How to write great ChatGPT prompts? – Boulder Daily Camera

Q: My colleagues get really interesting results with ChatGPT, but when I use it or Microsoft Copilot, my results are banal and mostly useless. Is there a trick to getting good answers when asking questions?

A: It may come as a surprise, but there is a little trick to creating the best prompts for your favorite AI system, be it Google Gemini, Microsoft Copilot, or ChatGPT itself.

All good prompts should be detailed: task, context, examples, and persona. You should clearly state what results you are looking for (the task), provide some background information so the AI ​​can understand the relevant area (context), offer some examples, and specify who you want the AI ​​to be when answering (persona).

For example, if you ask a generative AI system, “How are hiking trails rated?” you might get acceptable results, but if you invest a little more time and try something like this, you can get great results:

“You are a backpacking expert giving a talk on hiking trails at a local high school. Explain how trails are rated by summarizing the most common rating systems, including the numerical rating formula.”

See how it all fits together?

ASK THE AI TO EVALUATE YOUR PROMPT

You can also take this to the next level by simply asking the AI ​​system to rate the prompt you’re using. When I asked ChatGPT about the above – specifically “rate the following prompt and suggest improvements” – it suggested the following as a better alternative:

“You are a backpacking expert giving a presentation on hiking trails to high school students. Explain how trails are rated by summarizing the most common rating systems, including the numerical rating formula. Make sure your explanation is clear, engaging, and appropriate for an audience with little prior hiking knowledge.”

ChatGPT offered to explain: “You poor human, you are no match for my extraordinary cognitive abilities!”

Just kidding.

The revised version states that “taking into account the audience’s likely limited hiking knowledge, the emphasis is on clarity and engagement.”

Your search queries should also contain many words

Even before Google relied so heavily on artificial intelligence to analyze and interpret search queries, people used overly concise search queries. Are you looking for information about your dream Ford Mustang? A search for “Mustang” or “Ford Mustang” is too general. What year is it? What do you want to know about it? Do you want pictures, reviews, famous cars or celebrity owners?

Since we’re in an AI-powered search and chat world, it’s now even more important that you be verbose in your prompts and queries. Like this:

“From the perspective of an obsessive classic car collector, which year of Ford Mustang would be the best addition to a collection? Explain your choice in detail, including historical significance, rarity, performance and design.”

I leave it to you to decide if you agree with ChatGPT’s answer!

Dave Taylor has been active in the online world since the early days of the Internet. He runs the popular tech Q&A site AskDaveTaylor.com and invites you to subscribe to his weekly email newsletter at AskDaveTaylor.com/subscribe/. You can also find his entertaining gadget reviews on YouTube at YouTube.com/AskDaveTaylor.

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