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Two weeks after leaving my full-time job and going freelance, I was formally diagnosed with inattentive-type ADHD. This was February of 2023, just as ChatGPT was popping up everywhere. I kept seeing the potential for this tool to help people like me stay on task and organize thoughts pop up on ADHD subreddits — along with passionate debates about the ethics and downfalls of leaning on generative AI in this way.
I decided to test it out, for Mashable. What I found was a mix: ChatGPT did indeed help break down complicated tasks, organize my thoughts, and figure out the best way to schedule a busy day. But anything more in depth — like creative brainstorming, research, or actual writing — uh, did not go as well.
Here’s an example. In this story, I tested out ChatGPT’s potential by using it to help me create an original playable character for an upcoming Dungeons and Dragons campaign:
After talking through my character with ChatGPT, I asked, “I’d like to research the real-life inspiration for the firbolg character. Can you give me some sources I could read or contact about the role of Celtic culture in Dungeons & Dragons?”
For its first attempt, ChatGPT provided me with a list of five suggestions, including articles that appeared to be misidentified or inaccessible online. The first suggestion pointed to a scholarly publication I could not track down, which, upon further prompting, ChatGPT clarified was a book, not a journal — but I could not find any published work matching the citation provided. When I asked ChatGPT for links to the resources it recommended, including an Atlas Obscura article and a piece from the official Dungeons & Dragons site, I was provided with a series of dead ends, including broken links and titles of out-of-print materials.
When I repeated my initial question, regenerating responses several times, the results were somewhat better. Not every recommendation appeared to be fully accurate information, but the chatbot did point me to a few readily available reference books on Celtic folklore, and listed some relevant scholars. However, in one manual Google search, I was able to find a collection of much more helpful, pertinent articles and resources.
Generative AI generates. When you struggle to overcome the terror of a blank sheet, tools like ChatGPT can be enormously helpful in opening the gates to creative work. But as many others have noted, tools like ChatGPT have not demonstrated that they deserve your trust
Read more at https://mashable.com/article/chatgpt-ai-and-adhd
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