🎮 Gamify your goals: Let an AI chatbot motivate you to make some extra cash. I have just the prompt: “Turn my side hustle goals into fun tasks. Ask me about my objectives, then break them down into tiny steps. Set a goal and a reward for finishing each one. Make a list of five tasks for this month.” You’ll feel like the winner.
Life after death: AI chatbots bringing lost loved ones back
© Dzmitry Ryzhykau | Dreamstime.com
For me, the holidays are when I miss my parents, grandparents and loved ones who’ve passed away the most. But maybe we can still keep our lost family and friends with us in a different way.
You see, there’s been an upsurge in people tapping into AI to create virtual versions of their loved ones. I wanted to get a deeper look, and now you can, too.
We are so back
Founded in 2017 (ancient history in tech time), StoryFile offers a couple of options to immortalize loved ones while they’re still on Earth.
At the basic level, a laptop and webcam capture their image and likeness in an interview-style fashion — by an actual historian, for an extra fee. StoryFile’s AI uses the material to create a digital persona. Today, over 5,000 people have created profiles.
Loved ones can ask the persona a question, then the system sifts through corresponding interview clips to find an intuitive response. Just imagine a loved one you’d love to chat with again.
Another company, HereAfter AI, came along in 2019 and added another element: Interactive videos where subjects make eye contact, breathe and blink as they respond to questions. It’s super lifelike … but also surreal.
Legends live on
You might be thinking, “So, who’s doing this?” The answer: Folks from all walks of life.
Lynne Nieto, founder of Life Fitness, created a StoryFile before her husband passed away from Lou Gehrig’s disease. She did it mainly for their grandchildren. She watched the file for the first time about six months after he died. Lynne says it was a little hard to view, and it felt a bit raw.
I’m not surprised to hear that. I don’t know how I’d feel about seeing my mom or dad again, but I’m pretty sure it’d be overwhelming.
StoryFile interviewed actor Ed Asner eight weeks before he died in 2021. They sent Ed’s StoryFile to his son, Matt, who couldn’t believe his eyes. He says it was like his dad was looking right at him, answering his questions.
Make more money using AI
Struggling to grow your business? AI chatbots like ChatGPT and Gemini can help boost sales, fix your website, and find new revenue streams.
🤖 Not the AI Zuck wanted: Harry Potter, Jesus Christ and Taylor Swift walk into a bar … in the form of Meta chatbots. Anyone can whip up a chatbot on Instagram, Messenger or WhatsApp. Meta’s system is supposed to flag religious figures, real-life people and trademarked fictional characters, but it’s easy to get around that with a typo or two.
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Solution the French-governed AI chatbot gave to 5(3+2). (The answer is 25.) The bot, Lucie, also said, “Cow’s eggs, also known as chicken’s eggs, are edible eggs produced by cows.” The bot is offline now. So, to recap, we need to worry about China in the AI race and definitely not France. Noted.
AI 101: You’ll use this tip all the time. Open ChatGPT or your chatbot of choice the next time you’re struggling to get through a report, long email, research paper or whatever. Copy and paste it in, then say, “Summarize this in three sentences” or “Give me the key takeaways.”
🔠 All work and no play: Get through your afternoon slump (or teach your kid to spell) by plugging this prompt into any chatbot: “Let’s play hangman. Think of a word, and I’ll guess one letter at a time. I get six wrong guesses before it’s game over. Each wrong answer adds a part to the hangman with ASCII art.” So fun!
Tailored advice: Create a “persona” for your AI chatbot when you write a prompt. Pick a role and give some context. For example, “Pretend you’re a graphic designer giving me feedback on my website’s color scheme and branding. What should I adjust?” You can do this with any role you can think of! More smarts like this are coming soon in my small-biz newsletter.
📊 Make your data pop: Biz owners, AI can turn a dry presentation into something more fun. Just share your data with your AI chatbot. Let it know what stats you wanna show off. Then ask, “Can you turn this data into [an infographic, an interactive quiz, a poll, etc.]?” Your clients will remember it.
Let’s talk AI-bot it: The CIA’s new AI chatbot takes on the personalities and views of foreign presidents and prime ministers so agents can better prepare. This upgrade is part of the intelligence agency’s plan to woo tech partners and create a more Silicon Valley-like work culture.
Drowning in numbers? Your favorite AI chatbot has your back if you’re brainstorming or need to jazz up a presentation. Plug in a list of numbers or any other data and prompt, “Analyze this information. Explain any trends or insights you find.” Uploading a pic also works.
♟️ Caught between a rook and a hard place: International Master Levy Rozman pitted seven popular AI chatbots against chess engine Stockfish. Spoiler: Stockfish crushed ‘em. ChatGPT, Google’s Gemini and X’s Grok are great at chatting, not strategizing. They made hilariously bad moves; like breaking the rules, creating patterns, removing random pieces from the board and generating new ones. Chaotic but entertaining.
Meet Troodi: It’s a mental health chatbot on the Troomi smartphone made for kids. Parents can review chat logs and get notifications if self-harm comes up. Some kids secretly use ChatGPT and Snapchat’s My AI like therapists, too. Talk to your kids, please. I interviewed a mom whose son committed suicide after talking to an AI chatbot.
💪 Wanna get in shape? Ask your favorite AI chatbot to create a custom fitness plan. Try this: “Create a 30-day fitness plan for fat loss and muscle gain tailored to a [male/female] beginner at [your age].” Or get specific: “Create a four-week fitness plan to help me run a mile for the first time.” Don’t sweat it.
💡 AI trick of the day: “Priming” is the insider term for telling a chatbot exactly what you want from it. With ChatGPT or any other, the more constraints you give, the better your answer. Examples: “Limit your response to 250 words,” “Give me the list in bullet points” and “Format the results as a table.”
🙏 Give me an AI-men: The New York Times did an excellent piece about how religious leaders are using AI to help them deliver their sermons. Take Rabbi Fixler: A chatbot trained on his data can write the sermon, deliver it in his voice and even answer questions aloud during the service. Other leaders are using bots to translate their livestreams into other languages in real time.
AI prompt of the day: Try this one with your chatbot of choice: “How can I make this better?” Then, add in anything you’ve written — a blog post, a travel plan, a resume or even a heartfelt email. This prompt works wonders for polishing your work and pointing out improvements — like a personal editor at your fingertips.
AI tip of the day: Spouse forgot to load the dishes again? Instead of firing off a rage-filled text, let AI step in. Ask your fave chatbot to reframe your frustration into something a bit more … constructive. I like this prompt: “Make this message sound more friendly.” No more dish-turbing the peace.
Your very own free assistant: Say you have messy notes from a meeting. By hand, you’d spend 15 minutes turning those into an email fit for your boss or team. Instead, open a chatbot (I use ChatGPT) and say, “Turn these notes into a professional, friendly email to my team. Point out any missing info I need to fill in.” Paste your notes at the end and voila.
“Give me 10 more examples”: That’s a prompt I use with ChatGPT all the time to make the chatbot a better brainstorming buddy. Some of its “ideas” are downright bad, but it might spark something creative in your brain, too.