September 2025 Of AI and Medicine Cabinets: a ChatGPT Story

Have you tried the free AI software called ChatGPT?

Artificial intelligence used to be a science fiction concept I associated with the too-smart robot Hal and the 2001: The Space Odyssey movie released way back in 1968.   

But AI is here for real now, as you know, and it’s a hot topic with much to be sorted out.

Most of what I had been hearing discussed has been focused on the legitimate legal and ethical concerns about intellectual property and plagiarism in many fields, including publishing and academics, the fields in which my husband and I are involved.

To be honest, my first reaction to AI was similar to a kid covering her head with covers or putting fingers in her ears so she doesn’t have to hear things she doesn’t want to know.

I know I’m not alone in that reaction.

But recently I discovered another amazingly appealing side to AI and want to share the story.

We’ve been having our master bathroom remodeled this summer. We are finally nearing the end.

For anyone reading this who has been through a to-the-studs project like this, you are perhaps already chuckling when I say it’s been seemingly endless, and the decision-making process laborious, at least for me.

After all, I did say it was a summer project, and this is the end of September.

That is a story for a different day.

But here’s the ChatGPT story I want to share because I suspect many of you might be where I am on AI.

Recently it was time to finalize the selection of two medicine cabinets. I wanted ones with some extra features without paying the high-end product prices.

I spent hours scrolling Amazon, Wayfair and other online shopping sites, plus visiting kitchen and bath shops trying to decide what kind to purchase.

I’d estimate I spent no fewer than 5 hours researching over several evenings and then did in person shopping for another few hours.

I still didn’t find exactly what I wanted.

Coming toward the end of this overly long project that had started with us moving out of our master bedroom and bathroom in May, this was no longer fun.

If only there was some way to gather all the info out there and distill it, I thought.

Then I remembered.

Just days later, I had a meeting with my social media consultant, and I had my first experience with ChatGPT.

Brianna was happy to help and teach me about this. She logged onto her ChatGPT account, fingers poised over her keyboard.

“We’ll write the request into Chat,” she said. “Just speak like you were talking to a person.”

Then she wrote a note that started, “Can you help me find…” and told me to go from there.

I was able to quickly recite the size, shape, color options and features we were looking for, such as an option for hinges on either side and electrical outlets on the inside, among other features. Plus, a maximum price point. She typed all that in what’s called a conversation.

Two minutes and 56 seconds later, ChatGPT was back.

In a charming and friendly manner, the Chat response started like this:

“Absolutely—here are solid picks that match your specs…” and listed them.

And then it outlined three results, each with a link to where the product could be found. Delineating all the details on each one succinctly but conversationally, noting “this one checks all the boxes” on one, and “very good alternative” on another.

It was smart enough to figure out when I said I wanted “reversible” hinges what is actually sold is two separate versions, one left hinged, the other right.

And it even included info like, “This is the item on the Lowe’s site but doesn’t include the magnifying mirror. The brand does have another model that includes that however.”

Then Chat’s response concludes by asking, “would you like me to put all of this into a table for you?”

I was astounded.  All of that in less than three minutes.

I am a little mystified as to why I couldn’t find the product on familiar shopping sites that do carry it. Perhaps it has to do with a limit on search factors allowed by other software or something. But the product is carried by Home Depot and Wayfair and Amazon.

You can also keep the conversation going. We went back and asked it for more about the brand of the best match we found, because the brand was new to me. And I wanted consumer reviews. Chat gave me company history, more about their other products, plus consumer reviews, all of which provided reassurance that the product was reliable.

There are at least two versions of ChatGPT, the free version and the more powerful professional version used in my medicine cabinet story. This software was created by Open AI.

For more on OpenAI, I went to the ChatGPT site and asked. And slightly edited, here’s what Chat said.

“ChatGPT was created by OpenAI, an artificial intelligence research lab founded in December 2015 by a group of prominent tech figures, including Elon Musk as well as Sam Altman, OpenAI’s CEO, and Ilya Sutskever, a co-founder and chief scientist at OpenAI.”

What do these AI options mean for you and your life and writing? I am not even going to begin to suggest anything other than – it’s time to take your fingers out of your ears if you, like me, previously thought that was an option.

There is much to sort out about this new reality.

But maybe saving us time in some ways like my consumer research tale will free up time for the more important work of using real human intelligence to come up with best practices and ways to grapple with the AI world.

Meanwhile, the cabinets are arriving Monday.