Speaking & Tweaking: A great new way to use ChatGPT

Well hello, you splendid human.

Boy! It's been a busy few weeks! And it doesn't look like it's going to slow down.

And the world of AI also seems to be moving at breakneck speed. New features are dropping all the time, with one appearing on ChatGPT right in the middle of a workshop I was running this morning.

So in this newsletter, I'm showing you a relatively new feature. And I'm doing it with video.

Please tell me if video works for you or if you'd prefer me to stick to words in future.

Here we go!

Give your prompting fingers a rest

You've probably gathered by now that I've got a dysfunctional obsession with experimenting. And recently I've been running experiments on a different way of interacting with ChatGPT.

A couple of weeks ago OpenAI released the ability to talk to ChatGPT with your mouth-hole rather than thumbling your prompts with your clumsy sausage fingers.

So I've been discovering ways that work for me. And I wanted to share what I've found, just in case you find it helpful.

So here's a wee demo.

As I show in the video, it's really simple to get started. If you have the headphone symbol at the top of the screen on the mobile version of ChatGPT, you're ready to go.

Just tap the symbol to start the AI listening.

If you want to get started, here are some fun spoken prompts. Try muttering one of these into your handset:

--

"I'm feeling stressed today. Please give me a guided meditation that will help me unwind."

--

"Please tell my kids a bedtime story about a talking rabbit that becomes the president of France."

--

"I have my quarterly performance review coming up soon. Please help me practice. Ask me all the typical questions and then give me feedback on how I can improve my answers. Ask the questions one by one and wait for my response before continuing."

--

"I am a rapper who specialises in bakery recipes. Please write me a rap about pineapple upside down cake."

--

But some of my prompts are just a bit too chunky to speak to the AI. You'll lose your voice before you get to the good stuff. So I recommend a hybrid approach.

Paste the prompt in and wait for a response. THEN tap the headphone button and ask ChatGPT to start the chat again as a spoken conversation. Boom! You're off to the races!

Here's a longer prompt you might want to try that with (this is the one I used in the video):

--

You are a highly experienced writer with a talent for penning engaging biographies. I want you to write me a short bio for a conference I'll be speaking at. I want you to start with my {name} and {title} and then write a 150 word biography that includes:

• information on my relevant work history
• Information on what I do now
• why I'm credible as a speaker
• What I'm passionate about
• What I'm trying to achieve with my talk
• something that humanises me and shows I'm not just a corporate machine

I want you to ask me questions one at a time to get the information you need. This will be a conversation, so ask me a question then stop and wait for my answer before asking the next one. Ask me no more than three questions to get the information.

When you have all the information you need, I want you to write me three bios of 150 words: one that's serious, one that's conversational and witty and one that's funny and ridiculous. When you're ready, ask me the first question.

{name}: [YOUR NAME]

{title}: [YOUR JOB TITLE]

--

So you probably want to do some experimenting yourself now.

I've also been playing with using ChatGPT as a podcast host to interview me (I may release the results of that at some point). And to help me rehearse tricky client questions.

It's really good at simulating conversations - and the hesitations and stumbling in it's chosen voice really help to humanise the bot.

Have you tried speaking to ChatGPT? What do you think you'd use it for?

Please give me your ideas. I'm thinking of putting a guide together for spoken prompts and I need your input.

Join me at the next AI Unlocked Workshop

There is a very good chance this is the last AI Unlocked Workshop. I'm so busy running this kind of thing for organisations that I'm struggling to find the time to do these public workshops.

It's a half-day session that helps you understand how to embed AI into your day-to-day work to give you superpowers.

I'm running the next (and final?) workshop next Tuesday 17th October 2023 at 4pm UK / 11am ET / 8am PT.

The cost is ￡297 and places are limited.

You can find out more about it and speak to my manager, Miriam, about booking your place at this page here.

This article is part of the?Experiments in Creativity?newsletter,?which examines the frontiers of creativity and technology. If you want more of this kind of thing, you can?subscribe?to get notified when a new article posts.

If you want to learn more about what I talk about, check out my courses on?LinkedIn Learning?and?davebirss.com.?

If you'd like to book me for a talk or training session, send an email to?[email protected]