Next week we are scheduled to launch season 4 of Sleep Tight Science which will feature more calming music, weekly publishing, kids introducing the show using their own voice, and more breakout episodes like fun facts, and listener questions.
I’ve been stuck trying to think of where to start writing, so I thought I would rely upon the interests of the kids themselves. Kids have been submitting questions since the show began and I think this year we received a range of interesting question to answer. Except itchy are all in a spreadsheet, and to find patterns amongst all those questions is time consuming. Perhaps a perfect task for ChatGPT?
I exported the question column into a separate spreadsheet and imported the file into ChatGPT to analyse. This is the first result:
Miscellaneous - 318 questions
Food & Nutrition - 28 questions
Space & Astronomy - 26 questions
Animals & Nature - 22 questions
Weather & Climate - 19 questions
Human Body & Health - 17 questions
Science & Experiments - 4 questions
History & Culture - 2 questions
At first glance that is pretty useful. Except, what the hell is Miscellaneous? Thats lazy categorization. So I asked ChartGPT to categorize Miscellaneous further. This is the result:
How Things Work (e.g., how something is made, how things function)
Why Questions (e.g., why natural or human-made phenomena occur)
General Knowledge (e.g., common facts or inquiries not linked to specific categories)
This wasn’t particularly helpful, since most questions kids have about anything may include the words, what, how, and why. So I ask for further clarification again:
How Things Work - 148 questions
Why Questions - 109 questions
Other - 54 questions
General Knowledge - 7 questions
Thats pretty much the same answer again. So I asked for one more clarification, with it ignoring how the question was formed. This is the result:
Other - 246 questions
Manufacturing & Materials - 56 questions
Nature & Animals - 9 questions
Human Body & Biology - 4 questions
Science & Technology - 2 questions
Food & Nutrition - 1 question
Now we are getting closer, and I am feeling secure in the idea that ChatGPT won’t be taking over the world anytime soon, as finding patterns is fairly fundamental. I’m a big believer that there is a category for everything. Asking for more information on the “Other”, ChatGPT gave me this:
Human Behavior (e.g., yawning, reactions to lightning)
Animals & Pets (e.g., dog and cat behavior, puppy teeth)
Everyday Objects (e.g., pancakes, toys)
Science Curiosities (e.g., sun rotation, infinity)
That’s pretty good, but I need to assign numbers so I can rank them based on interest. So asked for further clarification. This is what I got:
Uncategorized - 197 questions
Human Behavior - 24 questions
Animals & Pets - 13 questions
Science Curiosities - 9 questions
Everyday Objects - 3 questions
I’m tired at this point, and want to start writing so I feel like giving up. I entered a couple more prompts and this is the final result:
Miscellaneous (Overall) - 318 questions
Uncategorized - 197 questions
Manufacturing & Materials - 56 questions
Human Behavior - 24 questions
Animals & Pets - 13 questions
Science Curiosities - 9 questions
Nature & Animals - 9 questions
Human Body & Biology - 4 questions
Everyday Objects - 3 questions
Science & Technology - 2 questions
Food & Nutrition - 1 question
Food & Nutrition (Main) - 28 questions
Space & Astronomy - 26 questions
Animals & Nature (Main) - 22 questions
Weather & Climate - 19 questions
Human Body & Health - 17 questions
Manufacturing & Materials (Main) - 56 questions (but grouped under Miscellaneous)
Science & Experiments - 4 questions
History & Culture - 2 questions
Perhaps there is something in my prompts that could be adjusted. More exact language perhaps. But while somewhat useful, I’ve come away disappointed. It did a much better job at the start of the year when I was stuck for topics and asked it to give me a list of animal topics that we haven’t covered yet that would appeal to our listeners. It gave me a long list, some of which I used.