2025-05-06

ai chat tips and use cases

ai tools such as chatgpt expose a natural-language interface to a language model and an extensive knowledge corpus. they can complement or replace web searches by extracting and synthesizing information that would otherwise require manual effort. openai identifies its main audiences as software developers, content creators, businesses and enterprises, and students and educators.

prompts

  • what is x always?
  • create a short question whose answer is the preceding response
  • create an image that represents me as a person
  • given a doodle, colorize it
  • rewrite the following text for clarity
  • write in the prevalent writing style of the 1960s

use cases

learning and research

  • scientific calculation
  • converse to clarify unfamiliar concepts

language

  • multilingual translation
  • grammar correction
  • rewrite sentences for clarity
  • serve as a conversation partner in a different language
  • translate application localization files to additional languages
  • explore language nuances

writing

  • prime with questions about a topic, then generate a story based on this knowledge
  • detect faux pas
  • identify content worth responding to
  • detect content to drop to keep things shorter
  • create an outline of thematic directions (limited use)

tips for writing with chatgpt:

  • dont rely on it for personal relationships. use it only to explore topics or nuance, but use your own ideas, words, and the full emotional context as you have it. artificial language is easily detected
  • take its words as opinionated hints, not authority
  • read responses to extract cues, not to reuse text

coding and technical

  • create domain-specific calculators
  • write a mathematical function, then convert it to code
  • migrate code from an old api to a new api providing two examples
  • translate source code between languages
  • improve variable names
  • add comments
  • generate command lines
  • convert mathematical equations to code
  • generate a list of commands for renaming multiple files

data and text handling

  • extract information
  • text reformatting
  • convert text in images to text

personal planning

  • given a detailed timeline of life, propose future goals
  • fitness plans
  • recipes
  • personal finances
  • scheduling
  • estimate food calories

entertainment

  • interpret song lyrics
  • identify media from partial details
  • comedy and interactive stories
  • role playing
  • adopt the speaking style of a specific persona
  • recommend music, video channels, fashion, and gifts (note: bias)