Hey ChatGPT, Can You Recommend Some Resources for Widowed Parents?
We’re trying something a little different today. Or actually: a lot different. We’ve got our first non-human guest on the show. No, I’m not interviewing either of my dogs, Daisy and Penny, although that could get interesting. Today I’m interviewing the artificial intelligence tool ChatGPT.
What is ChatGPT, you ask? I asked it to describe itself briefly, in a non-technical way, and this is what it said:
“ChatGPT is like a digital helper that can talk and write in a human-like way. It's powered by a type of artificial intelligence, and it can help answer your questions, write emails, tutor in a variety of subjects, translate languages, and even write poetry. It's like having a very knowledgeable friend to help you out with all sorts of tasks. This tool was created by OpenAI, a research group focused on making AI technology that benefits everyone. ChatGPT was first made available to the public in 2021.”
So I got to wondering recently whether ChatGPT might have anything useful to say to those of us who are widowed parents. Because if you’re anything like me, you’re trying to figure out how to raise kids after their other parent has died – and you’re realizing this is hard. And – it’s hard to know who can help us figure that out.
This idea came up because a family member of mine has a podcast on a totally different topic, and she interviewed ChatGPT on her show. And my dad spotted it and said to me, hey, maybe there’s something interesting here in relation to your show, too. So I listened to the discussion my aunt, Jo Ann Barefoot, had with ChatGPT on her show, which is called Barefoot Innovation – and it was fascinating. If you’re at all interested in the banking industry, and especially in FinTech and financial regulation, I highly encourage you to listen to her interview with ChatGPT, and to her many other interviews as well.
Anyway, I started to wonder: what would ChatGPT say to my listeners? If I asked it to suggest resources for widowed parents, would it have any? Would those resources be any good? Would it have advice on planning for Father’s Day, for example, since that is right around the corner? Would it be well-versed on kids’ understanding of grief at various ages and developmental stages?
Perhaps most importantly: If I posed a bunch of questions, and I shared them on the show, would I have to interject over and over and let you know where its answers were unhelpful, or even incorrect or dangerous?
I played around a little first, to get a sense of how to use it. And because I was sitting next to my dog when I signed up, my very first question to ChatGPT was: “can you tell me about Tibetan spaniels?” I asked a few more questions about topics that were top-of-mind: recovery from the type of shoulder surgery I recently had, and how to clean my new Trex decking.
Then, it was time to think about what to ask ChatGPT about widowed parenting, and give it a go. Have a listen for yourself, and let me know what you think about how it answers.
A note about the methodology and technology used in this interview. I used the most up-to-date version of ChatGPT, called GPT-4. Because it only takes text input, and answers with text replies, I conducted the interview by typing my questions and reading the answers as they came back. In order to share it with you today, I went back and recorded myself reading my questions out loud, and also fed ChatGPT’s answers into a text-to-speech tool called NaturalReader (the commercial version). I picked a voice named “Aria” and chose the “friendly” option for her tone. I used another AI tool called DALL-E to generate a “headshot” for today’s guest. I had to experiment quite a lot with what type of prompts to give the tool, in plain English, and get the type of image I wanted, and that was fun.
As someone who spent 20 years in the tech world in my prior life, I have to say, this experiment was super interesting. I was blown away with how accurate and useful the answers were to the questions that I posed.
I don’t think that’s necessarily always the case with AI tools, even this one. One criticism I hear is that these tools can create great-sounding answers that are entirely wrong. In this case, I’m able to review the answers before sharing them with you, and if any of the answers had been wrong or even dangerous, I would have addressed that.
As AI tools become more and more widespread, I think it’s important for those of us working in the grief world to realize that the grieving people we serve may begin turning to them for answers. I think it’s important that we understand what’s out there, what may be coming, and what the possibilities and limitations are. We can’t afford to ignore AI – for better or worse, it will likely change the way we do our work in the world, and how grieving people are supported in the years to come.
I hope you enjoy my interview with ChatGPT.
Links & resources for this episode
My article on Father’s Day for ParentMap:
Resource suggestions from ChatGPT:
GriefNet.org (Note from Jenny: this does not appear to be active at present)
Podcast suggestions from ChatGPT:
The Life After Loss Podcast (Note from Jenny: this does not appear to be active at present)
Book suggestions from ChatGPT:
The Year of Magical Thinking, by Joan Didion
Option B: Facing Adversity, Building Resilience, and Finding Joy, by Sheryl Sandberg and Adam Grant
The Light of the World: A Memoir, by Elizabeth Alexander
A Widow's Walk, by Marian Fontana
The Long Goodbye: A Memoir, by Meghan O'Rourke
A Widow's Story: A Memoir, by Joyce Carol Oates
Once More We Saw Stars, by Jayson Greene
The Single Father: A Dad's Guide to Parenting Without a Partner, by Armin Brott
Widow To Widow: Thoughtful, Practical Ideas For Rebuilding Your Life, by Genevieve Davis Ginsburg
Where to find grief support for kids, from ChatGPT:
More links for listeners
Thank you sponsors & partners:
Help Texts - Grief support text messaging service. Tips and support delivered all year long, personalized based on your loss. Listeners get $10 off: https://helptexts.com/jennylisk
BetterHelp - Talk with a licensed, professional therapist online. Get 10% off your first month: betterhelp.com/widowedparent
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