ChatGPT & Me Episode 5: AI does some ‘splaining

Written By Lori Barbeau

In my last post, I wrote about the conversation ChatGPT and I had regarding analysis of a basic loan workflow on a whiteboard using various colored markers of questionable markability. After taking a picture of the whiteboard workflow, I entered my analysis request in ChatGPT and uploaded the whiteboard image.

ChatGPT PLUS attempted to use Optical Character Recognition (OCR) to analyze the whiteboard information. (I didn’t even know it had OCR capability.) The OCR failed. ChatGPT switched to “manual” analysis and provided a response to my request.

Some very interesting questions came out of that episode:

  • Why did the OCR fail?

  • What is the difference between AI using OCR to analyze the flowchart and using '“manual” analysis?

  • And what, precisely, occurs when ChatGPT “manually” analyzes?

I asked ChatGPT these questions. The answers are shown below.

Enjoy the read!

Why did the OCR fail?

Difference between using OCR versus “manually” analyzing

Operational excellence begins with clarity on workflows and procedures.

This blog was co-written by a human and ChatGPT and edited by a human!

© 2025 Lori K. Barbeau

Lori Barbeau
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ChatGPT & Me Episode 4: Training the human on penmanship