Career

Guide: How to use ChatGPT in your work

Artificial intelligence can be an effective tool for many engineering and technological tasks. Here’s a guide to which tasks and instructions - the so-called prompts - you can give to ChatGPT.

Before you start using ChatGPT in your work, it is a good idea to get a handle on whether you are allowed to use artificial intelligence on the job at all. You can read more about this here: AI on the job: Get answers to your questions about what you are allowed to do

Technical writing and documentation

You can use ChatGPT to, for example, write manuals, instructions and specifications.

Adapt this prompt to your task:
“Generate a brief summary of the following technical paper, highlighting key specifications, methodology and results. [Insert technical paper here]”

Project Management

You can use ChatGPT to, for example, create a schedule with benchmarks and generate reports.

Adapt this prompt to your task:
“Write a weekly progress report for Project XX, including completed benchmarks, upcoming tasks, challenges, and proposed solutions. [Consider confidentiality, insert details here]”

Research

You can use ChatGPT to, for example, summarise research results and explain concepts.

Adapt this prompt to your assignment:
"Summarise recent research findings in [Insert Field], focusing on breakthrough technologies, applications, and potential industrial impacts. Use this as a point of departure [insert details/articles/input]"

Design and development

You can use ChatGPT to, for example, describe design parameters and generate creative content.

Adapt this prompt to your task:
"Describe the optimal design parameters for a [Insert component name], considering materials, load capacity, efficiency, and environment."

Quality assurance and regulations

You can use ChatGPT to, for example, create legal texts and to analyse feedback on a product or solution from users.

Suggested Prompt:
"Help me draft a standard software licensing agreement where the licensor retains all rights to the software but grants the licensee the right to use the software for internal purposes."

Adapt this prompt to your task:
"I've been collecting feedback from users of our new engineering software. They often cite problems with the user interface and integration with third-party tools. Can you help analyse this feedback and suggest improvements based on the most common concerns? [Insert the feedback]"

Education and communication

You can use ChatGPT to, for example, develop teaching materials and draft an email to a local politician or a letter to a newspaper.

Suggested prompts:
"I have to teach a basic electronics class. Can you help me create a lesson plan that covers topics like Ohm's Law, series and parallel connections, and using a multimeter?"

"We have developed a new sustainable technology for energy storage. How can I communicate the benefits and importance of this technology in an easy-to-understand way to a wider audience?"

Availability

You can use ChatGPT to, for example, convert documents into speech and to create accessible and understandable content.

Adapt this prompt to your task:
"I have a 50-page technical manual on thermodynamics. Can you help me convert it into an easy-to-understand version so that it can be accessed by people without much knowledge? [Insert the text from the manual]."

Mathematical and logical assistance

You can use ChatGPT to, for example, perform simple calculations and support data analysis.

Adapt this prompt to your task:
"I have collected data from a number of sensors in a wind farm over a month. Can you help me analyse the data to identify any anomalies or patterns in wind speed and energy production? [Insert data] "

Client interaction and customer support

You can use ChatGPT to, for example, formulate texts for client communication and provide customer support.

Adapt this prompt to your task:
"Draft a professional email that updates the client on the current status of [Insert project name], including progress highlights, schedule adjustments, and any necessary support from their side. [Insert project details here]"

6 tips to use ChatGPT effectively

ChatGPT is a model that you have to program or prompt with words to get a result. Here are some general tips for prompting ChatGPT in the best way:

1. Iterative refinement:

Start simple; fine-tune questions based on ChatGPT's responses.

2. Limitations:

Guide ChatGPT with very precise instructions.

3. Roles:

Give ChatGPT a role: "You are now a professor of..."

4. Temperature adjustment:

Control the level of randomness of answers and ask for answers in a specific style.

5. Domain Specific Language:

Use specific terminology from your field to tailor ChatGPT's answers to your needs.

6. Ethics:

Test for prejudice; compliance with ethical guidelines.

ChatGPT is better in form than content

You should generally be aware that ChatGPT is better for form than content.

This means that it is good for the structure and style of a text, i.e. creative writing, formatting and stylistic adaptation. Whereas when it comes to content, where substance and accuracy are important, you have to be more critical.

Therefore, be careful with factual information, predictions and complex details from ChatGPT - here you should always check whether its answers are accurate and correct.