Despite AI often feeling like an entirely new experience, ChatGPT has actually been going for a few years now. In fact, the AI chatbot has gone through iteration after iteration, bringing in new features, getting smarter, and becoming what it is today.
I have been using ChatGPT for most of that time, testing it out almost daily since the end of 2022. In the earliest days of using it though, ChatGPT was a much simpler tool than it is today.
It could just about string together a story or script; it had some bizarre tendencies; and it would shut down at your request half the time. And yet, for the time, it was a really impressive bit of tech.
Jump forward to today, and not only has ChatGPT become smarter and much more capable, but the way you need to use it has also changed entirely.
Because of that, if you’ve been using ChatGPT since the early days, and you haven’t changed your prompting style, you might be doing it wrong.
In the beginning, you had to talk to chatbots in a much more simplified way. They couldn’t handle data like they could now, and adding too much detail could throw it off course. Instead, the best way to use chatbots these days is to give it everything you can.
Tips for using ChatGPT
More is better
I remember using an early version of ChatGPT where the model fell apart because I’d mentioned too many names. It couldn’t keep track and the story became a mess of made up characters and confused plot points.
That isn’t the case now. Especially in the latest version, ChatGPT can process huge amounts of information. If you have the time and patience, give the chatbot as much information possible for your request.
This could be supporting documents, web links, data or even just a complete rambling of your inner-thoughts. If you’re finding the response lacking, it might just be because the model doesn’t have enough to work with.
Take the time to offer as much detail as possible and you’ll be rewarded for it.
Try multi-tasking
In more recent iterations, ChatGPT is able to do multiple tasks in one go. This makes it really useful for completing larger tasks.
For example, you can give it a prompt along the lines of “Write a report analyzing the US financial market. The report should look between 2020 and 2025, and include analysis from multiple sources along with comparisons to the worldwide market. Use the internet to support your findings.”
This kind of prompt is asking ChatGPT to complete multiple tasks in one go. This is something that just wasn’t possible before but now it can process these tasks all in one, giving a response that covers multiple areas.
Get creative
There are an array of tricks that you can use with ChatGPT these days. One that I have found a lot of success with is to tell ChatGPT to “use all of the tools at its disposal to complete the task”.
Or another one that comes up a lot is “Think through your answer multiple times before answering”. ChatGPT’s thought process can be really detailed but it won’t always use these features if it doesn’t have to.
Sometimes, simply giving ChatGPT a push can go a long way.
