9 unexpected things I was able to do with ChatGPT (and a few you must try)

ChatGPT has become a household name for writing emails, essays, and code – but its abilities go far beyond the obvious. 

With the latest updates, ChatGPT can now see images, browse the web, use specialized tools, and even act as an “AI agent” that carries out tasks for you. 

These skills unlock a smorgasbord of powerful new tools to help you manage everyday life. As someone who’s been experimenting with ChatGPT in my everyday routine, I’ve stumbled upon several unexpected – and incredibly useful – things it can do. Here are some of the most intriguing ones, including a few you’ll definitely want to try for yourself.

1. Calorie counting

If you’re counting calories to help keep your fitness goals on track, there are no shortage of great apps to help you log what you’re eating. Trouble is, all those carefully curated plans go out the window when you’re eating out. From Christmas parties to birthday celebrations, life always finds a sneaky way to tempt you with buckets of chicken tenders and deliciously decadent BBQ sauce. 

Apps like Nutracheck and MyFitnessPal do a great job of tracking known items, but if you’re at a restaurant that veers off the database, you can only roughly guess the totals on your plate.

Enter ChatGPT. Snap a picture of your plate (ideally with a standard-sized item like a bank card or coin next to the plate), type the name of the dish as described on the menu, and ask it to estimate the calories and macros like protein, fats, and carbs. The bank card or coin will let it estimate the portion sizes more accurately, and the results are surprisingly detailed.

I snapped a pic of a cheeseboard and tapas sides, and ChatGPT instantly provided me with a detailed breakdown, letting me update my app with a much better idea of how much I was eating. 

Sure, it’s not going to be absolutely perfect, but neither is calorie counting in general – it’s all about estimates to help keep you on track.

2. Changing rooms

Ever wish you could visualize a room makeover before committing to new paint or furniture? I certainly did. So I took a photo of my living room and told ChatGPT I wanted to see what it would look like with animal print wallpaper. And that’s exactly what I got – a pretty impressive representation of my living room, complete with walls slathered in zebra print. 

Was it an absolutely perfect 1:1 representation? No. The furniture was a bit dodgy in places, for a start. But it’s infinitely better than anything my non-artistic human hands could come up with, and it’s an incredible tool for quick and dirty visualisations.

I’ve since used this method outside too, taking a picture of our garden and asking Chat GPT to add planters around the edge (complete, of course, with fairy lights), along with a home office shed in the corner. It works well, and is remarkably quick.

3. Happy Birthday!

ChatGPT makes up for my lack of artistic talent in other ways as well. Recently, I decided to make a custom birthday card for my son using ChatGPT’s image generation abilities.

I uploaded a photo of my son and asked ChatGPT to create a birthday card design which showed him fighting a velociraptor in a wrestling ring as a birthday card scene. In less than a minute, I was presented precisely what I asked for. It was a huge hit. 

Whether it’s your friend riding a unicorn, or your pet wearing a crown, or your entire family on a wrestling poster (see above), the possibilities for personalized AI-made cards are endless – and far more heartfelt (and humorous) than a store-bought card.

Of course, you’ll have to be comfortable with uploading photos of people, which I understand might be a snag for those who practice maximum privacy. You could still describe people without uploading their photo though, refining your prompts as you go along for accurate results.

4. Ready, steady, cook

I can’t be the only one who opens the fridge, stares at a mish-mash of random ingredients, and hopes that my inner subconscious suddenly whips up an instant meal based on whatever we happen to have.

Now, I can simply inform ChatGPT what ingredients we have, before asking it to suggest various recipes that incorporate all or some of the ingredients in question.

Better yet, unlike the myriad of online food blogs, I don’t have to scroll through seven pages of backstory about how once, 27 years ago, the author found a stray dog, which led her to an artist’s house where they stayed for the weekend, where they then learned an old family recipe for hazelnut cheesecake. Who has time for that?

5. Vitamin GPT

Managing a handful of daily vitamins and supplements can be surprisingly complicated. I was taking Vitamin D, C, B12, iron, NMN, creatine, and magnesium, to name but a few – all at different times – and I suspected I wasn’t doing it optimally. So I asked ChatGPT to organize a supplement schedule for me, using its in-depth research feature to scour scientific journals and studies. 

I listed all the supplements I take, and it came back with a detailed plan – which ones to take in the morning vs. evening, which needed to be taken with food, and which to avoid taking together. 

For example, it recommended I take Vitamin D and omega-3 with breakfast (since fat-soluble vitamins absorb better with food), Vitamin C in the afternoon (for an energy boost and because it’s water-soluble), and magnesium at night to help with sleep. 

It also warned me that calcium can interfere with iron absorption if taken simultaneously – something I hadn’t considered. The result was a handy bullet-point schedule that has made my supplement routine far more effective. If you juggle multiple vitamins or meds, try this – but of course, double-check with a doctor for any serious interactions.

6. All together now

Cooking a large meal with multiple dishes is a logistical challenge – especially when you’ve got an oven, a stovetop, and maybe an air fryer all going at once.

I recently hosted a family dinner and had a roast in the oven, vegetables in the air fryer, and sauce on the stove. I turned to ChatGPT for help syncing it all up. I gave it a rundown of each dish, the cooking methods and times, and asked for a step-by-step schedule. 

ChatGPT generated a minute-by-minute game plan, outlining exactly when to preheat the oven, when to put the chicken in, when to start boiling water for pasta, when to toss the veggies in the air fryer, and when to slide the garlic bread in so it was perfectly toasty by the time the chicken rested. It was like having a virtual sous-chef project managing my kitchen. 

The plan ensured that all the dishes were hot and ready to serve at the same time – something that used to involve me scribbling timelines on paper. If you’re planning a Christmas dinner or any multi-dish feast, ChatGPT can seriously reduce your stress by acting as a kitchen coordinator, helping you orchestrate cooking times and keep everything on schedule.

7. Deep research

One of ChatGPT’s most powerful abilities is its ability to act as a research assistant. The other day, I was curious about mixing things up in the gym, and debating whether to add a sled push/pull on leg day. 

My issue is that my time in the gym is limited, so I wasn’t sure if there was any existing exercise in my routine that I could swap for the sled pulls, or whether I would be forced to tack them on and make my workout even longer.

I told ChatGPT that my primary goal is hypertrophy (aka, large muscles), and also let it know about my niggling back and knee issues, along with my current leg routine. Using its deep research mode (in which it scoured studies and articles), it came up with a solid answer after around 20 minutes of research/thinking. And the results were very useful indeed.

It turns out that I could replace my leg extensions and leg curl isolation machine exercises with sled pushes/pulls. Not only would I still achieve larger muscles over time, but also gain extra stability in the process, without having to drag my time at the gym out even longer. Win-win.

8. Secret Santa

When I struggle to find the perfect gift, ChatGPT has become my go-to brainstorming buddy. The key is to feed it details about the person – their hobbies, quirks, what they already have, etc. 

From keen gardeners, to gamers, music lovers, and anything in between, there’s no shortage of gift ideas that ChatGPT can churn out. The more info you give them about the intended recipient, the better.

From their favourite colours, to their preferred styles and most-loved albums, you’ll be presented with all manner of gifts that would put Santa’s elves to shame.

9. Action!

As a writer who’s always toyed with the idea of video content (but been too intimidated to do anything about it), ChatGPT looks like it could be my saviour.

Providing it with a smartphone review I’d already written, I asked it to advise me on how I could convert the article to a video. The response was thorough, and unbelievably useful for someone like me with little to no video experience.

The workflow was clearly broken down, with the written copy converted to an easy-to-digest script. There was a comprehensive shot list too, telling me what footage to shoot and in what order, including footage of me, and B-roll of the phone itself.

In short, it took a task that I’ve always found to be very intimidating, and broke it down into manageable chunks, with clear instructions to boot.