultimate stages. With only a couple of weeks to go, they have trained efficiently and safely, and are more than ready to take on the 21.1km. Well done, ladies!

Writing Insights

As a would-be writer (you be the judge) staying fresh and engaging is vital. I fed a number of my blog posts into the AI model and asked it to analyse my writing style and provide constructive feedback. The results were remarkably detailed and insightful, and hopefully have helped me improve. “Having analysed my posts, ChatGPT suggested a long list of new blog post ideas. My content calendar has never looked better!

AI Proofreading

I hate making misteaks in my writing (see what I did there?) ChatGPT has a meticulous eye for detail, and often spots errors I’ve missed. It also helps me review and refine my drafts for style and content, enhancing clarity and engagement. Or so I hope…!

Beyond the ChatGPT Hype and Headlines

Despite what conspiracy theorists and tabloid journalists love to suggest, AI chatbots like ChatGPT don’t have intentions, emotions, or consciousness. They don’t “want” anything. They simply process information and generate responses based on their training data. Any potential risks from AI come from how we choose to use or misuse them, not from the AI itself suddenly taking on a life of its own…that’s pure science fiction, at least for now!

Playing around with ChatGPT is fun, though it sometimes takes time to craft your requests to get the response you’re after. And although I haven’t particularly encountered it, AI chatbots can “hallucinate” – a sanitised term for an occasional nasty habit of completely making things up on the spot! (But hey, we’ve all done that, right?) Even so, when I hit a roadblock, personally or professionally, increasingly I turn to ChatGPT for help.

I’m excited to see where this AI journey takes me next. The future is teeming with possibilities, and with tools like ChatGPT, I’m always ready to explore. I heartily encourage you to give ChatGPT a try (you can open a free account here.) Who knows what you might discover?

Your thoughts

Which of the ways I’ve used ChatGPT resonates most with you? Are you tempted to try it out for that purpose?

In what other creative ways might you (or do you) use ChatGPT in your daily life or work?

Are there certain tasks or roles where you feel AI should never replace human intervention? Why?

Please share your thoughts and experiences in the comments below!