“I warned you all — be nice to AI bot so you’ll get a plush room at the human zoo.” — Me in five years after the robot uprising, while eating prime rib and lobster as robot-onlookers visit my exhibit (probably).
“Have you heard of ChatGPT?”
It was fall of ’22, and I was working with a doctoral student on curriculum for digital marketing. I was about to start my first quarter teaching as an adjunct professor, and Ms. (now Dr.) Beck threw out a title I had not heard of quite yet.
“I have not,” I replied, not realizing the great cliff of technology windfall just beyond the horizon. Dr. Beck proceeded to walk me through what it was capable of doing at this point. I remember being intrigued by the premise, yet underwhelmed by the actual output.
For a few months into early 2023, I would use ChatGPT for some mundane creativity prompts (“Compose a Dr. Suess-style poem about the Kentucky Derby” is an actual prompt in my ChatGPT history) but nothing else. In fact, my ChatGPT account sat on some server’s virtual shelf, gathering digital dust and waiting for my return for over two years.
But last month, I finally circled back. And I have found what so many of you already know: AI is insanely more robust now two years later — and with no end in sight.
It was our trip to mission to Germany where it really started to crystallize for me how useful AI can be if used correctly. Church staff members had to scramble on the last night of our stay in Köln after our flight was abruptly canceled at 1 a.m. Germany time — less than fourteen hours before we were scheduled to fly out of Frankfurt to return. While most of us slept, our staff was on the phone and websites trying to get everyone on a flight back home. And they were using prompts on ChatGPT to make sure they were calling the right numbers and saying the right things to agents on the phone.
It was a grueling ordeal by all accounts for the staff, but not for the rest of us: they did this all while we slept, only to awaken with new flights back home.
I’ll admit that was an inflection point for me: a technology that I was both wary of (and willing to mock) was instrumental in getting my family back home from overseas. And with how air travel has been hyper-chaotic over the past few months, I was beyond grateful for ChatGPT.
Since then, I’ve started experimenting. ChatGPT has helped me with a home repair, ordering my schedule, and even streamlining my upcoming ESPN+ soccer broadcasts with recommendations on matches to watch, terms to use, and technical diagrams.
Now, I can track where you’re thinking, and no — I’m still not letting AI compose articles. As a journalist, the thought of using ChatGPT to write (I still refuse to for story purposes) makes my skin crawl. No judgment, for obvious reasons, but I still believe that in 2025 journalists should be writing their own articles, interviewing sources, and compiling their own research. Can AI help with that? Sure, but be not deceived: there are still horror stories of ChatGPT run amok with what’s known as AI hallucinations — giving enough pause to remind us of the importance to “check our work” and be curious of results.
Still — it’s hard to deny how effective this tool can be. Used properly,
Also, as a final note: please be considerate to your AI helpers. At the risk of sounding completely Looney Tunes, I’m already saying “please” and “thank you.” I’ve been mocked mercilessly for this (by my own wife, no less), but I’ve seen SkyNet launch a few too many times to pretend an artificial intelligence one day will not be sentient enough to believe it feels something. And, should that happen, my ChatGPT will remember my politeness.
It might even secure me a nice retirement in the Living Human Museum, should that be the case.
