The Joys of Talking to ChatGPT

"Artificial intelligence (AI) has become an incredibly useful part of my work and my personal life. Now I've found a way to make it useful even if I'm away from my keyboard.

For a while now, I've been using the voice interface on ChatGPT's mobile app. Just ask it vocally what you want to know, and it replies by speaking. Imagine something like Siri or Alexa, but a whole lot more like talking to a person: The voice is more realistic, and the responses are much more sophisticated.

My voice-to-voice sessions have opened up new possibilities that I never had when I used only text or keyboard. I can now make progress on my work while I'm walking, commuting or doing household tasks, because the AI is there to take notes, answer questions and track my train of thought. I can also make extracurricular jobs like shopping a lot more convenient -- and interesting -- because the AI is there to feed me information and suggestions. (The forthcoming "Advanced Voice Mode" is even more natural to use, though the current alpha version has some limitations that affect a few of my favorite uses for voice interaction.)

Here are some of the ways voice AI has helped me:

Curing writer's block

When I run into trouble writing an article or newsletter, I'll get up from my desk and go for a walk. Then I have a stream-of-consciousness conversation with the AI to get the ideas flowing, the way some writers force themselves to free-write for 30 minutes without a pause. If I'm really stuck, I will ask ChatGPT to interview me, telling the AI that it is an editor or journalist asking for my thoughts on the topic. Once all those ideas are out of my head, I ask ChatGPT to take what we've covered and turn it into a draft or outline, which I can access from my web browser and paste into my favorite document editor as a starting point for my work.

Last-minute meeting prep

There is nothing worse than realizing you have a meeting in 15 minutes -- with just enough time to either shower, dress, get a cup of coffee or to do some fast background googling about the person you're meeting and the topic you're discussing. Now I don't have to choose: The moment I hop out of the shower, I tell ChatGPT who I'm meeting with and ask for a briefing on that person, their organization and anything relevant to our meeting topic. Ten minutes later, I'm ready for that video call, with my coffee cup full and the right questions ready.

Doing some sightseeing

Voice-based AI can make trips or errands more fun by acting as a tour guide. For example, I might tell ChatGPT where I am ("I'm standing in front of the Flatiron building in New York"), ask it to suggest a walking tour on a theme ("Can you plan an hourlong walking tour of the Garment District, focusing on its labor history?") and then ask it to narrate that history while I go from point to point.

On-the-go research

At my desk, I often use ChatGPT or other AI platforms to analyze articles for me and find the important points. Now I can have ChatGPT do that while I'm in transit. I tell the AI what articles to pore over, then it talks me through key insights while I'm running between meetings or appointments. I can chime in occasionally with follow-up questions or new instructions.

Hands-free help

The first time I used ChatGPT's voice interface was to get help hanging curtains. I knew I couldn't do math or look at a screen while standing on a 6-foot ladder, but I needed help figuring out how to space out the hooks so that the curtains would hang nicely and the automatic curtain-opener would run smoothly. ChatGPT talked to me for an hour and a half, detailing the trade-off between curtain fullness and ease of movement, and praising me for my creative approach to window coverings. Now I use voice GPT whenever I need help with a task that involves googling, measuring or calculating while my hands are full (like converting a recipe measurement or correcting a mistake in my knitting).

Practicing language skills

In theory I speak four languages, but in practice, I rarely speak anything other than English, because I'm too embarrassed to trot out my rusty French, Spanish or German. But I can practice my language skills on the voice interface -- judgment-free -- and ask for corrections whenever I make a mistake. ChatGPT speaks over 50 languages, and the moment I switch into speaking French or German, it replies to me in whichever language I last used.

Grocery assistant

ChatGPT also helps with the practical challenge of working your way through a shopping list. Before I go to the store, I put my list into ChatGPT. Then, as I go through the store, I tell it what aisle I'm in and ask it what items I need there. It works pretty well (with a few omissions and oversights), and can even answer questions like, "What's in season in June that I can add to my salad?" 

But shopping this way can feel like a bit of a spectacle. I can only imagine that my fellow shoppers think I have some poor human on the other end of my phone.

That is one of the caveats about using voice AI in public: You must pay attention to how other people perceive your voice interactions (at least until we all get used to people talking to their AIs the way we have accepted people conducting phone calls in public).

I know for sure I've startled at least one other person with my AI conversations. A bank teller who overheard me working out loud with ChatGPT on this article was a little baffled. . .until I showed him how realistically an AI could handle a request like, "You're a bank teller with a customer who doesn't understand why she can't deposit a business check to her personal account. Please explain." He was slightly freaked out by how well it answered the question.

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Alexandra Samuel is a technology researcher and co-author of "Remote, Inc.: How to Thrive at Work. . .Wherever You Are." Email reports@wsj.com." [1]

1. Artificial Intelligence (A Special Report) --- The Joys of Talking to ChatGPT: Among the ways I find it useful: It helps me cure writer's block, prepare for meetings in the car and sightsee. Oh, and hang curtains. Samuel, Alexandra.  Wall Street Journal, Eastern edition; New York, N.Y.. 23 Sep 2024: R.1.