Custom Instructions

April 24, 2024

The Secret to Creating Wonderful Products with Artificial Intelligence

One of the most significant benefits of working with artificial intelligence capabilities is the ability to bring ourselves and our identities into collaboration. Why is this super important? Because instead of a generic system, we get flexible products that fit like a glove to our needs and to who we are.

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Another Dimension to the Model

Custom instructions are parameters that bring an additional dimension of depth to how the model interprets and responds to our requests, in addition to the context we provided it. There's a good example I use in workshops on the art of prompting: For instance - if I ask ChatGPT to recommend 10 amazing places in London, I'd likely get a generic output reflecting an aggregation of generally recommended places. If ChatGPT knew in advance who I am, what interests me, and in what way it interests me - those parameters would be integrated into the request (10 amazing places in London) and we'd get unique and wonderful outputs that precisely match who we are, what specifically interests us, and also presented in a format that interests us. Just like a good friend who knows us.

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Why is this so amazing? Because with this capability, ChatGPT can get to know you before any conversation without you needing to explain who you are each time.

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Custom instructions exist in both the free and paid models. And the beauty of creating custom instructions is the ability to set them once without the need to repeat the input in every interaction. To write custom instructions, click on the right-hand side next to your name, and a window will open showing you the option.

After you click on custom instructions, an option will open for you to explain to ChatGPT who you are and as whom you would like it to respond to you.

You can write to it in any language you wish.

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I leave the part that defines how we want ChatGPT to respond to us - empty. For the simple reason that each time I want it to respond to me with a different professional hat - strategic, research, business, product, service, and more.

Added Value

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You can define who you are and your field of expertise (like your LinkedIn summary) and in addition, you can add specifications that will help the model understand what's important to you such as:

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Respect me as an expert in <your field of work>
Write to me only research-based information
Always write from an objective and innovative perspective
Be critical in your expressions
Always consider the trends and tendencies in my field of content

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Furthermore, ChatGPT gives you the option to choose whether a custom instruction will always be open in every new chat you start or only for the current chat you are opening for discussion.

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