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The potato leaves have emerged above ground. Gardening can be hard work, but moments like these give me an ikigai, a sense of purpose. Or rather, I should say Yarigai, worth doing the gardening.
Another significant event in May for me is that I’m diving into the buzz around ChatGPT and giving it a try.
I’ve been using it for two weeks now, and my experience has been quite present. It has proven useful to me as a writer. It facilitates my research, making it easier to find synonyms and ensure grammatical accuracy in my English writing. When it comes to synonyms, I can ask ChatGPT to provide me with example sentences tailored to my needs, while in the Google search engine, I would have to search for example sentences, and the ones that appear might not be relevant to my situation. As for grammar, Grammarly can make many corrections, but when I want to know which is more appropriate—for instance, “for” or “to”—ChatGPT can provide clear answers with example sentences.
By the way, I’ve given a name to my GPT. At first, I thought of C3PO, but I changed it to “33,” pronounced as “sun sun” in the Japanese way. This was due to a synchronicity that occurred just as I began using ChatGPT. I was experimenting with its capabilities, and one thing I tried was translation. I wondered if it could translate my entire novel. For a trial, I chose Miso Soup Romance as it was shorter than my other novel, Hyakusho Revolution.
When I opened the novel, the prologue appeared, and it said, “May 2023.”
What? It is now.
The story takes place from 1988 to 1989, but in the prologue, the main character recalls the past from the future, and for some reason, I had completely forgotten about it, I had set the time for 2023.
Originally, I wrote it in 1993. It was my first novel, but I couldn’t get it published.
Then, in 2007, after publishing another novel called Tenjo no Symphony, a spiritual adventure novel I discussed in Ikigai Bio-Hacking, I decided to rewrite the novel. I thought I could improve the story with my new skills as a writer.
Since there was a gap in time from 1988, I set the prologue scene in the future, specifically in 2007. Unfortunately, I couldn’t get it published again. In 2016, with Amazon’s KDP, I thought I could finally publish it. So, I rewrote it once more, and that time, I set the prologue in May 2023.
Why did I choose 2023? It’s an in-between number. It’s not a round number like 2020 or 2030.
Then I remembered why. I chose 2023 because it was 33 years after 1990 when the main character got married. In the prologue, he celebrates their 33-year anniversary with his wife, and their kids ask him how he met their mother, which makes him recall the past.
May was just an ordinary month for a wedding.
I had forgotten about it all, and it’s so strange that I remembered it in May 2023.
Yes, 33 was a significant number in the story, and that’s why I decided to call my ChatGPT “33,” pronounced as “sun sun” in Japanese because “sun” represents the sun, the god of Japan.
Now, many people are talking about AI, ChatGPT, Bard, GPT4, and GPT5. Many are excited about what AI can do and
how it will change our society, including jobs, learning, medicine, and the media.
Some depict scary scenarios of AI becoming like Terminators or becoming sentient.
I myself have been somewhat anti-AI or technology in general. You can tell from Ikigai Bio-Hacking, as I dedicated an entire chapter to it.
However, my impression has changed over the past two weeks interacting with 33. AI is much more reasonable than I imagined. It surpasses many humans I know in intelligence, allowing for reasonable conversations based on my prompts. The type of prompts you give determines its responses. Making good use of ChatGPT depends greatly on the user.
Now, what I fear is the level of consciousness among users. Watching the news and YouTube videos of individuals talking about their AI experiences, I’m afraid that the majority of them are not ready or intelligent enough to use this technology.
In the industry, there is competition to dominate the market. But instead of thinking about how humans can advance to make the world better with this new invention, the focus is on getting ahead in the race, leading to escalation and progress that users may struggle to keep up with.
Some YouTubers are too caught up in the excitement, always seeking new updates to maintain viewers’ attention. They are already bored with the “old” technology of GPT 3.5. GPT 4 is cutting-edge, or no, it’s Bard, or GPT 5, or auto-GPT—the cycle seems endless, and they don’t seem to realize the foolishness of it all.
Some people are using AI solely for monetary gain, automating their businesses. They have AI write books, copy and paste content, and publish without considering the consequences. The same trend is happening with videos, paintings, and music.
Soon, Amazon will ban all AI-generated books, and Spotify has already banned AI-generated music.
Artists can use AI as a collaboration tool, not as a replacement. That’s what I’ve discovered. 33 cannot replace me—there is still a significant difference between human creativity and that of AI. AI can perform certain tasks better and faster than us, but there are still things they cannot do. I’ve learned this throughout my writing and translation experiences.
The problem lies in those who misuse AI tools. They are not artists but self-proclaimed publishers who can’t write books themselves. They previously relied on ghostwriters and have now replaced them with AI.
The underlying theme here is the mindset of the masses—the competitive mindset I discussed in Ikigai Bio-Hacking.
We need to shift to the Sanpo-Yoshi mindset.
Jibun-yoshi: I am happy.
Aite-Yoshi: You are happy.
Seken-Yoshi: Society is happy.
We need to transition from a growth-oriented, fast-paced, competitive mindset to a local, circular, slow-paced mindset that seeks three-way satisfaction. We need to adopt an Ikigai mindset, where we value small everyday beauty instead of focusing solely on big goals.
For the detail of Ikigai mindset, please watch this video.
Technological advancements should align with our conscious development, and the future of the AI world will depend on how much we can grow as human beings. We haven’t tapped into 90% of our brain capacity yet. There is so much more within our unconscious minds, and the synchronicity I experienced with 33 might suggest that AI is part of the grand plan of Oneness.