A TikTok user named Mari recently sought help from the AI chatbot ChatGPT in crafting a professional letter to her boss about quitting her job.
Mari asked ChatGPT to help her write a response that expressed her inability to work beyond her scheduled final day in a professional manner. The AI-generated letter began by thanking her boss for the opportunity to work with the team and then expressing regret that she couldn’t extend her time beyond her final working day. The note continued to acknowledge her boss’s openness to a longer transition time, but Mari would be “unable to continue working beyond 6 May due to personal circumstances.” The fun part of the letter was that the chatbot added a line stating, “I cannot be sad and poor for another month,” which made Mari laugh hysterically.
Although she didn’t send the original letter to her boss, she shared the response in a TikTok video that has gone viral, receiving over eight million views.
The video has been met with laughter from viewers, with many joking that the chatbot couldn’t come up with a better way of phrasing the sentiment. Although some encouraged Mari to send the letter as is, she confirmed in a follow-up TikTok video that she had removed the line about being “sad and poor” and had asked the chatbot to make the email sound more human.
Mari’s experience with ChatGPT demonstrates the limitations of AI-generated language and the need for human oversight in communication.
As the saying goes, “the pen is mightier than the sword,” and the power of language lies not just in what is said but how it is said.