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As a business owner, you've probably heard about ChatGPT.
And you might be wondering ...
Let's unpack this and talk about ChatGPT.
What is ChatGPT exactly?
If you've heard about ChatGPT, but you're really not sure what it is, it's basically a user-friendly form of artificial intelligence that can help you do your job quicker and better.
And let's shatter one myth right out of the gate. The apocalyptic fears you hear in the media about how AI is going to kill all of us are a bit exaggerated.
AI is not gonna take over our lives and it's not going to end human civilization.
ChatGPT is simply a tool.
You still have to be able to use your brain and think.
AI is not new
It's been around a while.
If you've used Amazon's Alexa or Apple's Siri, you've used AI. If you've used Google Maps, you've used AI.
Email spam filters are AI. Netflix and Amazon recommendations are AI. Auto-correct and predictive text on your smartphone are AI.
So if AI has been around a while and most of us have used AI in some form or another, what's all the fuss about ChatGPT?
Well, imagine having an online supercomputer at your fingertips where you can carry on a detailed conversation or ask it questions and it'll reply back to you like you're talking to a real live human being. That's what's new and that's what all the fuss is about.
I personally use ChatGPT, and I'll show you some of the ways I've been using it in just a moment. But first ...
ChatGPT vs. Google
You might be wondering why not just do a Google search?
Well, think of Google like a knowledgeable librarian where you ask for information on a topic and the librarian responds with a list of books or (in this analogy) a bunch of links to websites where you can go and read more about your topic on your own. That's how Google works.
ChatGPT, on the other hand, is like having a super smart well-read assistant that gives you detailed and specific responses in a conversational manner like you're talking to a real-live person.
Both tools, Google and ChatGPT, have their place.
How I use ChatGPT
Here's how I have used ChatGPT thus far:
Ok, not bad. Within seconds, I went from scary blank page to something I could work with and build upon.
And by the way, if you get nothing else from this post, remember this:
It's a 1000x easier to EDIT something than create it from scratch!
This is your million dollar tip of the day.
If I didn't like any of these, I simply could have said, "please generate 10 more examples". If I wanted, I could have also given specific parameters like "use a maximum of seven words in each sub-headline" or "write each sub-headline at an eighth grade reading level" or whatever.
Even though I didn't use any of these 10 sub-headlines verbatim, what I did do is I picked and chose the individual elements that I liked from this group of 10 sub-headlines to cobble together and come up with my own because ...
It's a 1000x easier to EDIT something than create it from scratch!
Here's another example of using ChatGPT for brainstorming and idea generation ...
Recently I wrote an article about how to migrate from Universal analytics to Google Analytics 4 and I needed a feature image for the top of the article, but I was having a mental block about what kind of image to use.
So rather than spending 30-60 minutes (or more) searching through an online image catalog like BigStockPhoto, looking at hundreds of images trying to find something that might work, I just asked ChatGPT. It gave me some great suggestions and I had an image in just 5-10 minutes!
Drawbacks of ChatGPT
Sometimes the data ChatGPT spits out is factually incorrect. It generates stuff that sounds really good, but it's not accurate. Therefore, when using ChatGPT to help you create content, you need to fact check your work.
Sometimes the responses ChatGPT gives you are just lame or out-of-context. So you might need to ask ChatGPT to generate additional responses until it gives you what you're looking for.
Also, ChatGPT does not have access to real time data. Its brain is only trained on data up to September, 2021 — which in the grand scheme of things is not ancient history. But if you want up-to-the-minute info, you'll need to use Google.
What's the verdict on ChatGPT?
Should you pay attention to ChatGPT? Or is it just another passing fad?
It depends.
It's a 1000x easier to EDIT something than create it from scratch!
Conclusion
A major reason why websites don't get built or modernized, why blog posts don't get written, why videos don't get made, why email campaigns don't get implemented, why books don't get written is because of writer's block.
Yes, if you're not tech-savvy because tech just isn't your thing, then technology can certainly be a major obstacle.
But for many people it's the writer's block that slows them down or holds them back.
If you do any type of content creation ChatGPT can be extremely valuable. It can be the difference between something getting done or never getting done.
Hopefully I was able to provide some clarity and demystify what ChatGPT is all about as well as help you decide whether or not ChatGPT is something you should explore further.
