In the ever increasing world of Artificial Intelligence (AI), people use AI to make decisions for them. Therefore, I decided to do an experiment, and let ChatGPT control my decisions for a whole day.

Going into this, I was excited about the possibilities, but also extremely nervous. It was either going to go well or be the worst day of my life. 

I told ChatGPT I was a journalist conducting an experiment where ChatGPT would control my decisions for a day. For each prompt, I started out with “Choose from the following” or “Choose between the following.”

Wake up – 8 a.m.

The first request I put into ChatGPT, which I did Monday night, was to choose the time I would wake up and go to bed. It chose 8 a.m., and I was not happy. 

I am not a morning person and have not woken up before 9:30 a.m. in a long time. ChatGPT also added rules: get up within 10 minutes of the alarm and do not press snooze.

I was exhausted and slow-moving, but as the day went on, I felt less tired.

Breakfast – pancakes

ChatGPT chose between banana bread and pancakes for breakfast and picked pancakes, with rules to add something on top of the pancakes and to eat at least two.

I don’t usually eat breakfast, but I told myself I was actually going to eat breakfast in the morning. Therefore, no breakfast was not an option. It was nice to actually eat something in the morning. 

I also watched the Olympics while I ate, per ChatGPT’s decision. However, I’ll still choose sleep over breakfast, which I know isn’t healthy, but I need my beauty sleep.

Went to class

I conducted this experiment on Tuesday when I am usually in class until 7:40 p.m. ChatGPT told me to go to my classes. Later on my 5 p.m. class professor made attendance optional because we had a project due.

Since I had already completed the project, I asked ChatGPT again, and it told me not to go to the 5 p.m. class. I was happy not to be in class so late.

Call father for his birthday

Tuesday was also my father’s birthday. I originally wanted to call my dad’s place of employment and get him on the phone and wish him a happy birthday. 

But, since my day was being controlled by ChatGPT, I had it choose between calling my dad’s work or waiting until my dad got off work to call his personal number. In turn, it chose to wait until my dad got off work, so I waited until the evening to call him. 

Unfortunately, my dad did not pick up, and I had to call my mom to get a hold of him. However, he is typically more responsive at work unless he is with a patient, so waiting to call him may have been the wrong move from ChatGPT.

Choosing outfit

The next thing ChatGPT chose was my outfit. I definitely gave it options here to make sure I would have the necessary clothing items. I uploaded photos of two different outfit choices and had ChatGPT choose between the two. The options were either a long sleeve shirt with jeans and black high top shoes or the short sleeve shirt with a hoodie, jeans and blue sneakers. ChatGPT chose the short sleeve shirt with the hoodie, jeans and blue sneakers.

Coffee versus energy drink

Still tired, I asked ChatGPT to choose between coffee or an energy drink. It chose coffee. Then it chose Starbucks over Einstein Bros. Bagels for coffee and picked my usual iced vanilla sweet cream cold brew but in a grande size instead of my usual venti. 

ChatGPT was not aware that iced vanilla sweet cream cold brew is my favorite. I gave ChatGPT the option between the iced vanilla sweet cream cold brew or an iced brown sugar oatmilk shaken espresso.

What music to listen to

I asked ChatGPT to choose between two different playlists, either my “Car Tunes” playlist or my “Songs I Like” playlist. ChatGPT chose my “Car Tunes” playlist on Spotify which I often listen to even though I don’t currently have a car. 

I listened to this music as I was walking to class.

Productiveness

After my class, I really wanted to just go home and take a nap or doomscroll because I was exhausted from waking up early. 

I asked ChatGPT whether I should do homework or go take a nap. However, ChatGPT forced me to be productive and I went to my friend’s apartment to do homework with her.

Dinner

I had AI choose for me between Panera or Burger Naan for dinner. It chose Burger Naan, which I had not had in a while, so I was happy. I decided to order the Butter Chicken Burrito with french fries and a drink.

Wind down after dinner

I figured I had already done enough homework for the day so I asked ChatGPT whether I should watch TV, read, play Roblox or lay in bed and doomscroll. ChatGPT chose for me to read. 

For some context, I have a tendency to start reading books and never finish them, so I am currently in the middle of five different books. After I provided ChatGPT with my book options, it chose “The Housemaid” by Freida McFadden. I have not seen the recent movie adaptation, but the book is interesting so far.

Working ahead

After reading, I still had a little time before bed. I asked ChatGPT if I should play Roblox, work ahead a little bit by doing some more homework, work on graduate school applications or lay in bed and doomscroll. 

Unfortunately, the AI chose work ahead, so I finished taking notes from a Powerpoint lecture for one of my classes.

Go to sleep – 11:30 p.m.

ChatGPT set my bedtime at 11:30 p.m. with lights and screens off by then. I was tired around 10:45 p.m. but stayed up. I was glad that ChatGPT chose a reasonable bedtime and not 4 a.m..

After conducting this experiment, it went better than expected. I wasn’t really surprised by anything as the prompts were structured in a way that ChatGPT wouldn’t suggest anything unrealistic for me. 

The only real downsides of the day were having to wake up early and not being able to play Roblox. AI can make small decisions in your day, but it probably wouldn’t be wise to let it completely control important things.