2 Myths About What ChatGPT Can Do for Your Finances
ChatGPT has earned legendary status in the tech world as a powerful generative AI capable of helping you do any number of tasks, including financial chores. But can you trust everything you’ve read or heard?
Let’s take a look at the biggest claims made about ChatGPT’s abilities and whether they pass the smell test.
Myth #1: ChatGPT Can Make Big Financial Decisions for You
Have you ever asked ChatGPT what stocks you should buy or which online loan you should borrow? You might be surprised by its answer. It admits it can’t provide specific recommendations.
Why? Because the free version does not have real-time data on current online loans, lenders, stocks, or investment companies. Even if you prompt by asking it to find a cash loan near me, it will refuse.
“I’m sorry,” says ChatGPT, “but I don’t have the ability to browse the internet or locate specific businesses, including cash loan providers.” Following this answer, it offers general steps you can take to search for or compare loans and lenders.
You might get more specific answers if you feed the AI with rates and terms pulled from specific personal loans you copy and paste from current websites. You can ask it to compare the options you supply and identify important details. But this answer will not replace your own review of borrowing costs or terms. The same goes for investment decisions.
Myth #2: ChatGPT Can Improve Your Credit Score
Borrowing money can be challenging when you don’t have great credit. A low score can act like a red flag to lenders. After all, you only get this score if you miss payments and carry over balances long-term. While they might still offer a personal loan, they might lend less money or raise their interest rates.
Checking your credit score before you borrow is always a good idea. But let’s face it — credit as a concept can be tricky. You may not know how you earn your three-digit score.
A simple Google search will reveal you can use ChatGPT to repair your credit score. But be wary of predatory companies that sell learning modules teaching you how to use this AI to improve your score. There is no way to cheat the system. Improving your score comes with time — time for bad entries to expire and time to add good entries to your file.
According to ChatGPT itself, “improving your credit score is a gradual process that involves responsible financial habits.”
Like finding a loan online, improving your score is a question ChatGPT answers in generalities. It can scour the web for widely available information, like the five factors of your score or alternative credit data. But it cannot help you perform financial tasks that affect your score, nor can it provide tailored tips to your situation.
The Takeaway:
ChatGPT is an aggregator, first and foremost. It does its best work gathering information without making any judgement calls.
But even here, it has its limits. ChatGPT’s latest training update occurred in January 2022, so it doesn’t have any newsworthy financial information from the past two years and counting. Keep this in mind if you want relevant answers to topical questions.
As a result, using ChatGPT as a comparison tool for borrowing options or credit advice is fine, but don’t let it call the shots.
