A quick and dirty guide to GPTs
How to set up your own custom chatbot (without having to spend hours watching video tutorials on YouTube).
Tech companies used to show people how to use their new products. The commercial for the first iPod shows a guy sitting at a Mac laptop, downloading songs into iTunes, dragging the songs onto the iPod, disconnecting the cord, and hitting the center button on the new device (first gen iPods famously did not have the play > symbol).
Now, tech companies don’t have to explain their product at all. OpenAI’s commercial introducing ChatGPT-4 is shot in the style of what can only be described as a cancer treatment video.
Quiz: Is this woman a counselor for patients newly diagnosed with cancer, explaining the treatment journey to a man and his partner, or is this just some lady talking about the latest ChatGPT update with her two random friends? It’s anyone’s guess here.
In this commercial, one of the actors says, “Imagine giving a fifth grader a personal math tutor with unlimited time and patience. It’s a great tool to bring learning to everyone in a way that is personalized to their skill level”. OpenAI literally just implied that AI should replace teachers (no wonder the comments are turned off for this video).
The commercial introducing GPTs isn’t any better. In this one, someone sets up a custom GPT for their dog and then asks it the dumbest questions imaginable, which in turn makes me question whether or not this person should be allowed to take care of a dog. It’s definitely “giving Microsoft”, if you know what I mean.
Okay, so what actually are GPTs?
Since none of the commercials explain what this technology does or how to use it, it’s now up to me to teach you the basics and help you get started.
GPTs are a new-ish feature for ChatGPT that was rolled out in November 2023. You have to pay for ChatGPT-4 to use them, as GPTs are not available with the free 3.5 version.
There are three types of GPTs:
1. GPTs created by the ChatGPT team
2. GPTs created by other people and applications (like Adobe, Canva, Excel, etc.)
3. GPTs you create yourself
At this point, someone on the planet has created a custom GPT for anything you can think of. I tried out a GPT that spit out my astrology birth chart in seconds. Apparently, my “stellium in Sagittarius” indicates a “concentration of energy in the area of higher learning and exploration. This suggests a life theme centered around seeking knowledge, truth and understanding, often through education.”
I take all astrology readings with a grain of salt, but I think this means that yes, I should be the one watching YouTube tutorials about GPTs and then explaining what I learned to others.
How to create your own custom GPT
Open up the GPT Editor and choose the Create or Configure mode.
Create mode acts like ChatGPT, asking you questions about what you want to build.
Configure mode allows you to build out a GPT you’ve already started creating and have all the specs for.
Before you start creating or configuring
1. Get specific about exactly what you want your custom GPT to help you with.
As I mentioned in a previous post, it’s best (and easiest) to pick 1-3 things you want to use GenAI for and then get good at prompt engineering for these tasks. There are a lot of guides and tutorials out there for how to create a custom GPT to act as your AI assistant, but you really want to have multiple assistants and GPTs. For example, you could use a GPT to help you with SEO for your business and use a separate GPT to help you build your business website.
2. Gather thy paperwork.
Configure mode includes a Knowledge section where you can upload files. GPTs are more effective if you provide a knowledge base, or data, from the jump. This could include writing samples, research you’ve collected, images, a marketing strategy document you’ve put together, etc. You want to train your GPT like an actual assistant: give them as much information as possible to scan and read before you ask the tool to do its job.
3. Check to see if the GPT you’re making already exists.
The GPT store launched only a few months ago, but there are already a plethora of custom GPTs you can add to the sidebar. I tried out a GPT for building a website, and while the wireframe it created for my in-progress business website wasn’t as well designed as this gem, it was easier and faster than setting up my own custom GPT website builder.
Are there any good YouTube tutorials out there I should watch that will show me how to create a GPT step-by-step?
The short answer is no. I watched a lot of YouTube vids for this post, including one where a guy makes a custom GPT to help improve his golf game. I also managed to get through a 60-minute video in which the guy teaching the tutorial spent the first 20 minutes talking about how GPTs could make you rich $$$.
Instead of wasting your time in the land of AI dude YouTube, I suggest trying out a few custom GPTs that are already available, then decide whether not you want to build your own.
Have fun customizing :)
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