ChatGPT is often accused of being ‘derivative’ – everything it writes comes from other people’s texts. Weirdly though, humans are not that different. We often write about what other people say, or about other people’s stories and successes and so on. Today’s blog, for instance is inspired by something someone on LinkedIn wrote about someone they saw doing a ChatGPT search… and now I’m writing about how they were writing about someone else’s writing. Sounds pretty derivative to me!
What prompted them to write, was watching the other person ask ChatGPT “what do you know about me?” – only more pointedly if you want an answer. Everyone has had a go at ‘googling’ themselves, but now that the technology has shifted, it makes sense that the search-for-self has as well.
I don’t have a ChatGPT account, but my web browser has a form of AI-chat called “Copilot”, so I decided to try it out. I asked, “what do you know about Linda who runs the blog The Mindful Migraine?” It’s grammatically clumsy, but I hoped it would be enough to get the chatbot started.
Here’s what I got:
It sounds pretty good – I’m quietly rather proud to be seen like this. If I had one ‘complaint’ it is that the blurb doesn’t include a live link to the blog – anywhere, at all. Footnotes 1, 9 & 11 are different accounts under my banner, to be sure, but they are not actual links to get you to the blog. Strangely, footnote 2 & 6 are the same ‘mindful migraine’ journal article (not mine), and footnotes 3, 4, 5, 7, 8 & 10 appear to be website pages that used the two terms ‘mindful’ and ‘migraine’… so more reading for me to be sure.
The second quirky thing is the fact that I have NEVER used the term “MBSR”. Whilst I DO talk about ‘mindfulness-based stress reduction’ techniques, until this very moment, I had no idea that there was a term for it. And yes, you can bet that researching MBSR is now on my To Do List.
Then there’s the exciting little prompts at the bottom of the chat. When I clicked “how did she start her blog?” I got the same material remixed; nothing new there. [Hmmm… I might have to update my About page.]
When I hit “what are some of Linda’s recommended strategies?” I got a very neat assemblage of my ideas (and the new MBSR term again), but also, some random material which AI has added in, assuming it to be ‘on topic’. The blurb highlights diet and hydration more than I do, and I’ve spoken about sleep, but never used the term ‘sleep hygiene’… so it’s a bit iffy how accurate this ‘summary’ is.
But, it’s the last question that made me all warm and fuzzy inside – it’s the reply that should make ALL OF YOU warm and fuzzy inside. When I clicked “is there a community around The Mindful Migraine” this is how Copilot replied:
The guy who prompted this post was not a fan of the results he got back from ChatGPT; he said they were too derivative… me on the other hand… I couldn’t be happier that the ghost in the machine of the internet sees us supporting each other – go team, you’re the best!
Linda xox
The Mindful Migraine 
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