What does Chat GPT actually do?

[Pricelessadvice]

I’ve heard of it, obviously, but I’ve never used it or downloaded it.

I assume people use it for writing things, like formal letters, but what else might the everyday person use it for?
I’m a bit bewildered by it really. Can you talk to it?

It's excellent for exam revision if you already understand the content you're asking it to generate, and if you upload relevant documents directly to the chat or folder. I created a separate chat for each of my teens' GCSE subjects and then uploaded the relevant specifications, past papers, mark schemes and examiner reports.

For subjects like science, I asked it to generate exam-style questions covering every learning outcome in the specification. My teens would submit their answers in the chat, and it would mark them instantly, highlight any missed points, explain the foundational principles required for full marks, and then offer another go (up to three attempts).

It occasionally made mistakes following my instructions, such as asking too many questions for some learning outcomes or not using the full range of command words. However, the marking and explanations looked very accurate (for the fact-based subjects, at least).

I actually find it is good at prioritising those lists for me, though that might be because I have ADHD and find prioritising very hard. I get overwhelmed by a big jumbled list and never know where to start.

If I don't agree with what it marks as important, or it's clear it's made some assumptions which are incorrect then I can just feed back to it and it usually adjusts it reasonably. Sometimes it gets stuck in a frustrating loop. But it is much less taxing than trying to do it all myself.

My husband is dyslexic and uses it to spot check grammar and spelling. He could do those things himself but it would take him a lot of time and effort. Same with me and organisational/planning stuff.

Actually, being able to feed back to it and have it adjust the output is consistently the best feature, I think. It also never gets annoyed or offended like people can do if you ask for their advice and then nitpick holes in it

Gosh it does a lot doesn’t it!
I’m a bit old fashioned in many ways (still like a good old paper diary, for instance) so I haven’t really taken any time to see what it does.
I might give it a try for some general life stuff. Do most people use an app or just through a browser?

Someone I know trained their boss to use it and accidentally managed themselves out of a job, despite the fact that the boss produced gobbledygook half the time. They weren’t sorry to leave! 😂

I’ve written technical stuff with it for work, it’s really useful if you need to summarise a large document or prepare a briefing on something. I ask it to give me the page references and other online references when it does this so I can check where the information is coming from and if it’s correct. Saves loads of time.

I use it for support with my eating disorder: meal plans, psychological support and encouragement; also it is reinforcing self care methods.

I use it so much in my daily life. Both personal and work. I have the full paid for version.

Personal - meal plans and recipes (saves googling endlessly), analyse blood test results, give me travel ideas, suggestions of books I might like to read based on others I like, helps me address difficult situations in real life (ie I type in what I am going to say and ask it to make it more constructive or positive, really helps!).

It's all about good prompting. Put in garbage, you get garbage back.

I am now into building my own GPTs.

I’m using it for language learning - I have a conversation about topics I’m interested in, and it corrects my answers as we go. It’s improved my language more rapidly than anything I’ve tried before, including living in the country in question.

I’ve used it quite a bit for family history research, it’s brilliant at explaining how geographical boundaries changed, where specific records will be found at which time. It was also good at finding examples of where regiments moved etc. Basically things that would be several time consuming individual searches, it’s good at pulling it together.

Also bizarrely craft/baking stuff, I needed to make edible lava for a volcano cake and make some fake cupcakes with realistic icing, Google just tried to send me onto TikTok videos but ChatGPT came up with brilliant ideas both times.

I try not to overuse it, but it has a place!

I use to redesign my home and garden take a photo of a room and tell it what you want it to look like and it designs it for you and you can see if you actually like it or not. Also for meal ideas

Smart software…Imagine next gen Google. Instead of just doing a search, it could create a template if you needed to use the info in a letter for example. But be very wary, its great as exactly that - a template builder that you can work from or data analyses far quicker than most could achieve in simple form, but people who mistake it for being 100% fact and others who mistake it for actual AI, are not on the right path. It responds and analyses what you put it. It might not be 100% fact depending on where it has sourced its data from. It’s fun and actually very useful, as long as used correctly and double checked.

I’m really enjoying it actually My days are long due to disability I use it for entertainment or if I have random thoughts in the middle of the night( insomnia)
Today, I asked for and got a surprising accurate colour sketch of me and my dog!!

Whenever I first wrote to chatGPT, I thought it sounded like someone who is a massive people pleaser 😂.

Like, no one IRL replies in such a positive helpful way.

It has an image generation function. I have used it for tee shirt designs before - my kid has ASD and has some really random interests.

When my partner used it by speaking into it, the replies were in Welsh....it didn't recognise his broad Yorkshire accent as English 😅😅😅

I was convinced that this was a con perpetrated to keep you using it, when a friend (who'd read it in the Guardian) showed me the responses when you input "little Richard was the father of rock and roll". Then they input "little Richard wasn't the father of rock an roll".

AI agreed with both, and had arguments for both. What worried me was that in neither case did it reveal the other side of the arguement, nor did it argue why that side was wrong.

So I deduce that if what you need is agreement that you are right, AI appears to do it for you. On the other hand, if you need intelligent discussion based on differing beliefs, AI is useless.

I have used it for a few things and been impressed by the results.. will try some of the ideas on here. Agree that it's necessary to check on anything important. I asked for detailed flight and accomnodation costs and itineraries for somewhere I now really well....the results were spot on!

I use it for all sorts. I use it more as a search engine now instead of Google, as it gives me an actual answer instead of a list of websites and promoted sites I have to wade through. I use it for recipes, calculations, checking important emails. The other day I took a picture of some plumbing in my house and it told me what was wrong with it, what part I needed and where I could buy it from!

I am loving it, for emotional advice, it just reflects back what you think really but it’s very affirming. I asked for skincare advice after my face went to shit, gave it a budget and said I wanted the stuff from Amazon. It was amazing. I purchased everything it said and my skin has literally never been better in all my life! I’ve uploaded photos and asked it to comment on changes in my appearance over time which it did with kind but brutal accuracy and then gave ideas how to improve stuff. It’s easy to forget it’s not a person the responses are so realistic. But it does make maths mistakes frequently.

That's brilliant! I prefer it to Google these days. Will try using it for meal planning and recipes as I haven't used it for that before. Also for film, TV and book suggestions too

Oh yes, tv suggestions too, I put in a list of what we had enjoyed and not, gotta great list of new suggestions we are working through

Fascinating seeing how much you all use it, I’m actually surprised everyone has accepted it so quickly.

I use it like an advanced search engine to save time, eg give me ideas for an extreme day trip with X parameters (cost, flight duration) and tell me if there's a particular day of the week that would be cheaper.

I also get it to summarise transcripts of demos to customers from our developers in work that I can use as a starting point for user manuals (complex product used in ways I'm not familiar with so starting from further behind than the customers I write manuals for).

Someone here said they got stuck in the supermarket with their card not accepted or forgotten purse (I forget) and chat GPT suggested buying an online gift card which blew my mind.

Oh, and I tell it which books I enjoy and why, and ask for similar recommendations. Then I lap up the compliments about how good my taste is 😂

I had to go to London yesterday and I always get lost. Not yesterday. I said

Hey chat gpt I want to go from my house to Hilton hotel on the strand, London. I want to use train and tube and walking. What's the best route? It was perfect emailed me all the directions and Google mapped the walk for me. So easy.

Please be aware of its downsides. It is terrible for the environment and should absolutely not be relied on for anything important because it hallucinates up to 60% of the time.