Four Suggestions for Using ChatGPT, Plus One Big Warning

Last week, I attend a fascinating discussion about AI, with group of other consultants from around the world.

Each of us has been experimenting with using AI systems to enhance our work, and people had found a wide variety of ways to use the technology.

?I thought it might be helpful to you if I shared some of what I’ve learned from using one of the most popular systems, ChatGPT.

?1.) Designing a clear and focused prompt will improve your results immensely. Focus on one topic or question at a time and avoid ambiguity. Experiment to see what works best.

?2.) It is often useful to ask the system to assume a role, such as “You are a university professor in charge of statistics. Please assume I am a first year college student trying to understand your introductory course.” Another example would be, “You are the CEO of a Fortune 1000 company. How would you explain this concept to the members of your board?”

?3.) Constrain your request or the scope of your inquiry. Tell the system, “I want to produce a report for non-technical business managers” or “I am only concerned with school systems in the State of Georgia.”?

?4.) Give the system feedback and ask it to try again. Many users report that when they ask ChatGPT to write a fictional story, the system often starts with “Once upon a time…” If you think this is too trite or dated, simply say something like, “That’s an awfully ancient way to start a story. Can you come up with a more exciting and modern opening”? It will apologize—which I find amusing—and then try again.

And now for a very important warning:?do not trust the facts it gives you. Fact-check all of them, if you intend to share your results with anyone who trusts you to be accurate.

In my experience, ChatGPT is superb at being a creative partner. It can generate ideas, and list dozens of possibilities (e.g., “How should I redesign the shared areas of our office to enhance creativity and collaboration?”).

It can sketch out the basic structure of a book, report, analysis or article, which gives you a marvelous starting point. The system can save us time and make us more creative.

But, there’s a “but”: when you ask it for facts, it sometimes invents them. In a single chat session, I’ve seen it refer to the same book twice, using different subtitles. Please notice that I said “sometimes”. Depending on the topic, ChatGPT can either do a decent or a terrible job of reporting the facts.

I haven’t even touched on other uses, such as asking the system to generate code or to create a training program to learn almost any skill.

We are limited only by our imagination, and I urge you to do a bit of first-hand experimenting, when you have the time.

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Amanda Setili helps successful leaders and their teams agree on what needs to change and how to make it happen. She is author of?Fearless?Growth:?The New Rules to Stay Competitive, Foster Innovation, and Dominate Your Markets, and?The Agility Advantage, How to Identify and Act On Opportunities in a Fast-Changing World.?

For more strategies, videos and free materials, please visit?www.setili.com, and check out these quick examples of the type of work we do. Or listen to the Fearless Growth Podcast.

?Contact?Amanda?to discuss how she works with companies to improve profits, performance and growth.