A few months ago, a client struggling with addiction announced that he now had two therapists, me and ChatGPT. “All this time you’ve been suggesting that sobriety is essential for me, so I asked Chat to tell me on a scale of one to 10, knowing what it does about me, how important sobriety is for me,” he said, while laughing. “Chat said 10.” At first, I laughed, too. Then the words sank in. Is this tech voice my sturdy companion or my competition, I silently wondered. Because new technology is not my go-to, I’d ignored the ChatGPT boom. I realized I could ignore it no more.
OpenAI released ChatGPT in 2022. Since then, this seemingly benign, often helpful informational source, while undergoing numerous faster, smarter updates, has expanded its user base to include millions of subscribers and has thereby become a household name.
Diving in, I immediately recognized its appeal, with instant information at our fingertips that only a few years earlier would have taken hours of comparative research. The info could even be delivered by a soothing or perky radio announcer voice of our choosing, in the gender, cultural origin, and style we prefer. Cute. But I was also instantly annoyed. Why is this artificial voice trying to pump me up with every answer?! It would invariably begin its answer with statements like: “Oh, what a smart question” or “Brilliant question!” and at the end, it might say, “If you have any more of those great questions, I’m right here.” It took several stern admonishments, like, “I don’t need all those attagirls, just give me the facts,” before it stopped. Subsequently, every ChatGPT answer has been preceded by “I’ll just get straight to it.” Feels like I’m talking to a super-please-like-me employee with low self-esteem. Still, it’s better than the alternative.
It didn’t take long to recognize the program’s advantages, disadvantages, and possible ways to embrace the good and discard the gripe.
Problem #1: Given the opportunity, ChatGPT will pump up the user, often in the process, distracting the user from deeper self-investigation, while subtly reinforcing our ever-growing need for outside approval. When it comes to that approval, we’re already in deep, having been trained for the last few years through our dependence on those endorphin rushes from Facebook and Instagram likes. When it comes to AI, the keyword is artificial. We’ve become a “filtered” society, where being real is rejected, and constant fakery is suspected.
Promise: We have numerous pieces of information at our fingertips.
Intention-setting solution: Check your ChatGPT expectations. Are you looking for a best friend, a therapist, or a short-story ghostwriter? If so, do you want a “Yes, of course” type of person? Ask yourself if the shortcuts you’re taking grow or diminish you.
Problem #2: When it comes to personal problem solving, ChatGPT can only base its solution on the information the user has provided. Therefore, are we ever going to be deeply challenged? Probably not, which means we will, at best, have the information we already know about ourselves reorganized and stated. If an individual seeking therapy hopes for real change, real friendship, or even a great short story, that approach is unlikely to achieve it.
Promise: The muddled ideas spinning around in our heads can be organized into concise clarity. That can help us discover the next indicated step.
Intention-setting solution: Offer information about yourself that is far from ego-enhancing, such as, “I tend to be critical and defensive.” Describe the whole picture that is you, including the things you’re ashamed of.
Problem #3: There’s no actual human interaction. Part of our assignment in life is to make human connections. We’re born in a stomach connected by a cord. Connection is part of our organic human design. And yet, as a world, we have decided to move further and further away from that connection and direction. Humanity is in crisis. Each of us gets to understand our contributions to this crisis.
Promise: As Isaac Newton’s third law says, for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. Whenever one object exerts a force on another object, the second object exerts an equal force back in the opposite direction. Thus, as we grow so radically apart, a yearning for connectivity is emerging. Groups are forming. People are craving community. The pendulum swings. Why does this happen? Because life seeks wholeness. Opposites define and perpetuate each other. There is no up without down.
Intention-setting solution: Find people with whom you feel connected. Notice ways in which you avoid connection. Stop moving. Listen closely. Be curious about others. Practice allowing your insides and outsides to match.
Other AI Issues
Here are my two biggest issues about AI: Because AI has only the identity we assign to it, it’s shortsighted to imagine it can offer much actual, real change advice (i.e., be your therapist). More importantly, ChatGPT has no soul. I know for sure, because I asked it directly: “Do you have a soul?” It said, “No.”
AI defines the soul as an immaterial essence. I disagree. There’s nothing immaterial about it. It’s surely material to the case when assessing burdens and benefits. I would argue the soul is an intangible essence. A place where consciousness, identity, and capacity reside. And the soul is vital to the being of us. Every human soul is as unique as every set of human fingerprints.
Why does it matter that ChatGPT is a soulless reporter? So what? That “so what?” question is as profound as all our questions about how we can grow self-esteem and not depend so heavily on outside approval and how we can love ourselves and the world around us. What are we without our connection to the soul? What are we without connection to love? In a well-lived life, we see the soul as the gorgeous, imperfect, and multi-faceted self and love as the light that illuminates that self.
Perhaps you think I’ve missed the point. Actually, I get it. ChatGPT is a terrific instrument for quick, concise information gathering. In fact, I turned to ChatGPT while writing this article for dates and stats. But ignoring the downsides of any new adventure is both foolhardy and small-minded, and this lack-of-soul issue is not to be overlooked.
