ChatGPT

ChatGPT is a conversation, it remembers what you already asked and its response. For example, if you think it missed something or included something you don’t want simply tell it, like you would a person, what you’d like it to change. 

You can tell it to write to a specific length constraint, for example, write a sentence on this subject or create a script for a one-minute video.

Or you can review something it has written and ask it to make it longer or shorter.

You can tell ChatGPT to write in a particular style. This can be basic, for example, say “write it more informally”, or specific, for example, say “write it in the style of JK Rowling”, or “Yoda”!

You can even provide it with a sample of your own writing and ask it to write in that style.

You can tell ChatGPT to write for a particular medium, for example, tell it you want something for Facebook, Linkedin, WhatsApp, email, a webpage or a blog. It will adapt its style and length to the medium.

For example, ask it to explain the Big Bang theory to a 10-year-old

You can ask it to write say a summary of your product or service and provide it with a description of the product/service from a brochure (cut and paste)

For example, tell it to act like a financial advisor and give you financial advice or a marriage councillor!

Got an interview coming up and want a practice, tell it to act like the hiring manager for the following job description (paste the job description) and that you want it to ask you questions as if it were interviewing you.

Got a meeting with a new customer and want to practice how you tell them about your product or service? Tell it to act like a specific job role at a company with a particular interest and to ask you questions.

You can provide it with a long or complex document and ask it to analyse or summarise it for you. 

Say please summarise the following and paste the text. 

You can even ask it questions about the document.

ChatGPT understands and can write in many languages. 

You can give it existing text, for example, “please translate the following to French – and past the text”

Or you can ask to write something in a particular language. For example, if you have just had it write something in English say “write it in Chinese” 

These tools are relatively new and are still learning. They aren’t perfect!

Do double-check if you are going to rely on or publish something it creates that is factual. Occasionally it can get things wrong!

Got an Excel sheet you want to do something complex with and are not sure how to do it?

Just ask ChatGPT to write the formula for you. Be specific, for example, “I have a list of people’s names in Cells A1 to A70 and the country in which they live in Cells B1 to B2. Write a formula that counts how many people are in each country”. It will give you the formula and an explanation.

Note: I’ve found its Excel writing skills a bit variable. If it doesn’t work, tell ChatGPT it didn’t work and it will try a different way. Or try Bing Chat.

You can use ChatGPT to both write and check software.

Since I’ve not programmed for years I’m not that familiar with doing this. I do know it works similarly to the Excel example, you tell it what you want the software to do and in what language. It will both write the software and explain it.

You can also take some existing code that doesn’t work and paste it into ChatGPT and ask it what is wrong with it.

If you have children using these tools there is a risk they might use them to write essays. This isn’t a new phenomenon –  students have had others write essays for them for years, but it is much easier to do.

Keeping an eye out for this and explaining to them why it won’t help their education is a good start. You probably know their writing style so could tell if something wasn’t written by them.

There are also an increasing number of tools that can do quite a good job and check the content and alert if it thinks AI has written it. Education institutes are increasingly using these.  Asking Bing Chat about these tools should give you the lastest.

Sydney is linked to Bing so it knows about current information, unlike ChatGPT that doesn’t have data past 2021 

Sydney will include references to the source of where it found information, which can be useful so you can cite references, check them and read more. 

Probably because Microsoft is a big company and worried more about its reputation you’ll find Syndey is more cautious with how and even what it will answer.

Sometimes I go to ChatGPT when Sydney refuses to answer!

Syndey seems to be reliability available, once you’ve got accepted. Unlike ChatGPT which often says its busy.

Presumably, to manage the heavy load Microsoft limits how many questions you can ask per day and how many interactions per response.

This wasn’t out at the time of writing, so I’ve not tried it yet.

The new Microsoft Edge browser with Bing Sydney integrated is meant to have some clever built-in functionality, for example, you can ask it to summarise the page you are currently viewing

If your company uses Microsoft Office 365 then its worth using the Microsoft Edge browser with Bing set as your default search engine. This turns on a handy search integration – search for something in Bing, via the Edge search bar, and it will not only find matches on the Internet but also your company network.

Note: It is possible your company’s IT department has turned this off. 

My understanding is this company search is actually done within your own company’s Microsoft instance and displayed in the Bing search results, it does NOT share company information outside of your company. 

While they haven’t said much about it yet, other than a high-level direction, it’s clear Microsoft will integrate ChatGPT / Bing Sydney with desktop applications including Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook and probably others like PowerAutomate, SharePoint, Planner, Lists etc.

This should integrate some of the things I mentioned about ChatGPT writing Excel formulas, as well as its text-writing skills directly into the programs you use. 

I suspect we will also see more “do things” integration benefits. For example, tell Syndey to do complex tasks that involve it using various Microsoft tools on your behalf.