With all of the recent conversations about Artificial Intelligence (AI), you may be forgiven for thinking that AI had just been invented. In reality, at its most basic level, it’s been with us since 1957, it’s only more recently this the technology has been used to mimic human behaviour.
That doesn’t mean it’s materialised into a three-dimensional humanoid form, indistinguishable from a real person- not yet anyway! What it does mean is things like Amazon’s Alexa, a device that can understand what you’re asking and respond accordingly.
Now, of course, we have ChatGPT, a processing tool that allows you to engage in human-like conversations with a machine. It can also take any subject you care to mention and turn it into a body of human-sounding/reading text.
And, of course, it can also write code, arguably the aspect that is causing so much consternation. The theory is that a machine can self-learn until its intelligence is greater than that of its creator…
Back in the real world, ChatGPT is simply another useful tool to help us to get along with our daily lives. Created by Open AI and launched in November 2022, the basic package, more than enough for most of us, is free to use.
So, why is it useful and what can I use it for? To answer this question, let’s take a look at five ways you can use it.
- Writing a CV/Resume
It’s reasonably straightforward and a good place to start because it’s fundamentally writing about you. So, who better to judge the results than, well, you!
All you have to do is ask ChatGPT to write you a CV and follow the instructions. You’ll need to tell it the angle you’re after for your ideal job and provide as much information as you can.
Essentially though, that’s it. Feel free to let ChatGPT make as many tweaks as you want before going through the result until you’re happy.
- Practising Interviews
It’s not just the written word that ChatGPT can help you with -the clue is in the name of the program. You’ll need to prepare it with prompts, such as the type of job you’re after and, obviously, give it access to your CV and cover letter.
Then ChatGPT will write and conduct a job interview with you. It’s worth noting that, like Alexa, you can ask questions to ChatGPT and so long as you’re using the App, it will reply -indeed, you can have long, detailed conversations with it too.
- Playing Games
You can play all sorts of games on ChatGPT from family favourites like Hangman and Guess Who, to more grown-up Casino games. ChatGPT can even help you to play games by explaining rules and offering expert tips and advice.
And the great thing is this advice and support can be offered in real time, as you play. This means that ChatGPT can calculate the best time to make a move and the optimum moment to walk away.
It’s great for novices to get a feel for the action while having a guide to show you the ropes. Over time it will be able to analyse your strengths and weakness enabling it to advise with even more accuracy.
- Composing Emails
For many of us, ChatGPT will come into its own in our day-to-day work lives. For example, the mundane task of composing an email can be completed in a mere fraction just by giving Chat GPT the topic and context.
It can compose headers and sub headers and if you want them slightly personalised with variations on a theme then it can do that too.
- Writing Essays/Articles
Recently ChatGPT has come under the spotlight for helping students to supposedly cheat exams or cut corners when writing a thesis. For example, I could have simply asked ChatGPT to write this (I didn’t).
But while it’s useful for pulling information out of cyberspace and presenting it coherently, it’s compiled in such a way it feels tonally flat. And as it’s randomly drawing on existing information available online it’s not always factually correct either.
In short, it doesn’t do irony or pathos, little things that make things, well, human. At the moment, such indiscretions can be spotted though, in the future, these may be harder to detect.
Having said all that, it’s great for paraphrasing lengthy articles or just boiling down complex topics to make them easier to understand.
The five examples we’ve listed are just the tip of the iceberg, in many respects, ChatGPT is as limitless as your imagination. Find a recipe, translate a document (from 95 languages) write a song/joke/poem/story.
It’s simple and free to use. And if you get stuck on anything ChatGPT related, you can even ask ChatGPT to help you out!
