10 Things You Can Do With ChatGPT

Here are 10 ways you can use ChatGPT to get things done or just for entertainment. Learn how to brainstorm, get book recommendations, improve something you wrote, create tables of data, plan your next trip or play a game.

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Video Transcript: Hi, this is Gary with MacMost.com. Here are ten things that you can do with ChatGPT.
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There are lots of lists of different things that you could do with ChatGPT out there. A lot of them deal with things like building a resume, making a cover letter, practicing for an interview. It makes you wonder if a lot of people writing about ChatGPT are looking for jobs. Here are some other ideas that will be useful or entertaining to just about anyone.
So first, of course, ChatGPT is a website. You go to Chat.open AI.com. You don'f need any app or anything special like that. It just works with any browser. Signup for a free account and then you can just talk to ChatGPT. So first you can use ChatGPT as a great brainstorming tool. You can use it to brainstorm ideas for work, or your personal life. For instance, if you're looking for a gift for someone you can tell ChatGPT about that person and then have it suggest ideas. (Typing: I need a birthday present for a 45 year old man who likes playing golf and watching football.) After describing the person you'll get a list of different suggestions. (see list.) Remember the idea here is to chat, not just to throw a question out and get an answer. So if you don't get something you like at first just keep chatting. (Typing: give me some more unusual ideas. See list.)
Or you can just keep modifying things. (Typing: he also likes to travel and has an upcoming trip to Europe. See list). 
One of the fun things you can do with ChatGPT is ask it to write poetry. You can just give it any topic. (Write a poem about Mac computers. See poem). You can give it a style as well. You can also ask it to explain something and then turn that into a poem. (what is the difference between a hard disk drive and a solid state drive. See answer). So then you can do something like this (Explain it as a Shakespeare sonnet. See sonnet). 
If you ever watch a TV show or movie but not maybe paying full attention to it and then find that you're missing some important point you can always ask ChatGPT about it. But keep in mind it only has data going from about six months ago back. So don't ask it about a new TV show or movie. But if you're watching something older you could ask something like this. (In The Big Lebowski was bunny actually kidnapped? see answer).
Speaking of TV and movies or even books you can ask ChatGPT for recommendations. So you can provide information like what you already like and have it suggest new things. (Give me some book recommendations. I like authors like John Scalzi and Alistar Reynolds. See answer). You could always ask for more. 
Now a lot of people talk about having ChatGPT write something for you. But what I think is more useful is having it improve your writing. Like, for instance, say you were going to send a message to Customer Support and you want to make it more assertive. You could have ChatGPT do that for you. (Make this message more assertive. See answer). Then you could further modify it. 
Now I've been coding computers since I was a kid and I can't even count the number of computer languages I've used. But the one that I always struggle with, because I don't use it quite often enough to become proficient, is Regular Expressions. Of course now you can use Regular Expressions in Numbers as well as other places and they are so useful. But remembering how to create a Regular Expression is tough. ChatGPT can do it for you. So you can ask it something like this. (A regular expression for finding the third number in a list of numbers separated by spaces. See answer.) So not only do you get the Regular Expression that you could use somewhere, but you get an explanation for it. So you can further understand and maybe in the end be able to write your own regular expressions and not rely on ChatGPT as much. 
One of the things I love to use ChatGPT for is to have it provide lists or better yet tables. You can ask for all sorts of data in the tables. So you could do something like this. (Give me a list of popular fruits and their nutritional value. See answer). So that's really useful but a table would be better. So you just ask it for that. Then you can ask it for what data you want in the Table. (Make it a table and add columns for nutritional value, calories, fiber, protein, and cost. See answer). Now this is useful but notice how it gave me cost per pound. So I can just have it change it to cost per serving. The this table format here is the standard html table format. So I can select All of it and then Copy and then go to Numbers and then Paste. I'm going to use Paste and Match Style. You an see how the data pastes very nicely into a Numbers spreadsheet. 
Now if you like to do crossword puzzles and you get stuck with a clue ChatGPT can be your crossword buddy. You can just ask it for things like this. (What are some 6 letter words for smart. See answer.) Or you can get really specific. (Help me with my crossword puzzle. I need a 6 letter word that means smart. The first letter is C and the fourth letter is v.) Results do vary. Sometimes it will give you a wrong answer just like if it was a real person. It will give you words that aren't the right number of letters or don't have the right letter in the right place. But if you continue to talk with it, it will eventually help you find the right word. 
Now a lot of people talk about how you can use ChatGPT to play games. You can have it do 20 Questions. It can play TicTacToe with you. All sorts of different things. I was even able to get it to simulate a 1980's style text-based adventure game. But you could also get it to simulate things like Role Playing Games. So after some experimentation I found that this prompt here had its start basically a Dungeons & Dragons Game. Not only was it the Dungeon Master but there were two other players involved as well. You can just talk like you're playing a normal game. So you don't have to give it commands like Enter or Leave or things like that. You can just say Look Around. You can ask the other players things. (Ask the fighter what is your name. Answer). The other player is now asking me a question and I can respond and then you can investigate different things around you. You can move around. You can fight things. You can do all sorts of different things that you would normally do in a real game. It's really fascinating. 
Finally, you can use ChatGPT to help you plan things like, for instance, plan a trip. So you can prompt it with something like this. (I have $2500 to spend on a trip to Alaska. I'm coming from Denver. I want to stay in small hotels or B&B's and spend a lot of time outdoors and feeling nature. Plan a trip for me. See answer.) Then you can ask it for more details. (What are some good hotels in Seward?) While it can't make the reservations for you or anything like that, at least you can fill out your itinerary without having to read the countless sites and do tons of research. 
So I hope this encourages you to play around with ChatGPT a little bit and maybe try one of the other Chat bots that seem to be popping up all the time. Thanks for watching.

Comments: 12 Responses to “10 Things You Can Do With ChatGPT”

Bob

2 years ago

This is really interesting and informative! What a great introduction to Chat bots. Are you concerned about data collection by ChatGPT or other Chat bots? Is there enough to be learned about Chat bots to create a course?

Gary Rosenzweig

Bob: Not sure why I would be more concerned about data for bots than for search engines or any other online tool I use to get things done. I suppose you could read through their privacy statements and learn more about it. Probably too early for a course as things are changing too fast right now. But maybe, especially if Apple integrates a GPT into something at some point.

kathryn wyatt

i experimented using Chat GPT to hep with research on French Hallmarks and it gave me incorrect information..as this is a topic i know about.........for example it said a Boars head indicates gold when it is actually used for silver. When told this information ChapGPT said i am sorry for confusing you i will correct my information..........but if ji had not known this information to be incorrect i wold now be espousing incorrect information to my students.
guardiian newspaper has similar issues

Ed Mullery

Gary, what are your thoughts on the MacOS app, MacGPT?

Ed: Never used it. The official OpenAI website works great. Why not just use that?

Phyllis Weintraub

Hi Gary - this ChatGPT was wonderful, amazing and informative. How to I add ChatGPT to my LaunchPad? Thanks, Phyllis

Phyllis: It is a website, not an app, so just add a bookmark in your browser.

Vaman Kale

Utterly fascinating. Now I will go and chat away on my own. I do hope Apple can integrate it with Siri, like Microsoft has done with Bing.

Danny

Hi Gary. I couldn’t find ChatGTP in the Apple App store. There were all 3rd party ones. Is there an ChatGTP App availableI. I copied the web URL from your transcript to the web site. Is the creation of a free account the only way to access ChatGTP.
Thanks

Danny: It is a web site. See 0:38. There are third-party apps, but just use the web site.

Mark

Gary, I tried out ChatGPT using my Google sign-in. Initially it worked, but now the page will not load, hung up on a small spinning wheel at top. I checked Discord and people are saying sevice is down, for the last 24 hours. Do you know of a general status page, similar to what Apple hosts for its online services, which officially states if service is up or down so that I know if I need to troubleshoot from my end?

Mark: Sorry, I don't know of any special way of checking it. Search and see.

Comments Closed.

10 Things You Can Do With ChatGPT

Comments: 12 Responses to “10 Things You Can Do With ChatGPT”

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