Get started with ChatGPT: The ULTIMATE Beginner guide
If you’ve been hanging on any part of the internet recently, you probably noticed that ChatGPT is booming. The media is talking about it, people are creating content around it, and you probably guessed it: ChatGPT is not leaving anytime soon. Here’s our beginner guide to get started with ChatGPTso that you can stay in the know AI tools, knowledge and experience race!
Before we start, make sure you access ChatGPT through chat.openai.com or the official apps for maximum security. ChatGPT is accessible on iOS and Android platforms, but double-check when downloading the app from the App Store or Play Store. Make sure of the developer’s name before installing.
How to get started with ChatGPT: Key things to know
ChatGPT and its API are not available in all countries yet. Always check on OpenAI’s website to see any restrictions for your location. If you have issues signing up, validating your phone number, or seeing a “You are blocked message”, contact OpenAI’s support team.
Understand How ChatGPT works?
The better you understand the ChatGPT LLM model, the better you can use it. ChatGPT is an advanced computer program that mimics human-like responses by learning from a large amount of text. Here’s how it works in four main steps:
Learning from text
ChatGPT gets trained by reading lots of text from the internet, like books and articles, to learn language patterns.
Understanding context
When you type a message, ChatGPT breaks it into smaller pieces called tokens to understand what you mean.
Generating a response
ChatGPT predicts and puts together the most likely words to form a sensible reply based on what it has learned.
Adjusting the response
ChatGPT will format its response to your needs, like adding bullet points lists, or putting words in bold or italics. This happens before you even see the final output that GPT gives you.
Learn about ChatGPT Prompting
You can’t master a tool you don’t understand, so let’s break down the basic vocab and terminology you’ll need to work with ChatGPT and understand related content.
A prompt is an instruction you provide to ChatGPT. The better your prompt, the better ChatGPT’s response will be.
A token is a piece of text of approximately 4 characters. Each GPT model has a token limit, and using tokens comes with a cost for ChatGPT API users.
Why is it important? That’s how ChatGPT reads and understands what you want. If your prompt ends with a space or anything other than a character, it can affect the quality of the output.
The input is the text you write to ChatGPT. The output is what ChatGPT answers to you.
An API is like a bridge allowing different software applications to talk and share information. It defines rules for interacting and exchanging data, making it easier for developers to connect their apps with other services or platforms. Many apps have APIs, and it’s not only exclusive to ChatGPT.
What can ChatGPT do for you?
When you get started with ChatGPT, it may seem that ChatGPT is just an AI tool to joke with or ask random questions, but there is so much more to ChatGPT than you can imagine. Many people already understand prompting but haven’t considered all of the ways ChatGPT can help. Whatever industry you work in, there’s always something that ChatGPT can help you do. It can even help you in your daily life outside of work.
How to write a prompt in ChatGPT?
When you have a question, there are many ways to get your answer, but what is the best way? That is what prompt engineering aims to do: write the best input to get the optimal output. Prompt engineering is a whole topic by itself, but there are some basic rules to remember:
Know what you want
If you say “I’m looking for a pre-filled text that I can modify”, GPT will give you a random document with blanks, but if you say, “I’m looking for a template for an email to explain to my client that I can’t accept their offer”, that’s much better.
Check your spelling and grammar
ChatGPT speaks many languages, but be sure to give your most concise input and ask things clearly. You can use browser extensions to check your spelling.
Provide context
You need that email to refuse an offer from your client, and ChatGPT can write that for you, but you’d get a better result by adding context. See example below
“I need a template for an email to explain to my client that I can’t take their $5000 offer. My schedule is packed. However, this is a long-time client, and I want to keep them and offer to reschedule. Can you write a professional email about that?”
You will get a much better result. Be careful, though; ChatGPT doesn’t need to know everything because too much information will disrupt the output.
Be clear with your prompts
If you want a list, say so. If you want the output to be adapted to a certain audience, let ChatGPT know. If you have a specific goal in mind, explain it. One good prompt is better than 15 follow-up prompts to correct ChatGPT.
“I’m a blogger, and I need a list of the most beautiful places in the world. Can you create a list of 10 items, with country names in bold and a description of the place in italics? Make sure it’s formatted to be friendly to read”.
Round Up
That’s it! The basic guide to get started with ChatGPT is now in your possession and you can enjoy this amazing AI tool right away. It’s encouraging to know that the AI boom is just the beginning and AI is here to stay.
If you’re new to ChatGPT and the concept of prompting, be encouraged to know that the more time you spend using ChatGPT, the better you’ll get at it. However If you can’t wait for that, why not use a cheat code and check our Prompt Engineering guide or learn more about ChatGPT in our ultimate ChatGPT faq.
You can also check our other ChatGPT content on Automation Switch.
