Issue #23. How to write for your favorite chatbot

On today’s quest:

— Standard English in prompts?
— Intentional typos in texts?
— Huge predictions for workplace changes

Tip: Apparently, ChatGPT likes Standard English

Sometimes my prompts don’t use perfect English. For example, I don’t always capitalize the first word or use a period at the end. (I know … shocking coming from Grammar Girl, but I’m as lazy as the next person when nobody is looking.)

I wondered if it matters, and my research indicates it does — sort of.

Proper punctuation, capitalization, and spelling matter in prompts for two reasons:

1. A lot of the text that large language models like ChatGPT were trained on is written in Standard English that follows traditional rules of grammar, usage, capitalization, spelling, and punctuation. So this is what they’re best at understanding.

2. You want to write the clearest instructions possible, and Standard English helps the AI interpret your message. It can do a lot of extrapolation, but you’re still more likely to get an accurate response when you call the massive company in Cupertino “Apple” instead of “apple.” It also helps to put words used as words in quotation marks as I did in the previous sentence. Question marks reinforce the idea that something is a question. Colons let it know that you’re adding more information about the text that came before, just as it would for a human reader. And so on.

Further, I hardly ever do image generation, but in Midjourney prompts, some punctuation is required. For example, parameters must follow double hyphens (for example, -- no plants would ensure no plants appear in the image). And I just saw an example where a comma would matter based on the old “eats, shoots, and leaves” joke: With the serial comma, a panda has a gun. Without the comma, it’s munching on leaves.

However, when I tried the old joke from a (fake) Rachael Ray magazine cover, ChatGPT didn’t play along. It “knew” I didn’t want the woman to be cooking her family and her dog:*

The bottom line is that you definitely don’t need perfect writing to get good answers from ChatGPT. I have had it perform well on prompts with typos too, for example, and even when punctuation should matter, it sometimes doesn’t. But still, you’re more likely to avoid misunderstandings if you do your best.

Tip: Are people misspelling things on purpose now?

Speaking of proper English, I came across this post on LinkedIn in which Jeanette Smith says she has heard people are misspelling words to show that a piece has been written by a human. I haven’t done this, but I can’t say I haven’t though bout it. ;)

I don’t recommend this approach! Instead, consider why you think your human-written text might be mistaken for AI. And even if you use AI for first drafts, take the time to edit the text so it actually sounds like you.

News

CEOs say their workers will need new skills

A new survey of global CEOs by the consulting firm PwC found that 69% agreed with the statement “Generative AI will require most of my workforce to develop new skills in the next three years.” Today, 32% say generative AI has already been adopted across their company. Read the whole report.

The IMF says 60% of jobs could be affected by AI

A new report from the International Monetary Fund says, “In advanced economies, about 60 percent of jobs may be impacted by AI. Roughly half the exposed jobs may benefit from AI integration, enhancing productivity. For the other half, AI applications may execute key tasks currently performed by humans, which could lower labor demand, leading to lower wages and reduced hiring. In the most extreme cases, some of these jobs may disappear.”

Essentially, if your job can be enhanced by AI, you’ll be expected to do more, but you’ll probably do well. This is more likely to be the case for college-educated workers and those who already make a lot of money. But if your job could be replaced by AI, you’re in trouble. They believe people who are adaptable and familiar with the new technology will do better, but they expect disparities in how AI affects different people and jobs to increase income inequality.

What is AI sidequest?

Using AI isn’t my main job, and it probably isn’t yours either. I’m Mignon Fogarty, and Grammar Girl is my main gig, but I haven’t seen a technology this transformative since the development of the internet, and I want to learn about it. I bet you do too.

So here we are! Sidequesting together.

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^{*  Maybe it “thought” harder about what I really meant since I didn’t capitalize or punctuate my prompt. It created a similar image when I prompted it again with Standard English, but I wonder if I biased it.}

^{Written by a human.}