Since Open AI introduced ChatGPT to the public late last year, this gadget It aroused my curiosity and I decided to “jump on the bandwagon” immediately. I opened my account from the very first days and subscribed to the paid service as soon as it was available. However, when I talk about it with friends and acquaintances, this question often comes up, in different forms: “It’s certainly a super cool tool, but how do you get practical use out of it?” I will use this space to try to answer that question, based on simple and daily uses, but not for that reason of little value.
ChatGPT is not just a tool to search for information, since this task has been carried out by search engines (Google, Bing, Yahoo, etc.) for a long time. On the contrary, it also serves to locate, select, process and organize said information in a way that we have not seen before, at incredible speed. Another huge advantage of ChatGPT is the ability to fine tune the instructions and customize the results. Whether you are looking for travel recommendations according to your plans or interests, or for books by subject, genre or language, this tool can adapt to your preferences and, therefore, return very valuable results.
Many question the value of paying $20 a month for the ChatGPT Plus service, although I consider it a great way to spend my money. Even though my Global Entry subscription still ranks number one in terms of return on investment – saving me countless hours in airports – ChatGPT is positioning itself within my top ten.
On a personal level, this generative AI tool has been incredibly helpful. For example, it helps me identify books that interest me and locate comments and reviews that make it easier for me to decide whether or not to read them, as well as prepare summaries of articles, documents and speeches, saving me the details and a lot of time. It allows me to interpret and understand medical tests in simple terms, providing timely ideas to discuss with my doctor. He suggests exercise routines tailored to my needs, and builds menus according to specific nutritional guidelines, focusing on the ingredients and preparation time of my choice.
At the family level, ChatGPT has turned out to be a treasure. Planning trips is easier with suggested itineraries and practical tips. With teenage children at home, each day presents challenges. ChatGPT has helped us identify strategies to foster positive interactions, suggested interesting reading and activities for this stage of life, and recommended movies that hit the nail on the head. And for my 7 year old son? ChatGPT has been an endless source of inspiration: from his age-appropriate movies to fun and simple home experiments, entertaining crafts, and silly jokes. I created a list of songs (playlist) to give to my mom for her 70th birthday, perfectly aligned with her musical taste.
From a professional perspective, ChatGPT has been integrated into my workflow. For example, I use it to obtain relevant information about a potential client before a meeting scheduled at short notice, to build business development initiatives, suggest performance indicators and recommendations to optimize processes.
Similarly, he answers foreign law questions that allow me to have a basic conversation with a colleague in another jurisdiction, and helps me draft emails, draft presentations, and content for my LinkedIn profile. I frequently use ChatGPT to design agendas, with the aim of increasing efficiency and productivity in meetings.
Like any tool, the more you use it, the easier it becomes to use and the quality of the results improves. For those interested in getting the most out of ChatGPT and other similar chatbots, I highly recommend looking into tutorials or online courses to hone your skills, including the ability to generate instructions (prompt engineering).