How to Become a ChatGPT Power User

[The image above is generated by Midjourney. The prompt I used to create the image is listed at the end of this email.]

The ability to navigate and utilize conversational AI is becoming less of an option and more of an imperative for those who want to remain competitive. This isn't merely about keeping pace; it's about leveraging the capabilities of sophisticated AI to optimize your work, amplify your creative potential, and open doors to unexplored possibilities. The future isn't on the horizon anymore; it's right here. ChatGPT can redefine your professional routine; becoming adept at it is a step forward in your career. Here are my top recommendations for utilizing ChatGPT as a power user.

Create Effective Prompts

One of the core skills for using ChatGPT is effectively conveying what you want to provide a result as quickly as possible. This all starts with the ability to enter information as prompts. Here are some of my tips for creating prompts.

• Prompt for Creativity - If you're looking for imaginative responses, explicitly ask ChatGPT to "brainstorm" or "think creatively." Encourage the AI to explore unconventional ideas by instructing it to generate "outside-the-box" solutions.

• Reframe or Rephrase - If ChatGPT struggles to provide a satisfactory answer, consider rephrasing your question or providing additional context. Sometimes, slight adjustments in the wording can lead to more accurate and relevant responses. Remember that this is a chat. You can continue to provide information to get the best possible answer.

• Utilize System Messages - System messages allow you to guide the AI's behavior throughout the conversation. By providing high-level instructions through a system message, you can steer the conversation towards a specific tone or style, ensuring consistency in the generated responses.

Here’s an example of a well-crafted prompt. Note that it includes context and sets constraints in size (you could use words, but I often use tokens as the unit of measure as that’s how the model measures text).

Tapping into Prompt Libraries

Creating complex and effective prompts might seem like an art, but a trove of inspiration is available at your disposal. Prompt Libraries like FlowGPT and AIPRM are excellent resources for finding prompts and gaining ideas.

These platforms offer a range of categories to explore, providing countless examples of effective prompts. You can also see the results these prompts generated, giving you an idea of what to expect from your instructions. They also allow you to contribute your successful prompts, fostering a collaborative community of ChatGPT power users.

Extending ChatGPT with Plugins

ChatGPT Plus subscribers have exclusive access to GPT-4 plugins. The ChatGPT plugin store can be found under the 'Plugins (Beta)' section in GPT-4. You can install one or more plugins by clicking the 'Install' button next to each. While ChatGPT limits you to using a maximum of three plugins per chat, you can install as many plugins as you want. Once installed and connected to any necessary third-party accounts, you can use the plugin in ChatGPT. Remember to research third-party ChatGPT plugins before giving them access to your data or credit card.

I feel like LinkReader and WebPilot are must-have plugins for searching the web, but here are some other plugins that I find especially useful that you may not know about.

• Prompt Perfect: Helps users write the perfect prompts for the AI chatbot. It rewrites the entire prompt to make it highly detailed, helping ChatGPT develop informative and specific answers.

• Mermaid Graphs: Allows users to create real-time diagrams of almost all types based on fundamental concepts provided by the user.

• Wolfram: Powered by advanced data, it allows users to access advanced computation, math, and real-time data to solve all queries.

• Zapier: Lets users interact with over 5,000 different work apps without performing extra steps. It allows users to draft emails or send in-depth Slack messages from ChatGPT.

• Argil AI: Allows users to generate images right within ChatGPT. Users describe the image they want, and Argil AI generates it.

There are hundreds of plugins in the OpenAI store, and I wouldn’t be surprised if there won’t be more than 1,000 by the end of the year. So do some research and find plugins that solve your everyday business needs.

Custom Instructions

ChatGPT has introduced a feature known as Custom Instructions. This feature allows users to set specific preferences or requirements that the AI will consider when generating responses.

For business users, this feature has several practical applications:

1. Customization: Business users can set preferences relevant to their work. For example, a project manager discussing Agile methodologies or a financial analyst preferring data in a specific format can set these as instructions for ChatGPT.

2. Efficiency: Custom instructions eliminate the need to restate preferences in every conversation. Once set, ChatGPT considers these instructions in every response.

3. Plugin Enhancement: By sharing relevant information, custom instructions can improve the user experience with plugins. For instance, if a user specifies a target demographic for a market research plugin, ChatGPT can include this information when interacting with the plugin.

It's important to note that this feature is in its beta stage, meaning there may be instances where ChatGPT does not perfectly interpret custom instructions.

Tip of the Week: Formatted Output in ChatGPT

ChatGPT is excellent for generating text, but sometimes it’s nice to include tables or HTML for blog posts. You can specify numerous formats for the output of your queries with ChatGPT; ask.

To make it even more convenient to work with these formatted outputs, consider adding a browser extension to export HTML tables easily. With such an extension, you can quickly export these tables to whatever format you need.

• Descriptive Data Visualizations: ChatGPT can be employed to describe intricate data visualizations. ChatGPT can generate a comprehensive description of the visualization by feeding data about a graph or chart. This can help present complex data to stakeholders in a more understandable format, aiding decision-making processes.

• HTML Generation: ChatGPT can generate HTML code based on user requests. This can be an efficient way to create web content or to generate boilerplate code for web development quickly. The output can be formatted with syntax highlighting, making it more readable and easier to debug.

• Tabular Data Presentation: ChatGPT can present data in a tabular format. By inputting raw data, ChatGPT can generate a well-structured table, making data easier to read and analyze. This can be particularly useful in presenting business reports or statistical data. You can copy them into a spreadsheet using a browser extension like Table Capture.

What I Read this Week

• Case Study: Prompt Perfect vs GPT-4 What I Listened to this Week - Prompt Perfect

• Use ChatGPT like a Pro: Discover Parameters and Unlock AI Writing Secrets - Anca Budau on Medium

• Teach LLMs How To Reason With Chain-Of-Thought Prompting - Arushi Prakash

• Parameters: The Secret Power To Have More Control of ChatGPT - Roberto Morais on Medium

• 5 Ways ChatGPT Can Improve, Not Replace, Your Writing - Wired

• A Watermark for Large Language Models - Research Paper from the University of Maryland

What I Listened to this Week

AI Tools I am Evaluating

• AI Prompt Genius - Discover, share, import, and use the best prompts for ChatGPT & save your chat history locally (formerly ChatGPT History)

• AIPRM - Complete Small Business Tasks with Prompt Management &1-Click Prompts for ChatGPT

• Floik - Turn your product flows into interactive content - demos, videos, and step-by-step guides. All on a single platform.

Midjourney Prompt for Newsletter Header Image

For every issue of the Artificially Intelligent Enterprise, I include the MIdjourney prompt I used to create this edition.