Wired Wisdom: A beginner’s guide to using ChatGPT

In this week’s Wired Wisdom, we’ll show you how to harness the power of ChatGPT, a beginner-level edition. It’s long overdue.

Next week, we’ll dive into how to use the AI-powered chatbot like a pro.

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It’s about time we figure out how to tame this digital beast and put it to work.

After all, this AI chatbot can become your go-to brainstorming buddy, research assistant, language tutor, and even a late-night philosophical debate partner.

I’ve personally used it to create a detailed Keto meal-prep and calisthenics workout plan, to brainstorm content ideas, to summarise PDFs, and to learn how to code.

And I’ve since promoted ChatGPT (or Ziggy, as I call it) to my personal social media manager.

ChatGPT

There’s a new kid on the block − and by ‘kid,’ I mean a behemoth of an artificial intelligence (AI) language model created by the mysterious forces at OpenAI and known as ChatGPT.

A recent report by Insider Intelligence shows the number of users engaging with generative AI applications such as ChatGPT is anticipated to skyrocket in the upcoming year.

If you don’t jump on the AI bandwagon now, you might be left behind.

So, how does one go about using this generation-defining technology, then?

Be specific with your queries

Remember, ChatGPT is a conversational AI chatbot. It cannot read your mind (at least, not yet…)

So, “you need to be crystal clear with your queries”. This is in quotation marks because I’m quoting ChatGPT directly. I’m so meta…

This is an example of what will happen if you don’t give it clear instructions:

If you feed it vague queries, you’ll get vague answers. Let your inner lawyer shine, don’t be shy, and ask direct, specific questions.

Disclaimer: I shouted at ChatGPT way more frequently when I was still using the GPT-3.5 model. GPT-4 is more intuitive, more conversational, overall more pleasant.

Context, context, context

ChatGPT has the memory of a goldfish – it forgets what you said a few turns ago. At can also be infuriating at time.

Most of the time, actually.

If there’s a thread of conversation that you want to keep alive, repeat or summarise the previous points so that the AI stays on track.

Give ChatGPT ‘Instruct’ commands

Got a job for ChatGPT? State your instructions directly.

Need an article, poem, or recipe? Start your request with “Write me a…” or “describe in detail a…” and be detailed about what you need.

Pretend you’re talking to someone who has absolutely no knowledge of the topic you’re feeding the chatbot.

Because, in essence, that is exactly what you’re doing.

Tweak the system settings

This tip is straight from ChatGPT itself (because yes, when I started using GPT-4, the first thing I asked the AI chatbot was about its preferred methods of being used… True story).

In Chat’s own words: “Tailor ChatGPT’s behavior to suit your needs”.

“Want the AI to be more creative? Boost the ‘temperature.’ Want it to stick to the facts? Lower the ‘temperature’ and increase the ‘max tokens’.”

Trial and error

ChatGPT is an AI. It doesn’t take offence. Trust me, I’ve hurled swearwords at it that would make a sailor blush. I probably shouldn’t, Roko’s basilisk and all that, but I digress…

So, don’t hesitate to refine your requests, try different phrasing, or adjust the system settings. And don’t forget to have fun.

The more you play around with it, the better you’ll understand how to make it work for you.

“ChatGPT is like a digital Swiss army knife, equipped to handle a plethora of tasks”, the chatbot informed me when I consulted it for this article.

“The key to becoming a pro user is understanding its strengths, adapting to its limitations, and guiding it to provide the results you need.”

So, next week, we’ll look at the finer points and nuances of using ChatGPT. Like a pro.

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