6 fun ways for ChatGPT beginners to start learning the AI-technology skills companies are looking for
Jacob Zinkula
- Despite ChatGPT's surge in popularity, most Americans don't know much about it.
- Companies are already seeking out workers with ChatGPT experience.
If you never experiment with artificial intelligence like ChatGPT, it might negatively influence your career down the road. So why not give it a chance?
Since launching in November, the OpenAI-owned chatbot has taken the world by storm, reaching over 100 million active users by the end of January. In the working world, ChatGPT has helped users apply for jobs and be more productive once they land them.
While some companies have resisted AI like ChatGPT, many, including Snapchat, Slack, and Duolingo, have incorporated ChatGPT-powered tools into their businesses. But the AI isn't poised to affect just the tech industry. Roughly 300 million jobs across the globe could be influenced by generative AI, Goldman Sachs estimated, and in this future, workers who have familiarity with AI tools could be in high demand.
Ninety-one percent of the 1,187 business leaders surveyed in an April Resume Builder study said they're looking to hire workers with ChatGPT experience in roles such as customer service, sales and finance, human resources, and marketing.
But despite the expected importance of this technology for workers, 62% of Americans in a March Marist poll of 1,327 US adults — and 45% of Gen Zers and millennials — said they had little or no knowledge of ChatGPT.
In the future, workers might be replaced not by ChatGPT but by their fellow humans who manage to familiarize themselves with and use emerging AI technologies.
Oded Netzer, a Columbia Business School professor, told Insider: "You will not be replaced by AI but replaced by someone who knows what to do with AI. The people who know what to do with AI will become more efficient in what they do."
In April, Insider published a step-by-step guide on how to access and use ChatGPT. Once you're ready to play around with it, here are six fun prompts ChatGPT beginners can use to familiarize themselves with the technology.
Once you get the hang of it, you might be able to use it to make your job easier.
Ask ChatGPT to write a story or song
In April, Insider's Spriha Srivastava detailed how she used ChatGPT to come up with bedtime stories for her 5-year-old son.
"A few nights ago, my son said he wanted a story about Luke Skywalker, Darth Vader, and himself," she wrote. "We dictated a prompt to ChatGPT, and I saw my son's eyes light up as the story got populated within seconds. 'Wow, that's like magic,' he screamed with joy. I did too, if only to myself."
In March, Shannon Ahern, a high-school math and science teacher, told Insider that she started out treating ChatGPT as a joke — and used it to write poems about the Pythagorean theorem and a song about math in the style of Taylor Swift.
She said her students enjoyed them, which motivated her to seek out other ways she could use the AI, including for making lesson plans and worksheets.
Example prompt: Write a bedtime story about the Disney princesses.
Providing ChatGPT further clarification can help it generate the best and most relevant reply.
Example follow-up prompt: Add a twist ending.
Ask ChatGPT to plan your next vacation
Yenyi Fu, the head of product at Kimkim, an online travel agency, asked ChatGPT to plan a 10-day vacation in Costa Rica for her and her family, she told Insider in March.
"For someone who doesn't know the destination well, it seems pretty amazing," she said.
While she eventually found some flaws in the chatbot's plan — its itinerary ended the trip too far from the airport — she said it was "super easy to use" and helpful for brainstorming.
Example prompt: Plan me a four-day vacation in Rome.
Example follow-up prompt: Make the trip family friendly.
Ask ChatGPT to come up with a recipe
Insider's Lauren Edmonds was curious whether ChatGPT could help her get creative in the kitchen.
After creating an account, she asked ChatGPT: "Can you create an upscale pasta recipe with shrimp and garlic for me to make?" She said the chatbot generated a recipe with 12 ingredients and nine steps within three minutes.
When she gave it a chance, she was impressed by how comprehensive and easy the recipe was.
"I didn't know what to expect when I requested the recipe, but it was actually put together very well and tasted just as good," she said.
Example prompt: Create an Italian recipe for my upcoming party — give it an original name.
Example follow-up prompt: Give me a recipe that will take less time to make.
Ask ChatGPT to play a game
Next time you're bored, open up ChatGPT. The chatbot is capable of producing games like 20 questions, hangman, and tic-tac-toe — all you have to do is ask. It's also capable of producing more complex choose-your-own-adventure games if prompted correctly.
It can even create entirely new games. In March, Daniel Tait, a 28-year-old software developer from Scotland, asked ChatGPT to generate a game tailored to Sudoku fans.
After the chatbot produced a list of five games he was already familiar with, Tait prompted it to create a puzzle game from scratch. ChatGPT then created a game it called "Sumplete," which Tait described as a "reverse Sudoku."
"I was surprised every step of the way when I asked if it could make a puzzle," Tait previously told Insider. "It instantly came up with an idea."
Example prompt: Let's play a game of tic-tac-toe.
Example follow-up prompt: Let's play a game that's more challenging.
Ask ChatGPT to write emails and messages
Some users have asked ChatGPT to help them draft emails, cover letters, and essays.
Insider's Jordan Parker Erb even used ChatGPT to reply to messages on her Hinge dating app. She said it wasn't a smooth talker, though.
"The replies that ChatGPT offered were often lengthy, impersonal, and, frankly, bizarre," she wrote in January.
Example prompt: Write a message to let someone know that I will have to cancel our plans for this weekend because I'm sick.
Example follow-up prompt: Make the message less formal.
Ask it the questions you'd typically ask Google
Perhaps the easiest way to try out ChatGPT is to use it as an alternative to Google searches. The chatbot doesn't always provide accurate information, and the knowledge it does have is only up to date through 2021, but it still can be a valuable resource.
While one should be wary of asking it for medical advice, 78.6% of medical experts in a new study preferred ChatGPT's answers to patient questions over those of a physician.
Example prompt: How do airplanes work?
Example follow-up prompt: Explain it to me like I'm 5 years old.
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