Why did chatGPT choose a boy?

Artificial Intelligence fascinates me. Like millions of other curious people I was keen to check out #chatGPT and see just what this AI is capable of, so I asked it the following question: 

"Write a children's story in rhymes about crypto money in the style of the book A Smart Way To Start"

Here's what came back:

Once upon a time in a land far away

Lived a little boy, who wanted to play

With money that was special and new

It was called crypto, and it was digital too

He learned all about it in a smart way to start

And soon he was buying things with his crypto heart

He bought a toy car and a kite in the sky

And even a ice cream, as he passed by

He told all his friends, about crypto so cool

And how it was different, from money at school

They all wanted to learn, and join in the fun

And so the crypto journey for all of them begun

They bought and sold things, with crypto to spare

And soon they were all millionaires

They learned about mining and trading with care

And how to keep their crypto safe and fair

The end

Moral of the story: Crypto is a smart way to start with money, it's new and fun, but always be careful and safe while using it.

Mind boggling! A short story in rhymes that is pretty much on "tone" with my rhymed children's books on money and ethics. I'm impressed. The rhymes might still need some tweaking but it's a 60 second effort that would have taken me a few hours...

The first thing that struck me was that it starts with "Once upon a time": none of my books do, but I reckon the majority of story books for kids do, so AI thought this was a good starting point. I'm ok with that.

The second and main thing that struck me was that the AI decided that the protagonist of the story should be a boy. How very curious indeed. The protagonist of Smart Way To Start series is Marty, a GIRL - who intentionally has a name that is not #gender specific. My books are all written in "you" form, addressing directly the reader, so they appeal to girls and boys alike.

Why did chatGPT choose a boy? I'd love to dive into the AI brain to figure this out. Is it because the majority of story books have male protagonists? Is it because money has a male connotation? Is it because there are too few women in crypto? Is it because most crypto-trading is done by men? Is it because there are more articles on crypto money written by men than by women? Is it because finance is still a male dominated industry (yes, we have made a lot of progress over the past decade, but there is still a long way to go to achieve female financial inclusion)? Who knows... Clearly, where wasn't enough femininity associated with the topic "crypto money" for a female protagonist to emerge.

The third striking element is the line of rhyme "And soon they were all millionaires". Clearly dealing with crypto is associated with getting rich fast. Interesting indeed. None of my books talk about becoming a millionaire. A Smart Way To Start is all about wise money decisions, money ethics, positive impact and closing gender gaps.

My fourth consideration - on a brighter note - is that the AI added a "Moral of the story" which reflects pretty accurately the philosophy behind my efforts to teach children financial literacy. While my books don't end with a "moral of the story", many children's books do and I think it is inspiring that AI picked up on this, identifying key messages relating to money attitudes. Above all, the AI distilled the essential values of care (when dealing with money) and fairness (in the last line of rhyme) that are at the heart of my teachings. Positively astounding!

So here I sit (while getting my hair done on a lazy saturday morning), pondering these rhymes, reading them over and over again, taking in the depth of it all. The amazing capability of machine learning and artificial intelligence, producing a meaningful, coherent, rhymed story in seconds. It's ability to reflect accurately the values and philosophy of the reference story. The fact that it highlights the biases we still need to address, for finance to be gender balanced, for money to have a more female connotation, for crypto to be a playground where girls want to experiment and innovate as much as boys do.

We need to overcome these biases in the real world.

Thank you, chatGPT, for these surprising rhymes and for joy and motivation they bring me. One thing is clear, I will keep on pioneering was to de-bias the money messages girls grow up with, so many more girls can actively shape their financial futures in the crypto space, too.

To conclude with some rhymes from the original story A Smart Way To Start:

"To all of the boys, my message is clear:

Please tell all the girls they've no reason to fear.

That if you had YOUR say, of course you would care,

you’d speak up and make sure this world was more fair."

#crypto #money #finance #genderequality #machinelearning #artificialintelligence #ethics #childrensbooks #financialliteracy #financialparenting #cryptoparenting