top of page
Writer's pictureTim Kitchens

Mastering ChatGPT Plus: Part 3 and Final - Custom Instructions and Custom GPTs

Introduction


Welcome to the third and final installment in the series "Mastering ChatGPT Plus", which I introduced in "Mastering ChatGPT Plus: A Beginner's Journey from Basics to Mastery!"





In the previous article - Mastering ChatGPT Plus: Part 2 - More Cool and Useful Ways You Can Use ChatGPT - we explored how ChatGPT can help us with many tasks, from brainstorming ideas to creating applications to writing.


In this article, you'll learn how to provide custom instructions to ChatGPT to help it take into account your preferences or requirements when generating its responses!


You'll also learn about custom GPTs, which are basically custom versions of ChatGPT that anyone can create for a specific purpose.


What are Custom Instructions?


Custom instructions for ChatGPT are designed to enhance user experience by allowing individuals to set preferences for how the AI responds to their queries.


Once you set the custom instructions on your ChatGPT account, it will apply these instructions across all future conversations, eliminating the need to repeat preferences.



How Can I Provide Custom Instructions?


You can provide your own custom instructions by selecting your profile photo in the lower left corner of the ChatGPT window, right-clicking and selecting the "Customize ChatGPT" option, as shown below.



You can provide two types of custom instructions:


  1. Provide information about yourself and your interests that might help ChatGPT tailor its responses for you.

  2. Directions for how (i.e. the style) of responses you prefer from ChatGPT.


The former helps ChatGPT to better generate the content of its responses to you, while the latter helps it to tailor the style and format it presents that content in.


For example, the below tells ChatGPT the user is a software developer and a bit about their experience and the technologies they use. It then provides some hints at the style or tone the user prefers - in this case, the user prefers short, direct answers over "fluff" and wants ChatGPT to only answer questions that it really knows the answer to (i.e. don't make up stuff).





What are Custom GPTs?

Think of custom GPTs as versions of ChatGPT that have been tuned such that they're "AI specialists" in a narrow task or domain.


Anyone with a ChatGPT Plus account can create custom GPTs and no knowledge of coding is required - and, really, no technical knowledge is required either. We won't get into how to create a custom GPT in this series. However, know that OpenAI and also many ChatGPT users in the community have already created a lot of custom GPTs - and there's likely one available for you to use for most tasks you can think of.


Oh, and the best part... there's no additional cost for using the custom GPTs that others have created!


An example of a task a custom GPT might specialize in is writing technical articles for software developers. Another example is a GPT that specializes in creating certain types of content, such as landing pages for advertising campaigns.


These GPTs can be shared with others, either publicly or privately.



How Can I Find and Use Custom GPTs?


If you're a ChatGPT Plus subscriber, you'll find a menu option named "Explore GPTs" in your left menu. To check out what kinds of GPTs are available to you, select that option.


You'll be presented with a page that looks similar to the below. You can narrow your GPT search either by selecting one of the GPT categories (e.g. Writing, Productivity, etc.) or by entering search terms to specify the types of tasks you're hoping to get help with.



Below, I'm looking for GPTs that specialize in generating diagrams.




And, in the below screenshot, I've selected a custom GPT named "Write For Me" and have asked it to help me with a writing task.




Just for some fun, I started a chat session with a GPT called "Cartoonize Yourself". I uploaded a photo of myself and asked it to turn the photo into a cartoon, a la Pixar Studios.



Conclusion

We covered a lot of ChatGPT territory in this series, from creating your account, to experimenting with the features and ways that ChatGPT can make your life a LOT easier to how you can customize your ChatGPT experience to get the most out of it.


Now, it's up to you. What will you do with ChatGPT to get back some of your time. Or maybe you'll use it to pursue that dream (maybe start a new business?) you thought was too challenging or time-consuming?


Maybe you'll use ChatGPT to learn new things - and have more fun doing it than just reading books and websites.


I'd love for you to share what you're learning and how you're using ChatGPT or any other AI technology - and how that's going for you.


I'd also like to hear about any related topics or deep dives you'd like me to cover in this blog.


I truly appreciate your time and support!


Please explore other blog posts on this site and... comment to let me know your thoughts.



10 views0 comments

Comments


bottom of page