Why context is ChatGPT’s secret sauce

Welcome back to another edition of GPT Hacks. Today we cover why it’s important to give ChatGPT context (more details) in your prompt.

Imagine someone calls and says, “the key is in the box.” But they don’t mention what key, what box, why you should care, or where any of this stuff is anyways. That’s how ChatGPT “feels” when you don’t give enough context in your prompt. Let’s do better.

⏮️ Previous hack: 77 things you can do with ChatGPT (more hacks)

💡Mastering context

Have you ever asked ChatGPT a simple request like “Write a short post for my food blog about the importance of spices”? Sure, ChatGPT will provide a well-structured post…but it’s, well, bland. The question is too broad, and most importantly, it lacks context.

🌟 Why does it matter?

Improved relevance: ChatGPT relies on a large dataset of information to generate responses. When you give enough context in your prompt, you help ChatGPT narrow down the potential range of responses and generate more relevant and useful output for your specific task.

Higher accuracy: Without context, ChatGPT may not fully understand the scope and purpose of your prompt, leading to less accurate, less helpful, and less usable responses.

Greater creativity: When you guide ChatGPT with context, you can encourage the AI to explore new ideas and perspectives, fostering creativity in the output.

🎯 Top tips to elevate your prompts with context

1. Be explicit and specific: State what you want with enough clear context that ChatGPT, as a language model, can understand your request. Broad, unclear prompts get broad, generic output.

2. Define your goals and objectives: Share the purpose behind your request, such as SEO, conversion, or thought leadership, and explain the "why" to align ChatGPT with your objectives.

3. Desired format and organization: Specify the response format, whether it's a table, list, blog post, or email, to get tailor-made results, and consider breaking your prompt into step-by-step instructions or multiple prompts for better clarity.

4. Provide background information: Offer history, scenarios, or constraints that may be relevant to your task to help ChatGPT understand your query more effectively.

5. Use examples and follow-ups: Show your needs with examples to give ChatGPT a better understanding of your expectations and ask follow-up questions for more detail, clarification, or alternatives as needed.

🎁 Boost your skills further with our AI tools database! Refer 1 friend using this link, and we'll send it your way when they confirm. Tip: share the link with 2 friends curious about AI or ChatGPT - 1 is sure to sign up!

✍️ Let's dive into an example

Imagine you're a marketing manager looking to generate a captivating tagline for your company's new product. By giving ChatGPT a prompt with clear and detailed context about your product, target audience, and the message you want to convey, you enable it to generate more relevant and creative taglines.

See what happens when you use context vs. when you don’t.

🚫 Basic Prompt
Create a tagline for our new product.

Basic Output
Experience the Future: Innovate, Elevate, and Transform with [Product Name]

🎨 Awesome Prompt
We're launching EcoQuencher, a new eco-friendly water bottle targeted at outdoor enthusiasts. Our product is made from sustainable materials, has a unique self-cleaning feature, and is designed to be lightweight and durable.

Create a short and catchy tagline for our new product that makes EcoQuencher sound unique and gives a feeling of joining a special club when you carry one around. The tagline will be printed on the bottles and in all of our marketing materials.

Keep in mind that our target audience values sustainability, convenience, and performance.

Awesome Output
EcoQuencher: Embrace Adventure, Sustain the Planet, Join the Movement

In short…
The more context you give, the better results you get!

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🚧 Things to Consider

Even as a language model, ChatGPT does not always perfectly understand context. Some limitations include:

1. It can’t understand highly domain-specific jargon.

2. It is highly sensitive to the way you word your prompt.

3. If you give it too many examples in your prompt, it tends to repeat them to you

To overcome these limitations:

1. Use a brief explanation of any technical terms you include in your prompt.

2. Experiment with different ways of wording your prompt.

3. Limit examples to what is needed to avoid over-reliance on them.

🤖 Prompt to try

Write an email to my Salesforce account manager letting them know I will not be renewing our subscription. What context do you need?

By adding the question about context, you’ll see exactly what ChatGPT needs to create a great output. Try it!

🖼 AI Image of the Day 

We use MidJourney to create new images to share with you. In future issues of GPT Hacks, we’ll have tips for MidJourney too. For now, enjoy this image of a man discovering a key packed mysteriously in a box! How’s that for lack of context?

🛠 Tool to Try: Synthesia

Create custom videos with AI-generated avatars using Synthesia. Just add some text, choose an avatar, and let Synthesia do the rest.

Sure, AI avatars don’t come across as warm or authentic as humans do (they are AI, after all), but we like this tool for the incredible cost and time-saving help with producing videos. And if you’re going to use AI in a video - call it out upfront so viewers don’t waste any time wondering about it.

🎁 Looking for more tools to try? Refer 1 friend using this link, and we'll send you access to our database of over 250+ AI tools. Tip: share the link with 2 friends to make sure at least 1 signs up.

🌟 AI Fact of the Day

In 2017, Facebook's AI chatbots created their own language, which was more efficient than English for them to use.

Read more