𝗜 𝗔𝗰𝗰𝗶𝗱𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗮𝗹𝗹𝘆 𝗦𝘁𝗼𝗹𝗲 𝗮 𝗖𝗮𝗿—𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗖𝗵𝗮𝘁𝗚𝗣𝗧 𝗛𝗲𝗹𝗽𝗲𝗱 𝗠𝗲 𝗦𝘁𝗮𝗿𝘁 𝗜𝘁

On Friday night, I stole a car.

Totally by accident—but it happened under the influence of distraction, mistaken confidence ... and ChatGPT.

I walked out of a restaurant, unlocked my Jeep, and jumped in. (Note: I wasn’t drinking—this wasn’t 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 kind of mistake.)

𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗰𝗮𝗿 𝘄𝗼𝘂𝗹𝗱𝗻’𝘁 𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗿𝘁.

So I asked ChatGPT what to do. One prompt later and a little trial and error, I got the car running and drove away.

Halfway home, I said to my husband, “Since when is our car a hybrid?” He shrugged and said in his manly voice, “Most cars are hybrids now.” Huh. Okay.

The next morning, he went out to check why the Jeep was difficult to start… and came back inside.

“𝗧𝗵𝗮𝘁’𝘀 𝗻𝗼𝘁 𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗰𝗮𝗿.”

Turns out I had “borrowed” a friend’s somewhat-similar Jeep. After a call to the police (who couldn’t stop laughing), and a very apologetic phone call to my friend, I returned the vehicle.

It’s safe to say I’ll be popular at parties for a while. “We had a great dinner .... then Deb Graham boosted a car…”

If you own a Jeep, beware—it’s surprisingly easy for a suburban mom with a key fob to use ChatGPT and drive away!

So, what is the ChatGPT lesson?

Be careful. Just because it tells you how to start the car doesn’t mean you should start the car. Also good to know: I later asked ChatGPT how to steal a car, and it declined to answer, explaining that it would not tell me how to do anything illegal. It did hint that if I rephrased the question as “how do I start my car,” it would help.

While my story is preposterous, it has me thinking about the guardrails on this new technology. The implications for our society are huge.

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✨ Welcome to my Substack!

Deb Talks AI is where I share real-life stories about using ChatGPT to navigate everything from planning dinners... to accidentally stealing a car. 😬

This isn’t a tech blog.
It’s about how regular people (like me—and maybe you) can use AI in everyday moments:
📦 Choosing the right gift
🛻 Starting the wrong car
📝 Planning a graduation dinner
💡 Asking better questions

If you’re curious about AI but don’t speak fluent tech—or just want a good story now and then—I’d love for you to join me.

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