ChatGPT, prompt engineering and blogging: What does the future hold for today's writer?
True story: I spent months developing a prompt that prevented ChatGPT from using the words "conclusion" at the end of every blog post. I came close several times, including results that omit that phrase about 60 percent of the time. So, I kept tweaking the prompt just slightly, testing each version repeatedly. And I'd come a little closer, only to fall just a tiny bit short as ChatGPT would either use that exact word or some variation of it, like "in conclusion," or "in summary," or even "to wrap things up." Finally, after about four months of tweaking and rewriting the prompt, I developed one that avoids the usage of that phrase 100 percent of the time – or so I thought. Then, just for grins, I used the prompt again tonight on a random, easy blog topic just before writing this post – and the resulting content produced by ChatGPT 4.0 used the phrase "concluding this guide" in the last paragraph. Of course, the prompt worked the very...