I asked GPT what it’s good at and the answer surprised me!
I can’t even tell you how many YouTube videos speak on leveraging Chat GPT as an assistance in earning money. I absolutely agree, GPT is brilliant for certain things, even its free version. However, its power is severely overestimated. So, today I decided to ask Chat GPT what it was made for, I mean what it is good at, and man oh man, it’s really full of itself!
The Good
OK, well, to be completely fair, GPT is good at a few things that definitely made my life easier, and I am sure it will do yours. Here is what Chat GPT believes it’s good for that I completely (or almost completely) agree with:
Language Translation
I agree with the translation into English to generate a draft for editing especially for creative context. However, translation into other languages is very unreliable.
Editing and Proofreading
Editing, with the caveat that a human will provide specific prompts on language style and other major aspects of editing, and subsequently reviews the result. But what I think GPT is really good at is proofreading considering a human gives a specific prompt on what not to update.
I would still re-read the content after the GPT proofreading as it may change some unusual things if it thinks those are typos, like names or intentional misspellings. It’s very important how you prompt it to do the work. Sometimes even after I ask it to proofread only – it changes my copy in an unusable way. And sometimes misses major errors and misspells.
This is a huge hit and miss. Just this article I had to “proofread” several times. GPT either edited it, sometimes changing the language, or completely missed all my fast typing errors – lowercase first word in a sentence, missed apostrophes and misspelled words. And I only saw them because Google docs shows me the areas I need to tend to. And when it came to formatting – it was even worse, so I ended up proofreading and formatting this article myself.
Sometimes GPT is only frustrating.
SEO
Yes and no. It’s good for creating SEO schema and giving general suggestions, but it can’t even generate a proper keyword list using given content. Do not rely on GPT for your own SEO purposes. And especially if you are paid to do it.
Educational Assistance
OK when it comes to Practical tips on day to day life like what are the best ways to remove stains and grow potatoes – yes.
I do rely on GPT for fast data processing and leverage its knowledge base to generate conclusions with a complex set of parameters. For example, to correlate the frequency of specific issues with the customer ratings to identify which issues have the most significant impact on ratings.
Idea Generation as in Brainstorming business ideas, product names, blog topics, and other creative concepts.
Kind of, but with a caveat. Out of 50 generated ideas or names, you may go with maybe one or two. Many of these ideas are very plain and boring. Many don’t make sense, and you could have come up with them by yourself. Is it worth it? Yeah, sometimes you get some good insights and some of the proposed ideas just spark your own.
I agree with some blog topic ideas, especially in the areas you are not considered a pro. But you do have to provide a proper prompt to get really solid results, and keep in mind that when it comes to product and business names, you will need to do extensive research to make sure they are not trademarked or otherwise in use.
But yes, sure, with some effort, you can get a couple interesting ideas. In terms of stories… technically, GPT can be used for generating them, but with proper prompts and it will still need to be revised as they may be a bit plain and obvious. I can add here things like Book outline generation given a human will provide subject and specific requirements and subsequent human revision.
Are you being modest?
So, modestly, GPT did not mention a few things that I think it’s really good at, and we must absolutely leverage it for these following reasons:
Local, small programming snippets generation – with given context and bigger code environment description.
Prompter will still need to have basic knowledge of programming to make sure they are not breaking anything beyond repair but GPT may be a good assistance with simple coding tasks or proofreading the code and finding that little bracket that wasn’t closed.
Fast business document and formal writing draft generation
Given the prompt contains all necessary info and will be extensively revised by a human.
For example, it may be good at drafting a formal letter or a business contract template, but as a base template only.
Role Playing
GPT is really good at writing as a specific person with a specific style, and even debating in those styles, but I would say, use it for entertainment purposes only. Like pPep talk by Depak Chopra.
You can converse with GPT while asking it to be a certain specific individual or a concept of a person with a specific knowledge or skillset, but once again, for entertainment purposes only.
Do not ask it to be your psychologist or taro reader. Keep in mind that it also forgets what it talked about within a few prompts so you won’t be able to have a substantial conversation with it for hours.
Content Formatting
With some effort and proper prompts it may format content in a specific way but it’s a hit and miss and sometimes takes many prompts to explain to it that you don’t want colons after section headers or bolding certain phrases.
Sometimes, I use GPT to generate specific content that otherwise would take me a lot of thinking and research that does not rely on exact data. For example, which questions should I ask myself before starting something specific? Or What do I need to know to decide on something. What are common mistakes in specific areas like marketing for instance.
Pants on Fire
Here is what chat GPT brags about knowing how to do well but it’s not entirely correct or simply LYING!
Content Creation (articles, blog posts, and social media updates)
I disagree almost completely. I would also add that it must include creative and even non-fiction writing. GPT writing is basic and has a few stylistic and linguistic traits that immediately identify its content as generated. For example, almost any article written by GPT starts with “In the realm of…” and contains words “let’s delve” or “embark”.
GPT lacks personal touch, personal experience. It may generate some, but it will still lack the passion and the emotion of human writing, and that human aspect – is what we connect to when we read.
Copywriting, Social Media Management, Newsletters, Email Marketing, and Marketing in general
Using GPT to generate your marketing materials is a guarantee for missing the marketing opportunity. GPT is plain, standard, and boring. It’s writing an “obvious” content that will immediately blend with all other marketing materials you see out there.
Good marketing is about grabbing attention in the right way, it’s about crafting a compelling message that is targeting your customer. It’s about creativity and standing out. GPT can do that but with serious prompting effort, and if you are creative enough to provide that kind of prompt, it’s just easier to craft that marketing message.
Customer Support
Offering 24/7 customer service through chatbots, handling common queries and providing consistent responses.
Well, it has to be programmed very well, GPT is a machine and still relies on proper prompting, so if the customer is not a good prompter, as in explaining their needs well, the support experience will not be good either.
Here is what Chat GPT itself believes it should not be used for, and of course I agree
- Legal Advice
- Financial Advice
- High-Stakes Decision Making
- Medical Advice
- Complex Coding Tasks
- Real-Time Customer Support
- Confidential or Sensitive Information
- Creative Arts
- Extensive Research
- Ethical and Moral Judgments.
So a few more things that I didn’t mention, but GPT outlined as ways that people use it to earn money. I will put them into two categories – Yay and Nay where Yay, of course, do it and Nay – do it at the risk of providing nonprofessional service.
So, in the Yay category
- Transcription Services
- Data Analysis Reports
- Virtual Assistance
And in the Nay category – as in maybe, but the result will not be outstanding without you putting a lot of extra effort in it –
E-book Writing
Amazon and other self-publishing platforms are overwhelmed with the amount of low-quality AI-generated content. Leverage GPT to create frameworks for your books, but do not let it write the books if you have… well… consciousness.
Interactive Storytelling
It goes back to the creative writing that GPT is not good with. Games – maybe. Stories for kids – maybe. But for an educated audience, use your judgment.
Online Tutoring
You can definitely provide Tutoring with GPT, but only in the area where you already have knowledge and use GPT as an assistant. I mean, I guess, you don’t have to have a high moral standard to teach something you know nothing about yourself, just using AI, but you get in that gray area of possibly providing false knowledge, considering that GPT is really good at making things up.
Resume Writing
You know, I look at every item of this list that GPT says people use it for to make money, and I am a bit worried about those who consume these products. I tried to ask GPT to write my resume, edit the ones that I already have, and the outcome was less than impressive.
I had to use many various prompts for GPT to polish the result in the manner that would not make the reader think I am a complete narcissistic asshole, so in the time I spent on trying to get my resume be properly written by GPT, I would have just done it myself, which I ended up doing anyway.
All of these things comе down to, sure you can use it, but should you really?
Affiliate Marketing
So, this one is tricky, as GPT gives false references ALL THE TIME and that includes false links and content. I asked GPT how it can help with Affiliate marketing, and it mentioned a few things like content creation, research and keywords, that I do not believe it’s good at. This falls under the category, – do it if the result doesn’t matter to you.
Product Descriptions
Yeah, maybe, once again, if you don’t care if it sounds kind of plain. The thing is, you won’t be able to automate it much unless you put effort into creating a setup for that automation. I was trying to come up with an example of how this could work, but frankly I couldn’t. All of the examples that came to my mind involved a lot of manual work on either setting up the automation, or revising the outcome.
Script Writing
This one is also a NO for me. I have tried, but seriously, I was never satisfied with the outcome. Every time I had to rewrite blocks if not all scripts and articles, and I found it much easier to just speak on what I wanted to say and using speech to text tools create a base content that I would further edit and proofread. With the help of GPT.
* * *
A lot of times many of the GPT products rely on proper prompting. You almost never should use the result of GPT work without revision, regardless of the purpose of that content. Especially if you want to create content of quality other than mediocre and predictable.
There should be no delegation to Chat GPT when it comes to serious matters as in health, money, law and other major things. There may be certain reliance on GPT when it comes to simple tasks and fast data processing is needed.
Use your judgment. Like you need to, pretty much in everything.
There is no easy money with GPT, but what I keep saying is that the power is in the prompt and you are the prompter, so you got the power!
Meanwhile, checkout my Content Creation guide if you want to learn how to create and manage your content professionally.
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