Yesterday, I attended a free AI Essential workshop at WeWork in Kings Cross and I was mind blown by what I learned. Perhaps I’m late to the game but hey, better late than never I say. Here are seven awesome ways ChatGPT can save you time, money and energy.
1. Personalisation
You can ask ChatGPT to speak to you in a particular way, such as in British English or as a grumpy old man from Yorkshire. The latter could be great for developing an authentic character in a story.
Tip: if you communicate with ChatGPT like as if it is a human, it produces better results. So here, you can add a consequence at the end of your instruction. For example, ‘Please try your hardest to speak to me as a grumpy old man from Yorkshire or else my character will not be taken seriously by my audience’.
2. Image generation
You can create fantastic AI images through Dall-E, a native image generating model built into ChatGPT. The more descriptive you are, the more accurate the image.
I will be experimenting logo designs with ChatGPT for my new business idea. This will save me tons of time and energy which I would’ve spent either designing the logo myself as a former graphic designer or looking for the right person who would volunteer their skills because I don’t have a budget..!
Downside: ChatGPT obtains information that already exists - so stuff that humans have already put out onto the internet. As we know, people are biased and the results will reflect that. For example, if you were to ask Dall-E to produce an image of a doctor, it will most likely depict a Caucasian man in a lab coat. I wonder how future tech-nerds will tackle this issue.
3. Research, write and pretend to be someone
The basics: You can ask ChatGPT anything you like and it will come up with an answer pulled from the internet. If you are not satisfied with the response, you can:
a). Edit your question. There is a pencil icon next to the question you have posted which allows you to do that. ChatGPT will then produce a new answer. You can flick between the first and second question and answer.
b). If it’s late at night, your brain has turned into a cabbage and you cannot think of further questions, ask ChatGPT to elaborate or add details.
You can also check where the answers have been sourced from, however this feature is only available on the paid membership.
This is where it gets a tad controversial, especially for creatives and writers like me. You can ask ChatGPT to write in the style of someone. So if there was another author whose work you admired, you could copy their writing style and fob it off as your own.
4. Self-critique
You can ask ChatGPT to identify and fix its own errors. I asked ChatGPT to write a letter to my GP complaining about the lack of care toward mental health. I then asked ChatGPT to pick five things wrong with its writing and fix them and at least half of the points it churned out were definitely useful.
5. Summarise lengthy text to save you precious brain power and time
ChatGPT can summarise large, wieldy pieces of text for you. I love this feature because I have so many interests that I want to read up on (like how to use plants for medicinal purposes, how to set up my own business, how and what to invest in, ancient and Indigenous practices that help to heal us and much more) but rarely get around to because I pile on too much on my to-do list. This nifty feature allows you to upload a document which ChatGPT then summarises for you. This is a fantastic way for me to read science papers which are often long, dense and time consuming. Thank you ChatGPT! I love you! ❤️
6. Plan and solve
If you treat ChatGPT like a human, you will get better results. Think back to when you were doing your practice GCSE English Literature exam questions. Your teacher would’ve asked you to come up with a plan before writing your essay answer. Ask the same of ChatGPT, so something like:
‘Please come up with a step-by-step plan for writing an in-depth answer about why companies should allow their employees to work from anywhere in the world’.
Then ask ChatGPT to use it’s findings to formulate an answer.
Side note: I am a tad concerned at how lazy our brains will become due to this and curious to see how we will mitigate it. I anticipate a nationwide rise in brain training activities.
7. Tree of thoughts
This is pretty sophisticated in my book. You can ask ChatGPT to be several people and have a discussion about something to explore an issue from several angles before coming up with a solution. For example, a board of a company discussing the pros and cons of releasing a product early, a band debating when to go on tour and why or even a couple deciding what to have for dinner. I asked ChatGPT to:
‘Please pretend to be Fleetwood Mac discussing the story behind the song Dreams. They should pay attention to what each other are saying and explore the subject as thoroughly as possible.’
It was wonderful to read a conversation between the band members, like as if I was reading a casual interview in Kerrang! or something without having to do the initial research, such as thinking about what publication something like this would be published in.
Side note: I received instant gratification from this task and I wonder how this will impact us mentally and emotionally. I think we live in a time where we are so used to getting things at the click of a finger and while there are definitely benefits to this, there are also negative implications. I believe we are a generation of people missing certain qualities in our lives, such as patience and the ability to grow something slowly over a long period of time, leaving us unsatisfied and constantly seeking the next thing to quench an ongoing thirst.
So there you have it. What other cool things can ChatGPT do to make our lives easier? Leave a comment.
General Purpose are still running the free AI Essential workshop this month so please visit their website, sign up and let them know where you found out about them.
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