Ten things you can do with ChatGPT

ChatGPT is not perfect, but it is very useful if you use it correctly. This way you can perform certain jobs, which currently take a lot of time, much faster. But watch out for the pitfalls. Which jobs? We’ll get into that now.

What exactly is ChatGPT?

ChatGPT is a neural network that strings words together based on statistical probability. Because in texts about quantum mechanics, for example, the term “Heisenberg uncertainty relation” is much more common than “alloy wheels”, ChatGPT chooses the first alternative, and not the second, when you ask the chatbot to write a text about quantum mechanics.

Unbelievable but true: this turns out to work amazingly well. Especially if you are using a huge data set. As the creators of ChatGPT have done, who have emptied half the internet. But not always. To find out when ChatGPT works and when it doesn’t, it’s useful to keep this in mind.

1. Quickly write a custom resume

We often change jobs, and if you’re applying for a job, it’s helpful to tailor a resume specifically for that position. This shows the recruiter that you take the application seriously. If you apply dozens of times, you have a day’s work writing all those application letters. Fortunately, here’s ChatGPT to help you out.

In response to my input: “Write a suitable application letter for the following position:” (with the full vacancy text of a position at LUMZ in Utrecht in quotes) ChatGPT gave the following, quite good application letter.

You can adjust the ChatGPT answer text with, for example, the name of your study program or some personal details.

Important, always check the text before sending it. ChatGPT regularly makes blunders. A bit silly when your application ends up in the round archive (or even worse: on the bulletin board of the staff association as “most hilarious applicant 2023”) and your dream job passes you by the nose.

2. Come up with jokes

Some ChatGPT jokes are fun, others less so. Some jokes are allowed by ChatGPT, other jokes are not.

3. Have complex subjects explained in simple language

It often helps here to indicate an age limit, for example a five-year-old child.

4. Summarizing a long text

We have to take in more and more information. It is often formulated in a complicated way. It often helps to summarize these in short, understandable language. ChatGPT is very good at this.

As a victim, we chose a long, bone-dry text from the civil service magazine Binnenlands Bestuur. ChatGPT turns it into the following.

The prompt used is: “Summarize the following news item in 100 words, in Dutch. “”.
In Dutch adding is important, because sometimes ChatGPT tends to switch to English.

5. Come up with a suitable headline

Wrote a paragraph but can’t come up with a good headline? Don’t worry, ChatGPT will help you out.

Indeed a headline that covers the meaning of the paragraph well, although I don’t think I would use it myself. But he can certainly handle it. Are you having writer’s block? Then ChatGPT is your salvation.

6. Quickly come up with a recipe

Help! You get a visit from your date and you don’t have time to go to the supermarket anymore. Do you only have a few ingredients at home and do you want to put something surprising on the table? ChatGPT makes up the recipe on the spot. Of course, as always, check well before you start, especially in this case. Your stomach will thank you for your caution. In this case the result was:

7. Write a Sinterklaas poem

Do you have no inspiration at all, but do you still have to write a Sinterklaas poem for the staff party? Fortunately, there is ChatGPT, which, with a few clues, does a pretty good job of the Rijmpiet:

8 Get rich quick

Unfortunately for the nefarious among you, no tips on how best to set up a thud or sell the Eiffel Tower to someone. Pretty solid general financial advice, which everyone probably already knows. If ChatGPT refers to itself, you know it’s a ready answer put in by OpenAI.

But if we look at wise advice number 4, start your own business? What are promising ideas according to ChatGPT? It helps to tell more about yourself. The more the better.

If possible, make a whole laundry list of it. Then ChatGPT has more leads for an effective answer. In this example, I pretend to be a person in my twenties with a college degree, with one year of work experience in Spain, crazy about surfing and a degree in fiscal economics. In reality you want to use much more than this summary information, for example your personal circumstances, the character traits and personal strengths and weaknesses.

These are fine ideas in themselves, which the person described could do something with. Of course, a lot depends on the personality of the person and how much money he has. Because some ideas, for example virtual assistance, require much less investment than starting a surf camp or a surf shop yourself. So don’t rush into one of these ideas, but do your own thorough research.

9 A winning betting strategy

In the past, card counters could sometimes make a profit at blackjack. Now that is impossible, because casinos work with multiple decks of cards. In online casinos you can forget about card counting anyway. And with this, there is no more winning betting strategy. In the end only the gambling boss gets rich from gambling, the casino always wins. So the only winning gambling strategy is to start your own casino.

But many people still enjoy gambling. As long as gambling is a hobby, and it only costs you a little money, read: less than 1% of your income per month, and stick to it strictly, the consequences can be overseen. Think of money you gamble with as money you have lost.

So, for starters, some really good tips from ChatGPT to keep your losses down.

Speaking of those professionals, the AGOG self-help groups and the Jellinek clinic are recommended for gambling problems. Do you have gambling problems yourself, or does someone you know? Then get in touch. This can also be done online and anonymously.

The gambling industry itself has also been working with ChatGPT and has studied to what extent the answers of the chatbot correspond to reality. ChatGPT appears to be a bit behind in terms of Dutch gambling legislation, which has to do with the training set that was broken down at the start of the corona epidemic. You will find a detailed overview in this overview article.

Gambling experts therefore recommend that you only gamble at casinos recognized in the Netherlands. Then you can be sure that you will not be scammed and there is the possibility to play with a limit. It should be clear, always play with a limit. This way you can be sure that you will not get into debt, and gambling will remain a hobby.

10. Write an essay on any topic

This is probably the application of ChatGPT that has attracted the most attention. It is possible to have ChatGPT write an article about almost any subject.

The makers of ChatGPT have done their best to shield controversial topics, read, topics that most activists object to.

For example, are you trying to have an article written to the effect that climate change is actually quite cool, about the lesser sides of Mohammed or a hymn to Donald Trump? Then there is a good chance that you will be told that this is a controversial subject.

So getting ChatGPT to write its own version of Salman Rushdie’s Satanic Verses, in which Donald Trump denies climate change as a reincarnated transgender prophet, is going to be a bit tricky. But luckily there are still plenty of options. Two examples.

This fits pretty well with the state of affairs regarding this protoscience.

Now a fictional text. ChatGPT dutifully points out that this is a fictional scenario.

A second try. This time with a more explicit prompt.

Not a bad result. There is a serious semantic error in the first sentence: after all, the wind IS the air. The story also looks a bit flat, which has to do with the way ChatGPT works: only words that have a high probability are mentioned.