How to Use ChatGPT Like a Pro!

Want to use ChatGPT like a pro?

Here’s a little secret: You don’t need to become a prompt engineer.

Yes, you could allegedly make $300K by spending thousands of hours in ChatGPT and becoming best-in-the-world at these tools.

But let’s be honest: 95% of ChatGPT’s value can be learned within just a few hours.

So, here’s a quick 3-step guide to reaching basic proficiency in AI tools. Just remember the mnemonic GPT:

Generic

As great as ChatGPT is, its early lead in this space has led to it becoming a generic stand-in for all AI tools. Like Xerox, Kleenex, and JELL-O in their respective spaces, it’s crowded out awareness of so many other worthy platforms. Which is a shame because the first step in using AI effectively is to choose the right tool for the job.

And while I have sometimes recommended using a variety of these tools based on their strengths and weaknesses, the latest update to ChatGPT has pushed it ahead in in the 5 areas that matter:

  1. Fast

  2. Free

  3. Fresh Data

  4. File Uploads

  5. Freedom of Data Control

But this may change in the next few months, so no matter which tool you choose, be sure to prompt it the right way.

Prompt

This one might sound obvious - of course you have to prompt ChatGPT, right? But what may not be so obvious is that the kind of prompt matters. A lot.

Specifically, the very best prompts provide the maximum context about the input and desired outputs. That way, you avoid the famous dictum with any kind of model: “Garbage In = Garbage Out.”

And what a “garbage” prompt, you ask?

Well, it’s the very kind your students are most likely to run - the super short and generic ones we practiced at the beginning:

Because, as you saw, they tend to produce short and generic answers.

But now, let’s reframe them with a whole lot more context up-front and specificity about what we want delivered:

What career should I pursue as a sociology major with strong analytical skills and a passion for sustainability? Please suggest 10 options and describe the key areas of fit.

Hopefully this gives you a taste of how powerful these models can be when they have more to work with. And if you’d like to see additional examples of what’s possible at every stage of the hiring process with highly specific prompts, here are 10 prompts to get you started!

Talk

Finally, to really eke out every last drop of potential from AI, it’s important to break an Internet habit we’ve all built up over the last 20 years. That’s because every digital information resource from Google to Wikipedia has trained us to do a single search and just click on the best result - and then move on.

Whereas the true power of AI only reveals itself through dialogue with the models.

And while I know it sounds slightly kooky to talk back to a machine, instead think of ChatGPT and its brethren as your inexperienced but eager-to-please research assistant.

So rather than just settling for their first response, you should get really comfortable pushing back.

Check this out with that career exploration query:

Or with the cover letter example:

Not only does your “research assistant” always respond instantly, but unlike a real researcher, they never get sick of your queries… 🙂 So don’t hesitate to keep pushing until you get what you need!

As always, here’s a little cheatsheet to keep these techniques front-and-center:

PS: Feel free to share with your colleagues! And if you ever want me to lead an AI training for your students or colleagues this year, just say the word.