Topical Research with ChatGPT

Executive Summary

ChatGPT can be an effective tool to navigate through the intricacies of topical research across professional domains.? This article discusses the distinction between research types and emphasizes the breadth and immediacy of topical research as a standalone category, which is pivotal for professionals requiring rapid assimilation of information. It delves into the strategic application of ChatGPT, showcasing its dual capability to recall pre-trained knowledge and conduct real-time searches for the most recent updates, thus serving as a powerful tool for professionals to stay informed. The discussion extends to avoiding common pitfalls in topical research, outlining practical advice to ensure accuracy and efficiency. The article culminates with an innovative framework for conducting topical research with ChatGPT, streamlining the research process into a systematic, step-by-step approach that circumvents the highlighted pitfalls and maximizes the use of ChatGPT's capabilities.

Introduction

In corporate environments, professionals grapple with the complexity brought on by vast amounts of data, rapidly evolving regulations, and global dynamics. This article, part of a series addressing critical challenges within corporate departments—specifically volume, complexity, professional development, team engagement, and knowledge transfer—focuses on navigating complexity.

Leveraging Large Language Models (LLMs) like ChatGPT for topical research emerges as a vital strategy in this multifaceted approach. While it's one of many methods to manage complexity, ChatGPT enables quick, efficient insight gathering and informed decision-making by cutting through the information overload.

In this installment, we'll concentrate on Topical Research, mirroring the structure of the previous article on volume. Including a tailored GPT tool enhances our exploration and allows you to focus more on the research and less on the tool and process.?

Let's dive into how ChatGPT can be a formidable tool against the complexities of our corporate world, enhancing research effectiveness and decision-making processes.

Understanding Research Types

Understanding the nuances between different research needs is crucial to effectively leverage technologies like ChatGPT. Immediate, or 'just-in-time' research, is increasingly essential, highlighting the need for rapid insights without compromising accuracy in decision-making and critical conversations. This approach underscores the value of ChatGPT in swiftly navigating the complex demands of today's knowledge workers.

ChatGPT excels in providing quick, accurate, and succinct summaries, distinguishing itself as a vital tool for professionals who require informed decisions promptly. Additionally, the reasoning capabilities of LLMs can be applied on deep and detailed technical material to aid one’s understanding of it.? This section delves into the strategic application of ChatGPT for various research types, with a special focus on topical research.

Categorizing Research:

To maximize the effectiveness of using LLMs in our research and choose an appropriate approach, we can categorize our research into two primary types: Topical Research and In-Depth Research, with the latter further subdividing into different strands. Topical Research: This foundational category is about breadth and immediacy. It provides a panoramic view of a subject, essential for staying informed about the latest developments or getting a quick understanding of a new concept. It's the go-to for professionals needing a rapid assimilation of information without the necessity for granular detail and often the starting point for in-depth research.

In-Depth Research: Distinguished by its complexity and depth, I’ve grouped in-depth research into three strands, each addressing different facets of deep dive investigations:

• Deep Dive Research: Focuses on exhaustive exploration of a single topic, aiming for a comprehensive understanding that supports problem-solving or decision-making in complex scenarios.? Like investigating a single destination for a vacation where you explore everything about the place—from its culture and climate to local laws and currency exchange rates.
• Comparative & Analytical Research: This strand emphasizes evaluating and contrasting concepts, practices, or regulations across different domains or jurisdictions, offering insights into similarities, differences, and strategic opportunities.? Like comparing potential travel destinations, evaluating different locations to determine their advantages and drawbacks, like comparing the cultural richness of Paris versus the natural beauty of Bali, to decide where to go.
• Synthetic Research: The most integrative form of research, combining insights from deep dives and comparative analyses to develop cohesive strategies, solutions, or theories. It's about connecting the dots across diverse pieces of information to form a holistic understanding or approach.? Like planning a multi-destination trip, integrating your findings from deep dives into each location and comparisons between them to craft a cohesive travel itinerary that maximizes the overall experience within time and budget constraints.

The advent of ChatGPT marks a significant shift in how we approach these varied types of research. We’ll save the In-Depth Research discussion for another day and start by exploring how an LLM can enhance Topical Research.

Topical Research and Its Strategic Application

Topical Research is essential for grasping the surface-level understanding of subjects promptly. It's especially relevant when time is of the essence, and a quick refresh or introduction to a topic is required. This form of research is about getting a lay of the land—the 'what' is happening—rather than the 'how' or 'why' it's happening.

Implementation of LLMs in Topical Research

Objective: The goal is to gain or refresh knowledge efficiently, whether to stay abreast of the latest industry trends, prepare for a meeting, or prime oneself for deeper research later on. For instance, I may need to quickly understand the gist of DAC6 regulations without delving into extensive legal analysis.

Approach with ChatGPT: Here's how ChatGPT can assist in conducting topical research, whether the topic is new to you or new in general (like a recent budget announcement):

• Recalling Pre-Training Knowledge: ChatGPT can provide contextual information based on its extensive database up to the last training cut-off (April 2023 as of this writing), giving a useful backdrop against which to frame new developments.
• Accessing Real-Time Data: For the latest updates, particularly new legislation, ChatGPT can use real-time browsing tools (Bing) to gather and summarize current information from trusted online sources.
• Selective Querying: By processing your specific queries, ChatGPT can extract and condense the most relevant aspects of new information, delivering succinct summaries that are directly applicable to your needs.

Whether the topic is new to you or new information in general, an LLM’s capabilities to draw on its existing knowledge or access the internet is a highly efficient approach for a quick orientation before moving to more in-depth analysis if needed.

Applying ChatGPT to Topical Research

• Providing Quick Access to Information: It can swiftly pull together summaries of complex topics, which is particularly useful for professionals who need to keep up with a wide array of subjects.??
• Conducting Preliminary Analysis and Filtering: ChatGPT can prioritize and filter information based on your queries, focusing on the most relevant updates or summaries for the task at hand.
• Enhancing Breadth of Knowledge: By drawing from a diverse range of sources, ChatGPT offers a broad perspective on a topic, which is essential when professionals need to be well-informed across multiple subjects quickly.
• Efficient Summarization: Critical when you need to understand a concept without the time for a deep dive, ChatGPT’s ability to condense information into concise summaries is invaluable.

“Efficient Summarization” is particularly useful to periodically catch up on where your understanding is in the topical research process.

Avoiding Common Pitfalls in Topical Research

While embarking on topical research can streamline the process of gathering essential information quickly, certain pitfalls can hinder the efficiency and accuracy of one's research efforts. Recognizing and navigating these common stumbling blocks is crucial for professionals who aim to leverage AI capabilities effectively. Let’s delve into five highly relevant pitfalls to avoid:

1. Understanding the Task

One frequent misstep is not having a clear research goal, leading to inquiries that are too broad or off-target. To combat this, it's imperative to have a well-defined objective. Know whether the intent is to get a cursory understanding of a wide topic or to unearth specific details. This precision will inform the design of your prompts, yielding more relevant and precise outputs from ChatGPT.

1. Choosing the Right Tools

Professionals often grapple with whether to rely on ChatGPT's existing knowledge base, engage real-time search functions for the most current data or adding content from their own search or data. To circumvent this issue, discern the nature of the needed information: historical or foundational data might be well-served by ChatGPT’s internal database, while recent developments would benefit from specifying a real-time (Bing) search within your prompt.

1. Finding Reliable Information: Information Barriers

The concern about the reliability of information obtained from ChatGPT, especially without clear references, is valid. To ensure reliability, one should explicitly request sources where possible. For real-time searches, ask for direct links to the data; for synthesized answers, seek to understand the basis of ChatGPT’s responses by inquiring about its source materials.

1. Over-Reliance on Ad Hoc Approaches

A common error is adopting an ad hoc approach to research, leading to an inefficient trial-and-error process. Instead, a structured method should be implemented: begin with general questions to lay the groundwork and then drill down with specific prompts informed by initial responses. Keeping track of the most effective prompts for future reference is also beneficial.? See the proposed framework in the next section.

1. Misinterpreting Chatbot Capabilities

With such novel technology, it’s natural to misjudge the capabilities of ChatGPT, either expecting it to deliver real-time updates, to possess and easily offer up an in-depth understanding of highly specialized areas that it might not have, or conversely to deeply underestimate its power and potential. It's crucial to recognize that ChatGPT's knowledge is comprehensive up to a point and may not include the most recent studies or specific expertise; for specialized knowledge, supplement ChatGPT’s insights from specialized databases.? Yet it’s also crucial to recognize that ChatGPT has sophisticated reasoning capabilities you can leverage; it’s believed ChatGPT’s IQ is up to~155.

By being mindful of these pitfalls and applying the provided advice, users can greatly improve the quality and applicability of their topical research.

Topical Research in Action

Don’t Make Me Think!? A Framework with a Custom GPT

The "don't make me think" principle, while rooted in UI design, also extends into the very essence of conducting topical research—streamlining complexity and fostering efficiency. Employing the custom GPT "Insight Engine" adheres to this maxim, offering a systematic approach that allows users to engage with the substance of their research, free from the mental load of navigating the process or chat interface.? Below is a straight-forward framework that makes topical research more systematic yet flexible enough to mix and match select steps depending on your task.?

Framework The framework assumes you are not copying in your own data into the chat, but adding some context (step 2a) is a powerful addition when looking to improve ChatGPT’s output.

1. Define the Objective Clearly
2. Conduct an Initial Broad Search (quick access to information)
3. Extract Detailed Information on Complex Aspects
4. Conduct Preliminary Analysis and Filtering
5. Enhance Breadth of Knowledge
6. Efficient Summarization
7. Validate and Cross-Check
8. Application and Scenario-Based Learning

If I’m looking for a recipe I wouldn’t not make it past step 2, or when I’m really time crunched steps 1, 2 and 6 are the only ones I want.??

Custom GPT

To make putting it into action straightforward, I’ve made the Insight Engine to simplify it for you. The prompt behind the GPT blends:

• Application of ChatGPT to Topical Research
• Avoiding the common pitfalls
• Applying the 8 step systematic framework
• User-led research direction through interactive questions and GPT suggestions.
• Strategies for getting better results from your prompts

The custom GPT should be used on GPT-4; however, please leave a comment or DM me if you want to use the prompt on a different platform.

Conclusion

In navigating the complexities knowledge workers face in today's corporate environments, we’re continually seeking tools and strategies that can streamline processes, enhance efficiency, and improve decision-making. ChatGPT, with its capabilities for topical research, reasoning capabilities and real-time information retrieval, stands out as a welcome life-raft for those navigating the vast seas of data and information.

However, as we've identified, there are some pitfalls. Recognizing and avoiding these common missteps is crucial for harnessing the full potential of ChatGPT in topical research. By adopting a structured approach, offloading the less-important “thinking” to Insight Engine, I offer a way to mitigate these challenges to ensure that your research is efficient, robust, more reliable, and most importantly, easier!

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The AI tools I used to facilitate creating the Framework and separately the Super-Prompt used in the Insight Engine GPT, were created by Hannes Marais of Innovation Algebra and is called “IA 2.7”, and "Alpha 2.0".