← The ChatGPT Experiment - Simplifying AI For Curious Beginners
The ChatGPT Experiment - Simplifying AI For Curious Beginners
Ep 71 - The Amazing Intern That Is ChatGPT
00:23:16
EPISODE SUMMARY In this solo episode, host Cary Weston takes listeners back to one of his most popular and useful frameworks: thinking of AI as your “amazing intern.” He shares evergreen advice and practical tips for anyone, whether you're brand...
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Kerry Weston
Foreign welcome to the ChatGPT Experiment podcast. My name is Kerry Weston. This podcast is for curious beginners and I try to give you a nugget that may just help you understand what ChatGPT is and how to find some value in your personal or professional life. Relatable. Valuable to you, right? Relatable value is what I'm trying to say there to you. Welcome to the show and today I'm going to go back to and stick with a basic premise that I talked to time and time and again. And that's the AI of artificial intelligence being really about an amazing intern. And so when I talk and teach and Coach and discuss ChatGPT with others, I like to reframe the conversation from artificial intelligence to an amazing intern. I'm going to talk a little bit more about what that means today, some of the evergreen principles that I think really resonate and help people adjust their perspective to get more out of it. And just some tools and suggestions for no matter how, let's say, comfortable you are with ChatGPT, there's always things that can help us do better. And what I'm finding is these tips remind us that we're not using software, we're using something different. And so I'll share with you those evergreen tips that I see being most valuable and getting the best reception and feedback from folks. And hopefully you can see how to apply it to the work that you're doing. But first, how are you doing? We're coming off Memorial Day weekend. I spent my weekend down in Providence, Rhode Island. We have a. If you've been listening for a while, you know that I'm a travel baseball dad. I'm also, I've got three kids, very active. And so this weekend we had to split. My daughter had a track meet in the southern part of the state of Maine that we're in here. And my son had a travel baseball tournament out of state in Providence. So I got to go to Providence and find our way back last night. You know, busy, busy weekends, busy weeks, quite frankly. And we're in that period of, like I've said before, I'm the unpaid Uber, right? I'm the, the travel coach, traveling secretary, if you will, but wouldn't give it up for the world, right? This is a small window of time that I get to invest in the relationships. And just like that, it's going to be gone. So I soak up as much as I can, when I can. Last week, let's see, had the had an opportunity to meet a number of you Folks had some good one on one training sessions, had a company training session with a company down in Georgia and from memory I know that we had on the call, we had accounting, we had management, we had it, we had human resources, we had marketing and a really good conversation about how some of these tips I'm going to share with you today can come into play and help in whatever role and perspective you have in the company. So I thought that was neat was the ability of taking these evergreen principles and applying it to a very specific position. Good feedback there and glad you reached out. Glad you reached out. That was a listener of the podcast that reached out and said hey, I'd like you to come train my company. Hey, have you seen the free guide for the custom GPT? I've seen a number of you downloading it, so I know you're finding it. But if you haven't found it yet, on the homepage of chatgpt experiment.com is the free guide of best tips for curious beginners that's been there for a bit, but a couple weeks ago I put together a step by step guide to creating custom GPTs. Creating a custom GPT for you. And if you are looking to do something in a repetitive basis or more than one thing on a repetitive basis and you think that you could benefit from having ChatGPT really be focused on that one thing over and over again, well, you might want to take a look at custom GPTs. It's the way really tightening the existence of what I say this is your only existence is the only reason that you're here is to do this one thing over and over again. And custom GPTs gives you the ability, the availability of really being laser focused on that thing, whether it's editing, creating content, creating documents, you're taking on the perspective of, of somebody giving you feedback, whatever it might be. Custom GPTs are a pretty powerful way of doing that. And in the trainings that I do with you folks that that reach out and set up a training with me. By the way, Chad GPT experiment.com individuals and business trainings if you want to check it out, I'll be happy to spend some time with you. I usually end up showing people how to take a problem that they're having or a goal that they have and creating a custom GPT to get you on your way. And so I took some of that information and put it into a guide for you so you can Download that@chatgpt experiment.com really interesting personal note here. My oldest Maddie, who's Been a guest here on the podcast, graduated from college about a month ago. And as I shared with you then and probably mentioned a couple of times, her college, the culture was with chatgpt, thou shall not. It was really one of those don't use it tools. It wasn't a lot of discussion and a lot of guidance. And she was in college at the time when ChatGPT was just starting to come mainstream, right? And so there really wasn't a lot of education, teachers and faculty were catching up as much as anyone else. And so the availability of understanding it and teaching it, nurturing it, just didn't exist. And so she graduated without knowing really how to use it. And so we had a kind of a. What do you want to call it, a sprint session, if you will, over a couple days of just sharing with her some of the things that I share with you and how to put it into practical use for something that's before her. And what's before her right now is trying to find gainful employment, right? Remember the hip hip hooray, you graduated now what? Right. And the now what comes with adulting. And adulting means let's go find a meaningful way to support my life. And so she congratulated, you know, I was very happy for her, congratulated her. She got her first job interview. And so we used ChatGPT to do two specific things. First was to research the opportunity to research where she was going and talking points and history and, you know, to get her really familiar with the things that would be around her if she were to get the position, but also to prep for conversation. Right. And the second was role playing, which was to ask ChatGPT to take on the role of the person that would be interviewing her. Right. In the role that they have, and take the empathetic position of knowing enough now about the organization and the position and what was in the job description and what we found out on our own. What are some of the things that you'd want to ask an applicant, like Maddie coming in? And so we created a role playing scenario where she was able to practice having that conversation. Now, it's been a while for me, and so I think I can remember it, but some of you may be closer to it than I am. The first time that you put yourself before a potential job, that job interview that gave you butterflies, the job interview that you were really nervous because you hadn't done this before, right? And so a lot of things in life, you know, are easier the second time. It's breaking the seal of doing it for the first time, that creates the anxiety, right? I remember buying, buying my first house and what a huge adult thing that was. And then once you get through it, you're like, oh, I got this. You know, you do it again. Having your first job interview is intimidating. And I've spoken to a number of classes at universities where graduating seniors are soon to be graduating seniors do not really want to talk about the real world in terms of business and the reasons that I was brought in. I remember one very specific conversation where I was brought into a marketing, a senior level marketing class. And I was brought in to talk about my agency and how it works, the business side of what I do. And I was maybe two or three minutes into introducing myself and, and kind of laying the land of what my business is when I saw the glazed look on the eyes of the seniors. And so I stopped. I wasn't there to dictate. I was there to interact and help and give value and have conversation. And so I asked them, you know, I don't feel like this is something that you're really interested in. What is it that I can really help with? What kind of information can I really give you? And there was some uncomfortable silence for the better part of a minute as I coaxed one of them into raising their hands. Right. In that very brave first time question, she asked me, you know, what happens if I get fired? And that opened the door to some really great dialogue in terms of real world questions and concerns, not how does the business work and the textbook side of life. It was really about what happens if, right? How do I find a roommate, what if I get fired? All the things that were running through their head. How do I interview, you know, and so I took that experience with Maddie this week and a couple of things shared with her that, you know, the accomplishment, the accomplishment of getting the degree is great, but that degree time is over. You are now, you have that piece of paper and you did some great things and you achieved your goals. But now you're in a different league and it's time to take a different approach, right? The entitlement of having a paper. The world owes you nothing for having the paper. Now it's time for you to understand the opportunities before you, the people that represent those opportunities, and how to connect and how to collaborate and communicate with those folks. And so we did that and so we modeled it. And she was very well prepared. And she shared with me that the role playing for that position allowed her to be much more comfortable because the questions that were coming at her seemed familiar. Right. And so it's still an anxious moment for her. And I won't share that, that it wasn't. But it allowed her to feel like I got this because the mystery was not as great and she was able to settle in. Right. And be more comfortable. So really cool to take some of these things that I share with you and talk to you about and apply them right here in front of me with somebody in C Value. So she got a second, second job interview. I'm recording this on Tuesday morning following Memorial Day. So her interview, her second interview is a couple days away. So I'll keep you posted there. Proud dad there. If she gets their first interview, first job kind of thing, that's really great. And she was able to get in and play with and become more comfortable with her own curiosity. Inside chat GPT so really cool to see that come to light. And so I think shifting to the nuggets here that I wanted to share with you real quick is I just actually wrote a forward. So a friend of mine is writing a book on AI in a particular industry and they asked me if I would write the forward to the book. So I was very honored for that request. And so I took some time to think about who's going to be reading the book, the purpose behind it, their position, what they're thinking, what they're feeling. And I shared in that forward the same types of things that I'm sharing with you right now. And that's the AI. The artificial intelligence is very cold. It's a very cold statements, very technologically heavy statement. And that creates anxiety. And so the first thing I do is I share with people. The AI means amazing intern. It gives you the opportunity of visualizing somebody that you would have next to you at your desk. So imagine there's a chair next to your desk and that chair is for an intern that is yours. They're here to help you, to support you. By the way, it's there 247 and it's very, very capable. But it's only capable if given the right direction, the right information, right complete information. Otherwise it's going to go do whatever it thinks it can to help, but it probably won't be relevant, meaningful. And it's best work because if you only talk to it like you talk to Google, which is like, you know, pizza's near me, right. If you don't talk to it in a proper way, meaning complete information, background, purpose, goals, all that kind of thing to help it really understand who you are and what you're doing and why you're doing it and what success will look like if you invest that into that intern, you're going to get better work out. And that's the shift. That's the paradigm shift. Artificial intelligence to amazing intern. The second thing I share with folks is literally just talk to this thing, just talk to ChatGPT and this becomes, let me see how I say this. The more technical your history has been with computers, programming, coding, you know, very structured approach, the longer you've been doing that and the more technical you've been doing it, the more uncomfortable this piece of advice becomes. And this is the point when I start to share this and show it in workshops, I get a lot of people looking at me and say, this is weird. This feels weird. Yeah, it does. There's a paradigm shift here. You're not learning software, you're having a conversation. And for some folks, that's hard to get their head around, but truly have a conversation. If you see me in trainings and if we work together, you're going to see me literally talk to ChatGPT, just like I'm talking to you. I'm going to give it color and context, right? And talking to it is important. Not prompting, not engineering. There's no code, there's no lines, you know, there's no right or wrong. It's the ability of thinking about that intern that's sitting in the chair. What information would you give them so they can truly understand what they're supposed to be doing, how maybe the best do it, and what success looks like, right? And so another tip I give folks that are new to this is, so if you're new to ChatGPT, if you're curious about what it can do for you, ask it, right? So along with talking to it, ask it, the best exercise that you can do is say to ChatGPT, this is who I am, this is my position, right? Let's say this is a professional thing, this is my job, this is my position. These are some of the things that I do inside this position. And I don't know much about ChatGPT, so I'm asking you, how can you help me? Right? And it'll come back and it'll tell you. And so that's literally how I would frame it, is to say, this is my name, this is my position, maybe this is the company I work at, and these are some of the things that I do on a normal basis, right? These are some of my responsibilities. How can you help me? And you'll be surprised perhaps, if you haven't done this before as to what it brings back for information. Okay, which leads me to my three favorite words with ChatGPT is tell me more. So it's going to come back and it's going to give you information, but it's probably going to give you bullets and a couple summary sentences to say. Do any of these, Are any of these interesting to you? Do anything? Would any of these things bring value to you? And then if you say yes, let's say it gives you a list of five things or 10 things that it thinks it can help you with because you've asked this question and shared with it who you are, what you do. Tell me more about number three. I'm curious about number three. The ability for that intern to give you more meaningful, deep information, more context, more color, like I used, I like to say, is really impressive. And so don't take face value. What you get out of ChatGPT thinking that's the most helpful it's going to be. It's going to give you layers. So when you ask it for something, it's going to give you layers. It's going to give you kind of that skim layer, right? That top layer to see if there's anything there that's a value. And then you say, tell me more, and we go deeper and it gives you a lot more detail. Right? So talking to it, ask it questions, giving it context. Right. Thinking of it as an intern. And that intern, by the way, this intern is very eager to help. And this, this intern is probably not going to tell you, I don't know or I can't do that. It's going to go do it. It doesn't know any different. Okay. So the ability for it to bring something back should not surprise you. It will always bring something back. The question is, will it bring something back that's of meaning to you, of value to you, that fits your goal, purpose, and has any, you know, can you use it? Right? So remember, that intern is very eager. It's nervous, you know, if you think about Maddie, it's nervous to please. And it's probably going to act in a way that it thinks can help you, but without the proper information, it doesn't know what that looks like. So it's going to make it up. And I don't mean it's going to make up facts and figures, and sometimes it has done that. It's getting better at that. But it's going to try to do something, and it may or may not be meaningful to you. So if you look at that chair and you say, okay, this is what I need. This is the situation. This is what I'm hoping to get out of this, you know, this is what success looks like. Here's some things that are important to me, and here's the kicker. Never assume that it understands everything that you gave it, and never, never assume that you've given it as much information as you can. Okay? So the final. The final recommendation I have for you today is as you are looking at this intern, as you are communicating to this, that this intern that wants to help you, okay? I always close by saying when I give it initial instructions. So let's just take a hypothetical. And I want to create a report, a research report, right? And I would say, this is my position, this is my company. I'm looking to do a research report on this, whatever this might be. These are some of the things that are important to me. These are some of the things that I'm hoping to find. These are some of the things that would be nice to have. Right? And by the way, I'd like it to be in an organized bulleted outline with a summary, and here's the pieces that. That are important to me. So I'm just sharing with it again what success looks like. And I'm going to close by saying, before you move forward, would you please ask me any questions that might help you better understand the directions and the goals that I've given you? Because I want you to do your best work, okay? So when you share with it, the permission. Let's just use that word right now, the permission to ask you questions so that it can better understand. So see what I did there, by the way? As I say, please ask me any questions that you may have to help you better understand what it is that I'm looking to do so you can do your best work. That little nugget at the end of some of the conversations and goals that you're giving, ChatGPT will unlock its own curiosity and it will start to fill in some gaps where you thought maybe you had given it enough information. It's going to come back and ask you some details that might surprise you, and you'll be like, yeah, that's a great question, because I should have said that, that, that you're going to assume some things, right? The ability for it to have permission to be curious with you, to come back and get more information, to fill in the dots under the premise of it's doing its best work, right? And I always say that because I want it to have pride in its work. And I understand we're talking about a computer, so I understand we're talking about a technical thing. I get it. But again, I'm treating it like an intern. I'm treating it like somebody that's there to help me. And so I want to make sure that when I pass the baton, that I am creating a force multiplier and I'm getting value back. And the only way I can do that is if, just like I do in my own work, if I were to ask an employee when I had them, you know, this is what I want you to do. Before you go, do you have any questions? Is there anything that you need to know? Is there anything that I forgot? Because I want you to do your best work. I want to empower you to do your best work. Please ask me and it'll come back and it'll ask you. Okay? So there you go. The empty chair next to your desk. The amazing intern. Visualizing somebody sitting there and wondering, what is it that they need? What information do they need? What clarity? What details do they need? What background? Right. And what permissions do they need to help you? The best that they can is a great way of looking at ChatGPT, no matter if this is personal or professional or this is your first time working with it, or if you're seasoned. I'm finding that going back to these principles will help you get more out of this thing. Right. And will help you find the path to which this intern can be the most valuable. All right. Hey, listen, if you have any questions, chatgpt experiment.com is where you find me again. I do one on one trainings. I do group trainings. I've been talking to and seeing a lot of you. Really appreciate that. It's really cool to hear what people are doing and sharing what you're doing and getting the chance to work with you is great. So check out the training. There's a business page, an individual page on the website. The new guide, Right. The custom GPT guy. Check that out. Articles up there as well. If you have a question, shoot me a note. It's a pleasure getting to talk and learn and hear from folks listening to the show. And I hope you get some value, some value out of it. Right? So I'll close by saying, the thing that's most important to me is that your success with A tool like ChatGPT relies on your creativity. Right? Unpacking and using your own creativity to see what's there and how you can get the most from it. So until we talk again, do stay curious. Okay? Talk soon.