I’m a bit late to the game to play with ChatGPT, only logging on for the first time this morning. I recently received an email from a faculty member asking me how his students should cite in APA format, so I figured I should take the AI out for a little chat.

The AI and I (that sounds odd) had a polite conversation where I asked it/them to find a list of Ice Cream companies in Columbus, Ohio. The software generated a list of 10 companies in the area. While the AI failed to provide sales information(most are private companies), it was able to provide website links for the companies.

Who am I?

I asked the AI “who is Chad Boeninger?’, but sadly despite my presence on the web, the software did not know who I was. FWIW, there’s not many “Chad Boeningers” or even “Boeningers” on the planet. The AI was not “trained” with data to identify me, and it currently does not have access to the web.

I’m no rock star

I then tried my hand at confusing ChatGPT with the names of musicians who have some fairly common names. Evidently the AI is a fan of DMB and R.E.M. and associated my search with those celebrities, despite the more normal/common names.

Recommendations for more information

ChatGPT does not cite the sources it uses to build an “answer” to your queries. However, if you ask ChatGPT where you can find more information, it does a reasonable job at offering vague suggestions for the types of resources you might consider. The answer below is very similar to what a librarian might teach in an introduction to research class.