By now, most internet users have sent a prompt to ChatGPT for everything from spell checking to image generation. It’s unlikely for someone to not have stumbled across AI generated content, which is now approximately 57% according to one paper posted on ArXiv. An unexpected usage of the LLM is finding Christmas Gifts for those notoriously hard to shop for friends.
This past week, John Licato, Associate Professor of Computer Science and Engineering at USF had two interviews on the subject. "The blank page cure is what we usually use to describe it,” Professor Licato. “If you have no idea where to start, you just use it to get some ideas and go from there."
Amazon and other retailers have already been using suggestion and preference matching algorithms for many, many years. Such technologies will use historical purchase patterns and product ratings to infer interest in particular products. The benefit of using a chatbot above a simple search engine or relying on suggestion algorithms is the convenience of using natural language to give it context, then to brainstorm and refine the selection.
“What chatbots give us now that's new, is a way to kind of ‘talk it out’ and work through the reasoning process,” said Professor Licato. According to Professor Licato, finding the right gift involves at least two steps:
1. the ability to come up with a gift idea
2. the ability to anticipate whether that gift will be something the recipient would enjoy.
“If I flip through a product catalog until I find something that would be perfect for a friend, that's using the catalog to help ‘automate’ step 1. I still need knowledge of the person for step 2. Using a tool like an LLM is a replacement for step 1, not step 2,” he said.
It seems that a significant number of people are already using it for gift selection. According to surveys by Adobe, referrals to retail sites from ChatBots is 8 times higher than in 2023. 70% of those surveyed who have used AI for shopping believe it enhances their experience, and 40% plan to use it for the holidays.
Professor Licato suggests giving a chatbot context before asking it for ideas. Basic facts are sufficient, starting with your relationship, their interests, hobbies, maybe a bit of backstory. The right information can guide the powerful algorithm to generate some tailored ideas fairly quickly. Although, Professor Licato warns to be aware of privacy concerns. “You want to be extra careful about not having any personal information somewhere where you don't want it to be,” said Professor Licato.
Want to try it out? He suggested a prompt, try copying it into ChatGPT:
"A friend of mine just got a new keyboard (piano). They haven't played piano since they were a kid, and have always regretted that they gave up playing before they were able to achieve their full musical potential. What are some gift ideas for this person?"
See the article on Money.Com here. And see his interview on WESH-2 here.