Cultivating Wisdom in the Age of ChatGPT
Some Initial Notes on the Generative Pretrained Transformer and the Good Life
First Impressions
My first test of Open AI’s ChatGPT was purely for fun, sitting in the living room with my human partner. I asked what I thought might be a difficult question:
How can I get better at loving my wife?
The language processing model did not disappoint:
One way to get better at loving your wife is to communicate openly and honestly with her. This means expressing your love and affection for her, and also listening to her and trying to understand her perspective. It's also important to support her, and to make an effort to spend quality time together. It's also helpful to express your love in tangible ways, such as through thoughtful gestures and actions. For example, you could surprise her with a small gift or a thoughtful gesture, or simply make an effort to do things that she enjoys. Ultimately, the key to loving your wife well is to be present and attentive to her, and to show her your love and support in both words and actions.
Since we have “Love is a Form of Attention” as a reminder in our bedroom, I was astonished at the closing sentence : ultimately, loving your wife well is to be present and attentive to her.
My next question, I decided, would cut to the heart of my creative work:
Can We Workshop Wisdom?
I thought the difficulty of defining “wisdom” and the use of “workshop” might stump the AI. I was wrong.
ChatGPT first replied:
Yes, wisdom can be developed and improved through practice and learning. There are many different ways to workshop wisdom, but some common approaches include learning from others who are wise, reading books or articles on wisdom, and reflecting on your own experiences. You can also practice mindfulness and self-awareness, which can help you develop greater wisdom and insight into yourself and the world around you. Additionally, engaging in activities that require decision-making and problem-solving can also help you develop wisdom, as these activities require you to think critically and weigh various options before making a decision. Ultimately, wisdom is something that can be cultivated and developed through effort and practice.
I then clicked the “Regenerate Response” button to see if I could get a different, perhaps more nuanced answer:
“It's difficult to say for certain whether wisdom can be "workshoped" in the same way that a skill or craft can be learned through practice and repetition. Wisdom is often considered to be a deeper, more intuitive understanding of life that comes with experience and reflection. It is a type of knowledge that cannot be easily taught or learned in a traditional sense.”
Impressive. I asked it to regenerate another response. ChatGPT’s third answer:
“Wisdom is a highly personal and subjective concept, and it can be difficult to workshop or teach. Wisdom is often thought of as the ability to make sound judgments and decisions based on experience, knowledge, and understanding. It's not something that can be taught in a direct or straightforward way, but rather is something that is developed over time through life experiences and reflection.
One way to approach wisdom is to expose yourself to new ideas and perspectives, and to engage in thoughtful reflection and discussion with others. This can help to broaden your understanding of the world and give you a more nuanced view of different situations. It's also important to be open to learning from others and to be willing to consider different perspectives, even if they differ from your own.
Another way to cultivate wisdom is to practice mindfulness and self-awareness. This can help you to stay present in the moment and to be more attuned to your own thoughts, feelings, and actions. By being mindful and self-aware, you can gain a deeper understanding of yourself and your motivations, which can help you to make more thoughtful and considered decisions.
Overall, there is no one-size-fits-all approach to cultivating wisdom, and it is something that is developed over time through a combination of life experiences, reflection, and self-awareness.”
Experience, reflection, awareness. Not too shabby. One last request for good measure:
“While wisdom is a complex and multifaceted concept, there are certainly ways to cultivate and develop it. Some possible ways to workshop wisdom include:
Engaging in reflective thinking and self-examination
Seeking out knowledge and new experiences
Listening to and learning from others, especially those who are wise and experienced
Applying logic and reasoning to problem-solving and decision-making
Developing empathy and understanding for others
Practicing mindfulness and being present in the moment
Considering the long-term consequences of your actions and decisions
Staying humble and open to learning and growth.
Ultimately, wisdom is a combination of knowledge, experience, and insight, and it can be developed and cultivated through a variety of different activities and practices. By making an effort to engage in these activities and practices regularly, you can work to develop your own wisdom and become a wiser person.”
I still can not believe the breadth of these responses, particularly when combined.
Before this chat session, I wholeheartedly believed that we could create and sustain intentional interpersonal containers conducive to cultivating mindfulness, engaging in self-examination and self-reflection, developing empathy and understanding for others, seeking out knowledge and new experiences, listening to and learning from others, staying humble, and staying open to learning and growth.
I just didn’t have the language processing to put it all together so clearly, so consisely, and so quickly.
Some Initial Reflections
ChatGPT is incapable of actually caring for us, of attending to us the way a loving conversation partner might. It is also incapable of providing the delicate touch of a sensitive human voice.
But it can surface some really powerful questions and crystalize perspectives it might take an ordinary human hours (or years) of study and language-tinkering.
Looking for a good way to describe ChatGPT, I asked it.
I heard this morning of someone who asked ChatGPT to assume the expertise, approach, and persona of Carl Jung. They’ve been having a two-day long chat with ChatGPT qua Jung. Seems like the only limits here are the imagination, and the “massive dataset of text" used to train the system.
In light of all this, where do we go? How might we use this tool in inspiring, humane, and helpful ways? In other words:
Can AI help me cultivate wisdom?
“AI, or artificial intelligence, is a rapidly advancing field that is having a major impact on many aspects of modern life. While AI systems can be incredibly powerful and sophisticated, it is important to remember that they are ultimately just tools, and they cannot replace the human capacity for wisdom. Wisdom is a complex and multifaceted concept that is based on knowledge, experience, and insight, and it is something that can only be developed and cultivated by humans. That being said, AI systems can certainly be used to help individuals learn and grow, and they can provide access to vast amounts of information and knowledge that can be used to enhance understanding and develop wisdom. However, ultimately, it is up to the individual to engage with this information and use it to develop their own wisdom and insights.”
….. I’d love to hear your thoughts on this. Are you using OpenAI’s ChatGPT? What are you using it for? To generate information? Do work? To develop your own wisdom and insights?
Happy New Year, Sean! I've asked it to write some marketing copy, and have had fun asking it to write song lyrics in the style of different musicians ;D ...