How a bonkers idea to turn our dog into an AI maths tutor ended up as an OpenAI film
When my daughter Daisy struggled with her SATs maths, I turned to AI for help. The result? Izzy, the AI Maths Tutor—powered by ChatGPT. What started as a simple fix for a family challenge became a story that caught OpenAI’s attention, leading to a global film about our journey. Read about how a cocker spaniel, a chatbot, and a bit of curiosity led to something truly unexpected.
Well, the cat’s finally out of the bag. Or should I say, the cocker spaniel’s out of the bag…?
I can barely believe I’m writing this, but a story that started with me feeling like I was failing as a parent is now the subject of a film on the website of probably one of the most important tech companies there has ever been, OpenAI.
Flashback: How Izzy Came About
It all began when my daughter Daisy was prepping for her SATs exams. She’d been struggling with maths, and in a vain attempt to get her back on track, we sat down together with a revision guide I’d bought. “How hard can it be?” I thought. How wrong was I?!
And that’s why Izzy the AI Maths Tutor was created: trained on the areas Daisy was struggling with, and given the persona of our crazy dog, Izzy. You can read more about how I used ChatGPT to help her smash her maths exams here.
A Caravan, A Rainy Day, and a Surprising Email
Fast forward a couple of months. We’re sat in a caravan in The Lake District. It’s raining and my electric MINI has been towed away because it won’t charge, and the rest of our week-long break is starting to look a bit grim.
Daisy’s on her iPad, and I’m doing the terrible parent thing of dipping into emails and checking updates on LinkedIn. Bad dad.
As I scan through messages, one catches my eye: it’s the most far-out piece of spam I’ve ever had.
“Hi, I’m from OpenAI’s comms team. We’ve seen your story and we’d like to talk to you about it.”
YEAH RIGHT.
“Hey Daisy, have you seen this? This is exactly the kind of scam I’ve told you to watch out for!”
Skepticism Turns to Reality
You see, I’m not daft: I still remember the ‘classic’ African prince email scam from the dawn of the internet.
Plus, I’m a northerner. I’m genetically programmed to treat all good news with a form of advanced scepticism we’ve developed through the ages, a thick skin hewn from the falling rocks of inter-generational misfortune… Wait. I’ve gone off on one, haven’t I?
Essentially, you can’t blag a blagger, and I’m having none of this.
But I’m intrigued: whatever this is doesn’t happen to people like me.
So I get around to responding, expecting to be asked for my bank details to help process the request. And then I get a reply which looks legit. OpenAI had read about the AI Maths Tutor I’d made using ChatGPT and they were thinking of making a film about it.
“Do you have time for a call?”
Blimey.
Still from the film: Izzy gets animated during her tutoring session…
From Concept to Reality
A couple of calls later, it’s getting clear this is actually all happening. There are people storyboarding our experience, and I’m getting requests to scout locations a crew could shoot me and Daisy (and our actual dog, Izzy) as we talk about them. Meanwhile, hotels are being booked and Daisy is tapping me up for a new outfit.
The shoot came around quickly. By this point, I’m checking the weather daily. It’s Manchester and, of course, it’s going to rain. Persistently: right on brand. And yet, as we got to the team’s arrival, the rain stopped and the clouds broke. A huge crew descends on our house. OpenAI literally have come knocking on our door.
We spoke about the process of setting up our GPT Maths Tutor, sure, but so much of the shoot was us hanging out at home and around our lovely village, Didsbury.
The OpenAI team were so great to spend time with. Daisy rustled up sweet treats for them, including making fresh ice cream, and the whole experience just felt like having some friends around to mess around with. It’s just that they happened to bring some expensive-looking camera and lighting kit with them.
STUFF GOT REAL
But it still hadn’t really dawned on me how much of a big deal it was until Adam, a really senior guy from the company, picked up a felt-crafted doll of Izzy that was sat on the window shelf in our kitchen.
“This is just like the version of Izzy our animation guys are working on!”
Gulp.
One internal double-take later, I’m starting to get a sense of how cool this video was going to be. They’d loved our story, using ChatGPT to tackle a simple human challenge. They loved that I wasn’t a techie, just a dad in need of a hand. And they loved the fact that we put our bonkers dog right at the heart of the thing we made.
You know what? They captured the heart and the humour behind turning a family dog into a maths tutor who saved the day. And we LOVE the video they made.
Daisy and Izzy high five.
A Huge Thank You!
HUGE THANKS to Taya, Jeff and Adam at OpenAI for investing in our story and giving us one of the most exciting—and surreal—experiences we’ve had. And thanks to Dan Fitzpatrick for sharing my experience with ‘Izzy’: it has been incredible to see so many people adapt the prompt to their own needs.
The Final Cut
So there we are. The film is live, it’s beautiful, and I’m hoping it inspires others to follow our example. You can find the AI Maths Tutor prompt in my article here.
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