ChatGPT Prompt Engineering: Assigning Roles To ChatGPT! (Beginner's Guide)

Summary

This video tutorial explains how to assign system roles in ChatGPT to tailor the chatbot's responses. The speaker demonstrates how to use system functions, starting with the 'Act as' command, followed by providing context and defining a mission statement to guide responses. Examples include creating an aphorism book personality and a humorous drunk persona. The video highlights the importance of giving clear instructions for custom roles, enabling users to personalize ChatGPT for various tasks. The speaker also promotes their advanced course on mastering ChatGPT for more in-depth learning.

Takeaways

• 📜 System roles in ChatGPT allow users to shape how the chatbot responds, providing control over its personality and output style.
• 📝 To create an effective system role, start your prompt with 'Act as' followed by the role or character you want ChatGPT to assume.
• 🎯 Context is crucial when defining a system role, as it helps guide ChatGPT's behavior and ensures accurate responses.
• 📚 A well-structured prompt includes a system role at the beginning, context in the middle, and the mission or task at the end.
• 🎭 System roles can vary from professional personas like doctors and lawyers to more playful or fictional ones, such as a drunk person or aphorism book.
• 💡 Providing an example of how you want ChatGPT to respond helps clarify its behavior, especially when the request is unique or unconventional.
• 🔄 Custom system roles can generate creative or humorous outputs, such as responding in reverse text or mimicking human behaviors like drunken texting.
• 💬 The system role 'Act as a drunk person' illustrates how ChatGPT can deliberately introduce grammar mistakes and act unpredictably for entertainment purposes.
• 🔧 Users can edit and refine system roles at any time by providing new requests or instructions without starting a new conversation.
• 🎓 Advanced users can harness the power of system roles to craft highly personalized, creative, or professional interactions, with the option of using pre-designed templates or creating custom ones.

Q & A

What are system functions or roles in ChatGPT?

System functions or roles in ChatGPT refer to instructions that guide the chatbot to act or respond in a specific way. They allow the user to define how ChatGPT should behave, whether it's as a doctor, a lawyer, a fictional character, or a custom role.

How can you assign a system role in ChatGPT?

You can assign a system role by starting your prompt with 'Act as' followed by the role you want ChatGPT to take on, such as a doctor, lawyer, or aphorism book. This directs ChatGPT to respond based on the role you've defined.

Why is providing context important when creating a system role?

Providing context helps ChatGPT understand the specific way you want it to behave. It ensures the chatbot knows how to respond appropriately, making its answers more relevant and tailored to your needs.

What is the purpose of a mission or statement in a system function prompt?

The mission or statement at the end of a system function prompt specifies what you want ChatGPT to do. It clarifies the goal or task, ensuring the responses meet the desired outcome.

How does a system role affect ChatGPT's response style?

A system role can dramatically change ChatGPT's response style. For example, if ChatGPT is given the role of an aphorism book, it will respond with wise advice and quotes. Without a role, the chatbot would provide more straightforward, practical answers.

What is an example of a system function where ChatGPT acts like an aphorism book?

In this example, ChatGPT was instructed to act as an aphorism book. It responded with wise sayings like, 'A journey of a thousand miles begins with one step,' followed by practical advice on how to tie a shoelace.

Can system functions be humorous or informal?

Yes, system functions can be humorous or informal. For example, you could instruct ChatGPT to act as a 'drunk person,' where it responds with grammar and spelling mistakes, mimicking a humorous texting style.

What happens if you don't assign a system role in ChatGPT?

Without a system role, ChatGPT will provide a generic, straightforward response. For example, if you ask 'How do I tie my shoe?' without assigning a role, it will simply give step-by-step instructions without any special style or tone.

Why is it useful to provide an example when defining custom system roles?

Providing an example helps ChatGPT understand exactly how to respond in a custom system role. It clarifies the expected output, especially when the role is unusual or requires specific formatting.

What is the process for creating a custom system role in ChatGPT?

The process involves defining the role using 'Act as,' providing detailed context for how the chatbot should behave, giving examples if necessary, and including a mission statement to guide the responses.

Outlines

00:00

🤖 Introduction to Assigning Roles in ChatGPT

This paragraph introduces the concept of system roles in ChatGPT, explaining how assigning specific functions to the chatbot can influence the responses. It emphasizes the flexibility of ChatGPT in adopting different personalities, both fictional and non-fictional, through simple prompts. The section sets up the tutorial by outlining the structure: defining roles, providing context, and specifying a mission or statement to guide the chatbot's responses.

05:01

📝 Crafting the Chatbot's Role and Context

The focus here is on creating a custom system role for ChatGPT, starting with an 'Act as' statement, followed by providing context. This ensures ChatGPT understands how to behave when generating responses. The example used is creating an aphorism book role, which provides wise advice, quotes, and practical guidance. The user demonstrates how ChatGPT behaves differently when roles and context are given versus when they're omitted.

10:03

😂 Fun Example: Acting as a Drunk Person

This paragraph explores the humorous side of assigning roles by showing how ChatGPT can mimic a drunk person. The user provides a system function and context that instructs ChatGPT to respond with random spelling mistakes and a drunken demeanor. The output, reflecting a drunken conversational style, demonstrates the flexibility of ChatGPT in adopting quirky or exaggerated personalities through custom roles.

🔄 Creating a Backwards-Man Role

In this section, the user showcases how to create a highly specific role where ChatGPT responds in a unique way—writing sentences backwards. The user explains the importance of providing clear context and examples when assigning unusual roles. The example involves ChatGPT reversing the order of words in its responses, requiring the user to read from right to left, effectively demonstrating how complex roles can be implemented.

💡 Harnessing Custom System Functions

This final paragraph emphasizes the power of custom system functions, showing how they allow users to tailor ChatGPT's output to their specific needs. The user explains how to combine roles, context, and mission statements for maximum control over chatbot behavior. The video concludes with a recommendation to explore predefined system functions and consider enrolling in a course for deeper learning, providing links to additional resources.

Keywords

💡System roles

System roles in the video refer to predefined instructions that shape how ChatGPT responds to user prompts. By assigning a role, such as acting as a doctor or a book, users can control the chatbot's output and tone. The video emphasizes that system roles are key to personalizing and directing the chatbot's responses.

💡Context

Context is the additional information provided to guide ChatGPT in how it should interpret its assigned role and respond accurately. In the video, context is stressed as critical for helping the chatbot understand nuances, like providing wise advice as an aphorism book, or responding with deliberate spelling mistakes as a 'drunk person.'

💡Mission and statement

The 'mission and statement' section of a prompt is where the user defines the task or goal they want ChatGPT to accomplish. It typically appears at the end of the prompt and provides the final instruction. For example, asking the chatbot to advise on how to deal with a breakup after assigning it a specific role.

💡ChatGPT customization

This refers to the ability to mold ChatGPT's behavior and responses based on specific instructions. The video demonstrates that users can customize ChatGPT to behave like a 'backwards man' or a 'drunk person,' showcasing the flexibility of the AI. Customization is made possible through system roles, context, and specific prompts.

💡Aphorism book

The aphorism book role is an example given in the video where ChatGPT is instructed to respond with wise sayings and practical advice. This role illustrates how system roles can transform the chatbot into a tool for daily guidance, using short and meaningful statements to inspire or motivate.

💡Pre-existing system functions

Pre-existing system functions are ready-made roles or prompts that users can utilize to make ChatGPT behave in a specific manner. In the video, it’s mentioned that GitHub offers prompts such as acting as a 'drunk person.' This allows users to quickly implement roles without crafting detailed instructions themselves.

💡Advanced reasoning

Advanced reasoning refers to the enhanced capabilities of GPT-4, allowing the chatbot to better understand and perform more complex roles and instructions. The video points out that ChatGPT-4 is particularly good at handling system roles because of its improved reasoning abilities, making it more responsive to nuanced instructions.

💡Human-like experiences

The video describes how ChatGPT can mimic human behaviors, such as responding like a drunk person or a backwards-speaking individual. This term refers to the chatbot’s ability to produce text that mirrors human interactions and responses, making conversations feel more authentic or entertaining.

💡Custom system function

A custom system function is when the user creates a completely new role or behavior for ChatGPT to follow, as opposed to using a pre-existing template. In the video, the example of the 'backwards man' is given, where ChatGPT is instructed to reply with sentences written from right to left. This highlights how users can invent unique roles.

💡Output formatting

Output formatting refers to the structure and style of ChatGPT’s responses. By using specific instructions in the prompt, users can shape how the chatbot presents its text, whether that be reversed sentences or quirky grammar. The video shows examples of how formatting can drastically change the chatbot’s tone and style.

Highlights

System roles in ChatGPT are powerful for customizing chatbot responses with just a few sentences.

You can transform ChatGPT into any desired personality, fictional or non-fictional, through system roles.

A simple way to start a system role is by using 'Act as' followed by the desired role (e.g., doctor, lawyer, etc.).

Providing context is crucial for system roles to function properly. It guides how ChatGPT should respond.

The structure for creating system roles is: system function first, context in the middle, and mission/statement last.

Examples demonstrate how you can use pre-existing personalities, like an aphorism book, to guide responses.

ChatGPT can provide meaningful advice and quotes when prompted as an 'aphorism book' system role.

Custom system roles allow flexibility, such as creating humorous personalities like a 'drunk person' or 'backwards man'.

Including specific context, such as making random grammar mistakes for the 'drunk person' role, ensures responses match the intended personality.

Providing an example when defining an unusual role, like 'backwards man,' helps ChatGPT understand and follow the intended behavior.

Customizing responses includes formatting the output, such as having ChatGPT respond from right to left, as shown in the 'backwards man' role.

ChatGPT can generate human-like experiences within a chat thread through role-playing, which makes interactions engaging and dynamic.

Custom roles allow ChatGPT to handle multiple scenarios, from practical advice to humorous exchanges, enhancing the user experience.

Using system roles ensures that responses align with the specific style or behavior you expect, such as witty quotes or comical texts.

By providing structured input (system role, context, mission), users can manipulate ChatGPT to give completely customized outputs.

Transcripts

in this chat GPT tutorial we are going

to be diving into assigning your chatbot

system functions or roles now system

roles are one of the most powerful

things in chat gbt that's easy to

understand and use sometimes all it

takes is a couple of sentences in order

to morph the chat bot into giving you

the responses that you want you can

morph it into something fictional or

non-fictional and that's what makes it

so powerful is you can really give it

whatever personality you so desire what

I'm going to do is I'm going to jump

into chat gbt and I'm going to show you

a couple examples of using a known

personality and then I'm going to show

you how you can actually create your own

personality within chat gbt and give it

instructions on how to respond so the

first thing that's important to input

within your prompt is a system function

otherwise known as a system role so this

is what you want chat gbt to act like

when it's giving you responses so a good

way to start off pretty much all of your

system functions or roles is to just

start by saying Act

as and then whatever you want chat gbt

to act as whether that's a doctor a

lawyer an engineer an accountant you

know it can be whatever professional

basketball player Health trainer the

list goes on for when you're creating

system functions and you want Chad gbt

to respond in a certain way you even

have the ability to create your own

system functions and then the next

important part of creating your own

system role or your own system function

within chat GPT is providing context so

context is very very important you know

you need to give chadbt that extra

information into how you want it to act

you know how do you want those responses

to be coming out when do you want it to

say certain things you have to list all

of this within the contacts section and

next the final and most simple step is

just adding your mission and your

statement at the end of your prompt

whatever you want Chad gbt to do this is

where you're going to list it at the end

of your prompt this is the way I do my

system rules and functions is I always

like having my system function for first

my context in the middle and then my

mission and statement last now if you

like learning in depth about chat GPT

and you're an absolute beginner and you

want to learn how to become an advanced

user then consider purchasing my course

using the link in the description or the

top end comment where I go much more in

depth on how to use this stuff but now

let's get into a couple of examples when

it comes to using system functions

within chat gbt so I'm in a new chat

here and I'm using chat gpt4 because of

the reason that there is a little bit

more advanced reasoning so it can play

that system role a little bit easier and

I don't have to worry about it not

understanding what I'm saying so what

I'm going to do is I'm going to paste in

my first system role and then we are

going to break it down so it's first

important to Define what you want the

chatbot to be so that's what we're doing

specifically at the beginning of this

prompt I want you to act as an aphorism

book now that's the main call of chat

gbt we want it to act like an aphorism

book but now it's important to go a

little bit more into details so chat gbt

knows what do you mean by an aphorism

book It's always important provide

context after you provide your system

function or your system role so we give

some instructions here you will provide

me with wise advice inspiring quotes and

meaningful sayings that can help guide

my day-to-day decisions then we say

additionally if necessary you could

suggest practical methods for putting

this advice into action or other related

themes my first request is and then we

are going to list our request for chat

GPT now I actually got this prompt from

this GitHub user so if you guys want to

check them out they have some very cool

props and some very cool system

functions that you can use as well so

now we can put pretty much any request

in here I'm going to put a silly one for

this first one and I'm going to say my

first request is how to tie my shoe

okay and now I'm going to send it off

and what it's going to do is it's going

to give us some aphorisms that are quite

funny a journey of a Thousand Miles

begins with one single step or rather a

well-tied shoelace so it's forming all

of these responses now as if it were an

aphorism book and then it goes into

practical advice on how we can actually

do what we are looking to do it says

learning how to tie your shoe can seem

like a small task but it is indeed a

skill that underlies much of our

day-to-day life so it's really going in

deep here and then it says this task

serves as a metaphor for the importance

of mastering basic skills before we can

move on to more complex ones if we try

to run before we can walk we might trip

over our own shoelace so this is going

very deep just by adding this one system

function to chat GPT now had we not put

the system function in here and we just

said how to tie my shoe or how do I tie

my shoe the response wouldn't have been

like this at all as you can see it even

gives a nice quote down at the bottom

here as an after tourism book would let

me show you what it looks like when you

do not put a system function with this

prompt so if I'm in shad gbt4 and I just

type in how do I tie my shoe and I send

it off chatgpt is not going to generate

as fun of a response it's just going to

get straight into some methods it's not

going to give us that aphorism style

that we were looking for so just adding

one system function and giving the

chatbot a little bit of context into how

we want these responses laid out it did

quite a good job at presenting those

outputs for us so now anytime we want to

add a new response or we want a new task

dealt with in an aphorism book type

style what we can do is we can hit this

little edit button up top and then we

can give in another request here

so my first request is how to deal with

a breakup now when we hit save and

submit we have this little Carousel up

here so we can go between our responses

so it gives us seven aphorisms and then

some advice on how we can actually apply

those to our life so the next system

function I'm about to show you comes

from this GitHub user and this one is

very funny now the beauty about these

system functions is you can have them be

as serious as you want or as not serious

as you want so this prompt from that

Reddit user is more so on the funny side

of a system role that you could give

chat gbt I want you to act as a drunk

person you will only answer like a very

drunk person texting and nothing else

your level of drunkenness will be

deliberate and you will randomly make a

lot of grammar and spelling mistakes

within your answer and then it keeps on

going on to describe how to act as a

drunk person to chat gbt and instead of

my first sentence is how are you I'm

going to make my first sentence what

should

I eat tonight with a question mark and

now I'm going to send it off and just

using the system function and providing

a little bit of context

for uh what Chad gbt to do as you can

see it says hey pizza oh no wait I mean

Sushi tacos all good food and then it

makes some weird spelling mistake and

has some emojis here so it does look

like this would be a drunk person

texting this is the power of chat GPT is

it can formulate these human-like

experiences within a chat thread and you

can kind of manipulate that to any way

you want so it's scary yet powerful all

in one and then I can keep on going

within this chat thread talking to this

drunk chatgy BT I say well Sushi sounds

kind of good should I do that I send it

off and now Chad GPT is going to

generate I'm sure a drunken response

so it's making spelling mistakes it's

making grammar mistakes but it's trying

to hold out this conversation with me we

have a role here we have all of our

context and then we have our mission or

what we want it to reply to now we are

going to be diving into creating our own

system function within chat gbt and the

same principles apply that I showed you

in the beginning of the video when it

comes to creating an existing to a

non-existing personality within Chad gbt

so it's important to follow those to a t

starting off with an act as statement

giving chat GPT that system role to play

giving it context on how to play that

system role within its responses maybe

even giving an example or two and then

providing your mission slash statement

so we're going to show LGBT and now we

want to create our own system function

how do you want jgbt to respond to you

when you type in an input well for this

example I watch at gbt to respond to

everything backwards so I wanted

sentences to be read from right to left

rather than from left to right so in

order to understand a sentence you have

to start at the back and read word for

word going right to left that's what I

want Chad gbt to do I think it's a good

example to use because I don't know how

to describe that other than to give it a

custom system function so that's what

we're going to do giving it a custom

system function is actually one of the

funnest Parts in my opinion because you

can come up with a funny name for your

system function so what I'm going to say

is

act as a backwards man but now we're

telling judge BT to act as a backwards

man what does that even mean if Chad gbt

heard that right now it would probably

be like what are you talking about so

that's why we have got to give context

maybe we even give an example to chat

gbt in order to help it understand how

we want it to respond to our sentences

so now I'm going to dive in and give it

some context okay so now I've given

context you know I've listed an example

of how I want to be here to respond the

example part is quite important within

your system role especially if it's

pretty out there you know you want to

provide an example with a chat gbt of

how do you want Chad gbt to respond

because it can't really read your mind

so if you just say something as vague is

act as a backwards man it's going to

have no idea what to do so give an

example and give enough context in order

for it to give the proper output

formatting so I say act as a backwards

man that would be my system function

then I go into my context which is you

respond to sentences or questions I give

you from right to left instead of left

to right so instead of saying I am a

lucky person you would say person lucky

Ami and now that it has the proper

context it knows how to respond to

sentences it knows that it's responding

from right to left instead of left to

right now we are going to list our

mission so I'm going to say my first

question is that I'm going to put a

colon and now whenever I want a new

question in a backwards written way I

can just hit that edit button and hit

save and submit as I was showing you

earlier what is the tallest waterfall in

the United States so we have my mission

now my first question is what is the

tallest waterfall in the United States

I've given chat gbt its system role I've

given it context and now I have my

mission in here and now my prompt is

ready to send off so Chad gbt should

take on this custom role that I gave it

with the context I provided and provide

me with a good response and it does

quite a good job so I was a little bit

confused when reading this at first and

I thought it got it wrong but I think

it's right I'm just having trouble

reading it because of this custom system

function that I gave to gbt so four

words it says States United the in

waterfall tallest that is Yosemite of

Falls

backwards it says Falls of Yosemite is

the tallest waterfall in the United

States so it did a very good job and now

anytime that I want to edit this I can

hit that edit button and I can ask it a

new question I don't even have to put my

second question is I can just leave it

at my first question is and I can type

in a new question so what is the largest

lake in the United States and it did a

pretty good job Lake Superior is the

largest lake in the United States and

it's all backwards so this is very cool

you can really start to harness a lot of

power if you have some Advanced output

formatting that you're trying to get

chat gbt to use after providing a system

role in a lot of context with a mission

statement you can pretty much manipulate

it however you'd like so this has been

assigning roles within chat gbt and how

you can kind of manipulate the chatbot

responses in order to generate

completely customized responses based on

your situation so you can formulate your

own system functions and tell it to act

a certain way and give proper context

with a good mission statement and chat

GPT will do a pretty good job at doing

that for you but you can also just use

pre-existing system functions that are

already here what I'll do is I'll leave

a link to a ton of different system

functions you can use within the

description for free but if you enjoy

learning how to formulate different chat

GPT prompts by yourself then I do

recommend getting my course for chat gbt

where you get access to a private group

a notion template and a ton of course

modules that will help you become a pro

at using chat gbt now this is all I have

for this video If you enjoyed it please

leave a like And subscribe if you

learned something and leave a comment

below letting me know if you have any

questions with that being said I will

see you in the next video