It’s been around for a while, and I want to know what we’re all thinking about AI.
I think it’s pretty cool. I think it’s going to be something that will help me a lot. As a matter of fact, I think it’s something that already has helped me a lot, and it’s helped lots of other people. But there’s a problem.
I just bought a book on Amazon called “YouTube Over 50” (or maybe it’s “YouTube for Over 50”). It was written by a nice lady who has a YouTube channel. I wanted it because I am over 50 and it had a really nice-looking cover, so I ordered it.
I think I paid $12.95 for the paperback, and it was delivered. I opened it up and read it in approximately 45 minutes. Here’s what I discovered, because I’m really good at discovering this sort of thing now—and I bet you are too.
The entire book was written with AI. There’s not an original word in there that came out of the author’s mouth. It’s all AI-generated content. It’s all generic and very broad. So how do we solve this? What do we do?
By the way, I confess that this very newsletter you’re reading right now—in the past, I have used AI a lot to write a whole bunch of it. As a matter of fact, if you read last week’s newsletter, because I was running late, I just let AI in Microsoft Word write it for me. That’s it. And I apologize for that.
But what can we do to get better at using AI? I have been to a gazillion Tony Rockliff seminars on AI. Every time I come away from one of them, I have learned more. But I’ll tell you something that Tony does better than anyone else I know: he knows how to write prompts, and he just thinks everybody knows how to write prompts. I think this is because he seems so casual about it, yet his prompts are wonderful.
I’ve done a little research on this, so what are some things we can do?
Number One: Be Clear and Specific
Here’s an example of a bad prompt: “Write about dogs.”
Let’s make it better: “Write a 200-word blog post about the history of golden retrievers as family pets.”
There—there’s clarity that gets you more useful information.
Provide Context
Frame the task with background information. For example: “I’m writing a newsletter for first-time home buyers. Explain what escrow means in very simple terms.” Then I would add: “Make it casual and perhaps a bit funny.” Most AIs will do that for you.
Define the Format
Tell the AI how to respond—with bullet lists, essays, or whatever format you need.
Set the Role or Voice
Make AI act like a teacher, an expert marketer, or whatever role fits your needs.
Use Examples
For instance: “Write a joke in this style: Why don’t skeletons fight each other? They don’t have any guts.” Now we’re telling AI to write a joke like that.
Specify Word Count
This is very important. When I’m writing a post or having AI help me with something like an email, I would say: “Please write a 900-word email about the specifics of St. Augustine turf grass.” It’ll do it.
Here’s what I sometimes do: I’ll write at least a 900-word article entirely with my own hands on the keyboard about St. Augustine grass. I will then take that and dump it into an AI, saying: “Please read this and edit it for spelling, grammar, and that sort of thing.” It’ll go in and do that.
If I want to be bold, I can say: “Rewrite for clarity.” It’ll take all the information I’ve written and rewrite it for clarity. Then I might say: “I don’t like this very much. Rewrite it again, but put my personality in it.” If you’ve been working with an AI for a long time, it kind of knows your personality. So boom—it’ll do it again, adding much of your personality.
You’re still going to have to go in and make changes, but these are things we can do with AI.
I could sit here and write about this forever, and I’m going to continue with this topic. I think we need a class at the club on exactly how to write prompts, and I’m going to ask Tony if he would be interested in doing that.