Don't Use ChatGPT Until You Watch This Video

The video script provides valuable tips on how to maximize the utility of ChatGPT by customizing it to your needs. It emphasizes the importance of setting custom instructions to inform ChatGPT about your background and preferences, which allows for more relevant and efficient responses. The script also suggests using prompts to guide ChatGPT in writing in your style, self-reviewing its own text, and self-prompting to optimize the prompts for better outputs. Additionally, it covers how to control the length of responses and specify the output format, such as tables, CSV, HTML, or even JSON and XML. The key takeaway is that the quality of interaction with ChatGPT is largely dependent on the quality of the input provided by the user.

Takeaways

• 📝 Use custom instructions to inform ChatGPT about your preferences and context to get better responses.
• 👤 Provide information about your profession and region to receive more relevant and tailored answers.
• 📉 Set preferences for the language and tone of responses, including formality, neutrality, and response length.
• 🔍 Request the confidence level of ChatGPT's answers and source URLs for factual information.
• 💡 Teach ChatGPT your writing style by providing examples, so it can mimic your style in its responses.
• ✅ Ask ChatGPT to self-review and provide feedback on its own text to improve clarity and content.
• 🔄 Utilize self-prompting to optimize the prompts for better output, such as writing emails or articles.
• 📈 Specify a word count limit in your prompts to control the length of responses.
• 📋 Request responses in different formats such as tables, CSV, HTML, JSON, or XML for various uses.
• 🖋️ Customize the output format to include specific details like borders and spacing for better presentation.
• ⚙️ Remember the principle 'garbage in, garbage out' to make the most out of AI tools by providing clear and specific input.

Q & A

What is the main issue with using ChatGPT without proper prompts?

The main issue is that it can lead to poor quality answers and a waste of time going back and forth, as the AI might not understand the user's specific needs or context.

How can custom instructions in ChatGPT improve the quality of responses?

Custom instructions allow users to provide context about themselves and their preferences, which helps ChatGPT to tailor responses that are more relevant to the user's line of work, region, and desired tone.

What is an example of a custom instruction a user might set for ChatGPT?

An example could be instructing ChatGPT to provide the most efficient Excel formula without any explanation when asked for help with Excel, or to give the most efficient code snippets without additional programming explanations.

How can ChatGPT inform users about the confidence level of its answers?

Users can instruct ChatGPT to always inform them about the confidence level of its answers, which is particularly helpful for factual topics. It can also provide valid URLs with sources for its answers.

How can a user teach ChatGPT to write in their own style?

Users can provide examples of their writing style to ChatGPT and instruct it to save this style under a specific name (e.g., 'LG_STYLE'). Then, they can ask ChatGPT to write content in that saved style.

What is the purpose of self-crit in the context of using ChatGPT?

Self-crit allows ChatGPT to review its own text, provide feedback on potential issues, and suggest improvements. It can analyze clarity, suggest adding specific examples, and highlight capabilities.

How can ChatGPT self-prompt to optimize its own prompt?

Users can ask ChatGPT to write several optimal prompts for a specific task, focusing on key elements provided by the user. ChatGPT will ask clarifying questions to ensure it creates the best prompts possible.

Why is specifying a word count important when asking ChatGPT to generate text?

Specifying a word count helps to avoid overly long responses, making the information more concise and easier to digest for the user. It can be included in custom settings or added to individual prompts.

What are some different output formats that ChatGPT can provide?

ChatGPT can provide outputs in various formats such as plain text, tables, CSV, HTML, JSON, XML, and even as a Pandas data frame.

How can a user ensure that the text generated by ChatGPT is concise?

Users can instruct ChatGPT to reduce the length of the text to a specific percentage of the original, or to express the same information in a more concise manner using fewer words.

What is the old principle mentioned in the script that applies to using ChatGPT effectively?

The principle is 'garbage in, garbage out,' which means the quality of the output depends on the quality of the input. Users should provide clear and thoughtful prompts to get the most out of ChatGPT.

Outlines

00:00

🤖 Optimizing ChatGPT Interactions

The first paragraph emphasizes the importance of crafting good questions for ChatGPT to provide high-quality responses. It suggests using custom instructions accessible through the profile icon to inform ChatGPT about the user's identity, preferences, and desired response style. The paragraph also discusses setting the AI's language tone, whether it should express opinions or remain neutral, and the length of responses. An example is given on how to instruct ChatGPT for specific tasks like providing Excel formulas without explanations, and the benefits of setting the AI to inform about the confidence level of its answers and to provide source URLs for factual information.

05:04

📝 Developing a Personal Writing Style with ChatGPT

The second paragraph focuses on teaching ChatGPT to write in a user's unique style. It explains the process of providing examples of one's writing style to ChatGPT and saving it under a specific name for future use. The paragraph demonstrates how to instruct ChatGPT to write an article in the user's personal style, using examples from the user's website. It also touches on the option of having ChatGPT review and critique its own text, providing feedback for improvement, and the concept of self-prompting to optimize the AI's own prompts for better responses to specific tasks, such as writing an email to a team.

10:08

📐 Controlling Output Length and Format

The third paragraph deals with controlling the length and format of ChatGPT's responses. It advises on setting a specific word count for responses either in custom settings or within the prompt itself. The paragraph also covers techniques to reduce the length of existing text and to specify the desired output format, such as tables, CSV, HTML, JSON, XML, or even a Pandas data frame. It concludes with the reminder that the effectiveness of ChatGPT is heavily reliant on the quality of the input provided by the user.

Keywords

ChatGPT

ChatGPT is an advanced language model AI developed by OpenAI that can generate human-like text based on given prompts. In the video, it is portrayed as a tool that can be customized to provide high-quality, personalized responses when used with the right prompts and settings. It is central to the video's theme of optimizing AI interactions.

Custom Instructions

Custom Instructions refer to the user's ability to set specific preferences and guidelines for how ChatGPT should respond to their queries. In the video, it is emphasized that by setting custom instructions, users can avoid repeating their preferences in every conversation and receive more relevant and efficient answers.

Confidence Level

The Confidence Level in the context of the video is a metric that ChatGPT can provide to indicate how sure it is about the accuracy of its answers. This feature is particularly useful for factual topics, allowing users to gauge the reliability of the information given.

Writing Style

Writing Style pertains to the unique way an individual or author composes text, which can include tone, vocabulary, and structure. The video discusses how users can train ChatGPT to emulate their personal writing style by providing examples, which is useful for tasks like writing blog posts or articles.

Self-Critic

Self-Critic is a method where ChatGPT is asked to review and critique its own text, providing feedback on areas for improvement. This is demonstrated in the video as a way to refine and enhance the quality of AI-generated content.

Self-Prompting

Self-Prompting is a technique where ChatGPT is used to generate and optimize its own prompts. This is shown in the video as an effective way to create targeted and efficient prompts that yield better responses from the AI.

Word Count

Word Count refers to the number of words in a piece of text. In the video, it is mentioned as a parameter that can be set to control the length of ChatGPT's responses, which can be useful for creating concise and focused content.

Output Format

Output Format is the way in which ChatGPT presents its responses, such as plain text, tables, CSV, HTML, JSON, or XML. The video explains how users can specify the desired output format to suit their needs, such as for direct use in documents or websites.

Garbage In, Garbage Out (GIGO)

GIGO is a principle that suggests the quality of the output of a system is highly dependent on the quality of its input. In the context of the video, it is used to emphasize the importance of providing clear and thoughtful prompts to get the most out of ChatGPT.

Excel Formulas

Excel Formulas are mathematical equations used in Microsoft Excel to perform calculations on cells of data. The video uses Excel formulas as an example of how ChatGPT can be instructed to provide solutions without unnecessary explanations, catering to users who are already familiar with the software.

Code Snippets

Code Snippets are small, reusable pieces of code that can be used to solve a particular problem or perform a specific task. In the video, it is shown that programmers can instruct ChatGPT to provide efficient code snippets without additional explanation, streamlining the process of solving coding problems.

Highlights

Custom instructions can be set up through your profile icon to improve the quality of responses from ChatGPT.

Inform ChatGPT about your background to receive more relevant answers based on your profession or location.

Specify the language and tone you prefer for ChatGPT's responses to avoid unnecessary back-and-forth.

Set preferences for the level of detail in responses, such as whether explanations are needed or not.

ChatGPT can provide solutions directly without explanations when you specify your needs, such as Excel formulas.

Instruct ChatGPT to inform you about the confidence level of its answers and provide sources for factual information.

Teach ChatGPT to write in your personal style by providing examples of your writing.

Use ChatGPT to self-review and provide feedback on its own text for improved quality.

Optimize ChatGPT's prompts by asking it to generate multiple prompts and select the most effective one.

ChatGPT can self-prompt to refine its own prompts for better output, such as writing emails.

Specify a word count limit in your prompts to control the length of ChatGPT's responses.

Request ChatGPT to output information in different formats, such as tables, CSV, HTML, JSON, or XML.

Improve the readability of HTML tables by refining the prompt to include borders and spacing.

The importance of providing clear and specific prompts to get the most out of ChatGPT is emphasized.

Garbage in, garbage out principle applies to using ChatGPT effectively.

Custom settings can be saved for consistent preferences across different interactions with ChatGPT.