ChatGPT: 3 essential tips for writing prompts

We all think we know how to search on Google so why would ChatGPT be any different?

Well, just like Google Search, there is a big difference between being able to look for information and being able to do it well.

The general specific

It’s wise to avoid long, winding sentences; instead, give context and then be specific about what you’re looking for. And choose words that are universally understood rather than unusual language or slang. Finally - and AI doesn’t always get this right - it makes sense to give the tool a word limit.

Describe to survive

Do you want the response to be in a certain tone? Would you like it written as a poem? Are you only interested in outputs that are not like other prose? Then say that. You can even confirm that ChatGPT understands the task (literally by saying, ‘Do you understand?’)

Again. And again. And again…

You can’t expect the first result to be the final result. This is because the information being presented is learnt from training data to automatically generate a response, rather than indexing web pages like Google. So you need to keep refining as you go down the AI rabbit hole.

In summary?

If Google Search is like talking with someone you’ve known for years, ChatGPT is like chatting to someone you just met.

And a bonus hack?

ChatGPT can remember up to 4,000 ‘tokens’ (around 3,000 words) from a conversation before it starts deleting earlier information because it is unable to store or reference any information beyond that limit. So, I’d recommend periodically asking ChatGPT to summarise the conversation.