How to Talk to AI: Get the Best Out of ChatGPT

Frank Bravo 0:08
Hi. Welcome to your Tech Makeover, the podcast that gives you tips and tricks to help you simplify and get more out of the technology in your life. I'm your host, Frank Bravo. In a previous episode, we talked about AI in general, what it is, how it works, where you might already be using it, and some of the dangers to be aware of. Today we're talking about ChatGPT particular and other tools like that, and how they can help you make your life easier. There's no doubt that you've already heard of OpenAI and their tool ChatGPT. Maybe you've even tried it. You might have used it in various different ways, and maybe you didn't even realize you were using it. This episode is for you if you are interested in learning more about how to use it. I'm going to cover what ChatGPT is, how you access it, and more importantly, what you can do to help interact with it to make it get you the results that you're looking for. So what is ChatGPT? Just to recap, ChatGPT is an AI chatbot. Basically, you asked questions and it gives you answers. It can generate text. It can answer the questions like I just said. It can help with creative projects or even more complex things like creating images. You can access ChatGPT by going to chat dot OpenAI. I'll make sure there's a link to that in the show notes below. And there are also mobile apps, both for your phone and for your tablets, as well as your computer. There are free versions which will get you some number of requests and answers. And then if you hit guard lines, if you are asking it too many things, you can then pay for ChatGPT. Plus, the free version of ChatGPT is really probably what most people need, and it really is very powerful. It is a little slower than the paid version, but it will do what 90% of people need. And if you have an Apple device, you probably are using ChatGPT as part of Siri. Siri now allows you to ask ChatGPT questions from within the app itself. A quick shout out to listeners like you who helped make your technique over possible. Your support helps keep this podcast going and I truly appreciate it. Want to contribute? Just click the link in the show notes or visit your Tech makeover.com. Plus, as a special thank you, supporters who give $25 or more will get $25 off a one time consultation with me to simplify your tech. Thanks for being part of the Your Tech Makeover community. Now back to what I was saying. There are many ways that you could interact with ChatGPT, but the way to be most effective are to follow these four tools. One is to be civic. You know, ask it exactly what you're looking to do. So instead of just saying, give me travel tips, tell it, you know I am going to Rome and I want to know what the best things for visitors to see. You can also give it a roll. I do this all the time with various things, so I can tell it to act as a travel guide, or pretend like you're a digital marketer or whatever it might be. The more particular you are about the role and the particular ask, it will give you better answers back. You also should be able to provide context. For instance, if you're writing for a particular audience or you're trying to do something, it is good to tell it that. So you might be saying, I want you to generate a letter for a colleague who is doing this sort of things. And then finally, the best thing that I do all the time with my answers is I ask it follow ups. You know, I make sure that it refines the responses to get it to the what I really want it to tell me. So let's talk about some real life cases. Maybe you might use it for writing or editing. For instance, I want to write a social post or I want to create an email. You can tell it. I have created a body cast, and my podcast is about whatever the podcast is and tell it to create social media posts. You might have a really long article or a document that you want to summarize. It is great for those kind of tools. If you have the paid version, you can actually point it to a website or a story or something online and tell it. Summarize this article for me or tell me the key, the key points to this article. Or even better, explain it to me like I'm a fifth grader. If you are looking for tech troubleshooting tips, maybe this is a place that you can use it. You know, sometimes if I'm stumped by something or if there's a complex thing that I know a customer is trying to deal with. I will go ahead and ask ChatGPT and I know some of my customers ask them, ask it as well. That is a way that they can kind of get an example of an idea of what the right questions to ask me. Meal planning and recipes is another great way to use AI. So I've seen people use ChatGPT when they have a list of ingredients that are in their cupboard, and they really don't know what to make of it, so they tell it, you know, this is what I have. Now give me some recipes of things that I can make with it. Travel or is a really good example. Actually, let me give you a real life example of me doing that. So we went to see our younger son in San Diego, and although we've been there before, I thought it would be interesting to see what ChatGPT said. So I went ahead and asked it certain things, and I told it, you know, these are the times that I'm going to be there and this is who our group is, and, you know, this is where we're staying. So please give me a list of things to do. Over a period of days. And it took a couple of back and forth, but it came up with some really good ideas and put together a travel plan that allowed us to see the things we wanted to see and spend the time at the places we wanted to spend. There are some limitations of ChatGPT and especially the free version. Like I mentioned, the paid version has real time access to the internet. The paid the free one does not. So if you need real time access to the internet, like tell me about stocks today or, you know, go read this story from yesterday and not know exactly where it is. It's going to have a hard time to do that unless you have the paid version. ChatGPT is still learning. It can still provide incorrect information or flat out just make stuff up. So whenever you are getting information back from the app, make sure that you realize that it may not be real. So you want to make sure and to verify, especially if you're using it for travel plans and such, or using it in a letter to a colleague. You want to just make sure that it's right. And as always, it requires some human judgment. It's good to verify the responses. I never said anything out that I have generated in ChatGPT without first verifying that it is correct. Reading through and making sure that the information is correct. So if you've been curious about ChatGPT and wasn't really sure how to use it, I hope this episode gives you a better idea of how it can fit into your daily life. Whether it's just a quick answer or quick inspiration for things that you are doing, this tool is there to make your life easier. And you know once you've used it well, you'll be able to do some cool things with it and in full transparency. ChatGPT actually helped me write this episode. I gave it the idea for the episode and I had to generate some content for me. Then I updated it and created an outline to make sure that it was what I wanted to say, but it saved me a lot of time in the creation of this process. It also helped me write the so descriptions and the social media posts. So that was a huge time saver as well. So let me know. Have you started using AI and how are you using it? And as always, if you have ideas for topics that you'd like me to cover, please feel free to contact me via email at Frank at your Tech makeover.com. That's it for now. Thanks for listening to your tech makeover. And before I go, I wanted to remind you to subscribe to the podcast on your favorite podcast platform so that you don't miss an episode. Visit your tech makeover for more details, and if you want to find out more about me, please check out my website. Bravo! It's com. Until next time, I'm Frank Bravo, and this has been your technique over.