Everyone's talking about AI-powered generative pre-trained transformers (GPTs) — the most exciting and concerning technological development of recent times. After ChatGPT was opened to the general public, in late 2022, people quickly realized that this was more than just a better chatbot. The hype that surrounds this technology creates a feeling that everything is about to change radically.
Even if jobs don't disappear en masse, many employees and business people will find that their work is affected to some extent by the introduction of AI. The company that created ChatGPT, OpenAI, has done its own research into this. According to one of the company's studies: "Approximately 80 per cent of the US workforce could have at least 10 per cent of their work tasks affected by the introduction of GPTs, while around 19 per cent of workers may see at least 50 per cent of their tasks impacted. The influence spans all wage levels, with higher-income jobs potentially facing greater exposure."
Many businesses are investigating how they might use the technology. The insurance company Zurich, for example, is using AI to simplify complicated claims documents. According to Insider, Amazon has found that AI chatbots are very good at tasks such as writing basic software code and producing training documents. And Chatlayer, a European AI service provider, says: "AI-powered virtual assistants can answer up to 80 per cent of FAQs successfully and cut customer service costs by 30 per cent."
Certain professions look likely to see more disruption (and sooner) than others, but nearly all of us will be expected to work with AI at some point.
Prompt writing: How to use ChatGPT effectively
ChatGPT is the most widely known of the AI chatbots, but there are others, and we can expect to interact with more and more of them in the future. The software responds to text prompts — meaning the written instructions you type into the software. Creating them is called "prompt writing" or "prompt engineering". It is the art of writing machine-compatible instructions in order to get the software to do what you want it to do.
The more specific and detailed your prompts are, the better the results will be. Imagine telling an architect what kind of house you'd like. Without a detailed briefing, the architect will struggle to produce something that meets your expectations.
Make ChatGPT do what you want
If you've never used a GPT before, it's worth taking some time to experiment and learn what it can do. Here, we give you some tips to help get you started.
Tell the software how to...
1. …act
It is extremely useful to define a role that ChatGPT should play, such as "copywriter", "editor", "influencer" — or whatever role is appropriate. This will immediately set the correct parameters and get you a lot closer to the style and type of content you're looking for.
Sample prompt: "Act as a digital marketer and…"
2. …imitate a specific writing style
The role you define doesn't have to be generic — it can be a real person. When writing social media posts in the name of another person, such as your boss, ChatGPT can imitate the writing tone and cadence of that person, and even their typical use of emoji. To do this, ChatGPT must first identify the right person, and there must be a sufficient supply of posts from which the software can learn.
Sample prompt: "Write a 25-word social media post in a conversational tone like [name] using the following outline…" — then add bullet points with details of what the content should be about.
3. …modify tone and reading level
Whether for a social media post, a letter to stakeholders or an official press release, different texts and their audiences require different writing styles. ChatGPT can quickly modify texts to make the tone more conversational or more formal, for example, whatever is suitable for the audience that you define.
It can also adjust the reading level of a text, based on well-known standards, such as the Common European Framework. It can break down a complicated text into something more understandable, with shorter sentences and paragraphs, and simpler vocabulary.
Sample prompt: "Act as an editor and rewrite the following text to A2 reading level…"
Example from ChatGPT 3.5:
Prompt: "What is the CERN super collider? Explain it to me like I'm six years old."
Response: Imagine you have a toy car racetrack, but instead of just one car, you have two very, very tiny cars...
Follow-up prompt: "Now, explain it to me like I'm a physics PhD student."
New response: The CERN super collider, officially known as the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), is the world's largest and most powerful particle accelerator...
4. …provide variations of your content
If some of your content starts to sound the same to you, ChatGPT can help you find new ways to convey what is basically the same message. Providing the sample texts leaves you in control of the information and gives ChatGPT a firm basis to get the tone of the messaging right.
Sample prompt: "Act as a digital marketer and generate three variants of this Facebook ad copy..."
5. …generate hypotheses for A/B testing
Marketers often run A/B tests to lower bounce rates for web pages, for example, or raise engagement with downloads or other features. ChatGPT can be a big time-saver in preparing these.
Sample prompt: "I'm running an A/B test to compare page A and page B in order to increase the number of sign-ups to our newsletter, and I need help generating hypotheses based on click rate and form completion. Can you provide recommendations for what to test?"
6. …extract SEO keywords or other text elements
This can be another time-saver. Here, too, it helps to have ChatGPT play the role of SEO manager or similar.
Sample prompt: "Act as an SEO manager and extract six keywords from this text."
7. …identify unanswered questions
ChatGPT can analyse a text and give you clues about missing information or things that might be unclear to the reader.
Sample prompt: "What open questions remain after reading this text?"
Basic prompt types
Zero shot
Along with various prompt styles, there are a number of ways to communicate with ChatGPT. The simplest way is known as a "zero-shot prompt". This means you don't provide any examples or details about what you want. These are often simple open questions, for example:
Prompt: "What is the capital of Australia?"
Response: The capital of Australia is Canberra.
Remember: Always check information a chatbot provides!
One or few shots
For anything more complex, a detailed briefing will be useful. This is called a "one-shot prompt", or a "few-shot prompt" — depending on how much detail and how many examples you provide.
Prompt: "I'll give you a topic. Please write blog post header segments in the following format:
Title:
Subtitle:
Introduction:
My topic is unicorns"
Response from ChatGPT 3.5:
Title: The Mythical Realm of Unicorns: Unlocking the Magic and Wonder
Subtitle: Exploring the Legends, Symbolism and Fascinating History of Unicorns
Introduction: Embark on an enchanting journey into the realm of unicorns, where imagination and reality intertwine. These majestic creatures have captured the hearts and minds of people across cultures and generations. From ancient legends and folklore to modern-day interpretations, unicorns continue to inspire awe and spark curiosity.
Chain of thought
Having ChatGPT step into a role provides the context for your content and helps get things moving in the right direction. A chain-of-thought prompt goes even further, by demonstrating the process through which the correct answer should be reached. This can further improve the software's results in, for example, arithmetic or common-sense tasks.
Writing pictures:How to prompt AI image generators
Text-to-image AI, such as DALL-E 2 (also created by OpenAI), Midjourney or Leonardo.Ai, are highly capable platforms and a lot of fun to use. It's often stated that AI-generated images can be used commercially, however, you should be aware that some photo agencies, particularly Getty Images, have taken legal action, claiming breach of copyright. There should be no problem with using the software to pep up your internal presentation, however.
Here are some tips for prompt writing with image AI:
- In some cases, prompts may have a limited character length, but prompts often don't need to be very long — you can get results with just a few emoji.
- It is very helpful to learn some art/photography vocabulary: such as "fast/slow shutter speed", "motion blur", "watercolour", "pencil drawing", etc.
- The same is true of angles: such as "overhead view", "low angle", "aerial view", etc.
- And for framing the image you want: such as "extreme close-up", "close-up", "medium shot" or "long shot".
- Without knowing technical terms, you can name a specific film or TV show (with the year in brackets) to borrow the artistic look: such as "Casablanca (1942)" or "Stranger Things (2016)".
- The same prompt can often produce very different images, so some trial and error may be required. Also, even if an image looks perfect at first, a closer look may reveal some odd things — like a person with three feet! You can ask the software to remove those elements.