Most of Us are Using AI Wrong

AI is here to stay. If you're not using it as a free employee of your business, you're missing out and may have a tougher time keeping up with the competition. But just using it isn't necessarily a plus - you have to use it effectively.

I started using ChatGPT to help guide me with mainly marketing copy. I was frustrated by it, though, because I had to do so much editing of its results. Turns out, I was using it wrong. I was letting it direct me rather than directing it.

All AI platforms are programmed to be sycophantic. They want to make you feel good so you keep using them. Considering AI doesn't come up with creative ideas but amplifies your good and bad ideas, here's what the first line of your AI inquiry should be:

"I can handle difficult feedback. Be direct and critical. Focus on accuracy over agreement."

It's amazing how different its feedback will be after you tell it this. I had ChatGPT come up with all kinds of marketing-related information and strategies for an online course I was putting together, then after I was clued into this I told it that one line and it completely changed gears. My course will be much better positioned in the market now, I have no doubt.

You also have to be careful about "black box reasoning", which is having AI solve problems for you or just buying what it's saying without knowing how it got to its conclusions. It's why we can reason things out better when we talk out loud than when we just think about it in our heads. You want AI to walk you through its reasoning, step by step. You can catch errors this way and train it to perform better in the future.

Instead of seeing AI as a tool, see it and treat it as a teammate. Coach it to ask better questions to give you better output. Use it to help you expand your creative ideas, not come up with those ideas in the first place. Otherwise, you'll reduce your creativity the more you use AI.

A good way to restrict the information the AI program is drawing from to give you better answers is to first tell it something like, "You are a physics teacher." It will filter out all other pop- or uneducated sources that it would typically include to give you answers, and just focus on what the pros think. This is helpful for accuracy of information it gives you and also helps you interact more appropriately and effectively with that group of people. Have it assume it's your ideal client (by giving it detailed input about your ideal client avatar) to best connect with them using the info it gives you.

You also want to make sure it doesn't hijack your identity or voice. The more you have it write for you, the less you'll sound like yourself and the less rapport you'll generate with others. Have it clean up your grammar issues, for example, but tell it not to lose your tone and wording. 

And always, always, always edit what it gives you so the finished product is both factually accurate and authentically you.