How to Learn ChatGPT

ChatGPT is an advanced artificial intelligence (AI) language model that launched in November 2022. By December 2024, the platform had 300 million weekly active users, an increase of 250 million from January 2023 [1]. During this time, it has dramatically impacted businesses of all kinds. Adoption has been rapid. Despite initial concern over the potential for ChatGPT and similar generative AI (GenAI) tools “taking over” various jobs, the concern started to wane as more people experimented with these tools. Instead, many users can recognize the potential for ChatGPT to help them become more efficient and effective in their work. The technology may even lead to new types of jobs and opportunities emerging in the future. 

Discover how you can effectively use ChatGPT and learn more about how the tool is being put to use.

For hands-on practice using ChatGPT, explore Vanderbilt University's ChatGPT: Master Free AI Tools to Supercharge Productivity Specialization.

What is ChatGPT?

ChatGPT, a large language model (LLM), is a GenAI tool developed by OpenAI that harnesses the power of natural language processing (NLP) to generate text responses that go beyond traditional search results. OpenAI has trained the generative pre-trained transformer (GPT) model on massive amounts of data that is available on the internet. Because it is a form of AI, ChatGPT continually learns and improves, expanding its knowledge base and becoming more adept at responding to user queries and prompts. 

ChatGPT can interact with users in a very human-like way, and it undergoes regular updates as OpenAI continually seeks to improve the tool’s performance and expand its knowledge base. ChatGPT helps users generate ideas, write content, assist in coding, and provide customer support (in the form of a chatbot). You will likely interact with ChatGPT-created tools as you navigate the internet and interact with your favorite brands and organizations.

How does ChatGPT work?

Pulling from a massive database, ChatGPT predicts the next word in a sentence using GPT-3 and GPT-3.5 models and then builds on that word—and the next and the next—until it has a complete response. As you use it, the tool improves its ability to predict what should come next.

Human users give prompts, which are questions or instructions, to ChatGPT. The prompt will cause ChatGPT to begin generating words and feeding those words back to the model in an iterative manner, ultimately resulting in a response.

GPT stands for “generative pre-trained transformer.” “Generative” refers to generating the next word. “Pre-trained” means ChatGPT trains on data or text available on the internet. Finally, “transformer” describes its deep neural network.

Recently, OpenAI incorporated agentic AI capabilities into ChatGPT, allowing the tool to take independent action without constant human interaction. This means that ChatGPT may eventually develop the ability to operate like a virtual assistant that can complete complex tasks such as planning and booking travel.

Getting started with ChatGPT

ChatGPT is an easy-to-use tool that you can begin using without a lot of training. Once you gain some experience with the tool, you can begin to experiment and improve your interactions through the queries or prompts that you enter.

1. Access ChatGPT

To access ChatGPT, sign up for an account via OpenAI, which offers free and paid options. Once you have an account, you can log in to OpenAI to access ChatGPT and begin interacting with the tool. 

2. Interface overview

You’ll enter prompts and queries in the blank space ChatGPT provides. Once you’ve entered your request, this user-friendly tool quickly generates a response. That fundamental data entry window packs a lot of power.

Practical applications

While content creation has been ChatGPT’s primary focus, you can find new ways to use the tool as your skills continue developing.

• Content creation: One of the most common applications of ChatGPT is for content creation, including both text and visual content. ChatGPT can create outlines and complete text for anything from social media posts to book-length manuscripts.

• Coding assistance: Developers can also use ChatGPT for help with coding, including tasks like learning programming languages, creating code snippets, and debugging code. You can harness its NLP technology to help streamline developments.

• Customer support: Companies can use ChatGPT for customer support by offering customers around-the-clock access regardless of location. Customers interact through an interface that might be textual or verbal to get answers to their questions or to address support needs. 

• Brainstorming ideas: You can also use ChatGPT to brainstorm ideas. Just enter a simple prompt such as “Help me come up with ideas for a blog about cooking that will appeal to college students.,” and you’ll get a list of viable topic ideas. 

Tips for effective usage

Gaining experience with ChatGPT by simply experimenting with it is a great way to learn and improve. Consider these tips that can help you take advantage of the tool and use it to help with a variety of tasks.

Crafting effective prompts

An important aspect of interacting with ChatGPT is creating effective prompts, often referred to as prompt engineering. Try to create detailed and specific prompts that offer context to optimize the helpfulness of the tool’s responses. Additionally, it’s a best practice to break down complex instructions into smaller parts rather than providing an entire set of instructions through one prompt.

You might start by providing context for ChatGPT about its frame of reference. For example: “You are an experienced professor of marketing who is creating a lesson plan to help students understand how to conduct a competitive analysis.” Then, you might check to ensure understanding: “Do you have any questions for me?”

Once you’ve established this groundwork, you can move into specific requests: “Please provide a detailed outline for this lesson plan that will effectively engage students’ interest.”

As the ChatGPT tool responds to each question, you can engage it in an iterative “conversation” to generate increasingly refined and specific responses.

Iterative questioning

Iterative questioning is the process of becoming increasingly more refined and specific as you interact with ChatGPT. Your initial prompt will likely be fairly basic. Based on the responses you receive, you can improve your prompt. You can also give it feedback, using the interaction as a collaborative process between you and ChatGPT as you work together to improve its output generation.

Limitations and challenges

While ChatGPT offers several advantages, it also poses some ethical considerations and other limitations and challenges.

Understanding limitations

Despite its sophistication, ChatGPT is not foolproof. It has limitations and may sometimes generate responses that are inaccurate, biased, or entirely “made-up.” Experts refer to these made-up responses as “hallucinations.” It’s also important to remember that ChatGPT is only as relevant as the data it’s trained on and, consequently, is never entirely up-to-date, which may present challenges depending on how you are attempting to use the tool.

Ethical considerations

IBM, a pioneer in the use of AI through its work with Watson, points to examples of AI ethics issues, including “data responsibility and privacy, fairness, explainability, robustness, transparency, environmental sustainability, inclusion, moral agency, value alignment, accountability, trust, and technology misuse” [2].

Copyright and intellectual property infringement are additional areas of concern. ChatGPT trains on a vast amount of data that may contain copyrighted material. In addition, organizations and individuals face the potential for their own intellectual property to be accessed and used by others. 

It’s important for users to understand these ethical concerns and take steps to avoid, minimize, or eliminate them.

Advanced techniques

As you gain more experience with ChatGPT, explore some of the advanced techniques that can help you further benefit from the tool. 

Fine-tuning prompts

As you gain experience working with ChatGPT, you can move on to more advanced techniques, such as fine-tuning prompts, to help improve the outputs received. Writing effective prompts is an important skill necessary for ensuring that you receive relevant and high-quality output. Your prompt quality has a direct correlation to the quality of the answers and output you get in response. As you gain experience, you can engage in role-playing prompts, chain-of-thought prompting, and few-shot learning.

Using APIs

Think of APIs, or application programming interfaces, as a conduit between two apps—in this case, ChatGPT and another app or software system. APIs allow the two systems to interact and exchange data. This allows users to, for instance, tie ChatGPT to their own proprietary data sets or internal customer—or employee-facing chatbots.

Customization options

Some examples of other forms of ChatGPT customization include:

• Formatting: For example, you might instruct ChatGPT to provide output in the form of a table.

• Tone: Do you want formal or casual output or output that is consistent with your brand voice, tone, or style?

• Style: Consider if you want content that is academic or creative?

• Controlling for bias: You can explicitly instruct ChatGPT to respond neutrally.

Learning resources

As ChatGPT and similar tools have proliferated, so, too, have the resources available to help users understand how they work and how to use them most effectively. These resources range from tutorials and courses to a wide range of community forums and support. 

Tutorials and courses

As ChatGPT and other tools have become more prevalent, numerous options have emerged for learning how to use them. Several tutorials and courses are available on Coursera. Universities and technical schools also offer a wide range of courses and learning options for students at all levels of expertise. Whether you choose to enroll in a specific program or return to take or audit a single course, a variety of options exist. Also, OpenAI offers ChatGPT Edu, a version of ChatGPT with advanced data analytics capabilities, for universities.

Community forums and support

Community forums also offer an opportunity to learn and share with others. ChatGPT has a community forum for developers. Private, non-ChatGPT affiliated forums on social media channels such as LinkedIn and Facebook offer additional opportunities for user and developer interactions. 

Feedback mechanisms

The power behind generative AI tools like ChatGPT is their ability to continue learning based on their actions. They also improved based on user feedback, which you can provide in several ways. 

Providing feedback on responses

OpenAI encourages users to provide feedback on ChatGPT’s responses. OpenAI uses this feedback to improve. Users can give feedback directly when interacting with the tool by rating responses or by reporting inappropriate or biased content.

Importance of user feedback

ChatGPT relies on user feedback as part of its continuous improvement. Feedback helps OpenAI identify opportunities for enhancement in output and user interface.

Learn ChatGPT and build AI skills on Coursera

Developing your ChatGPT skills can help you make the most of this innovative AI language model. Coursera offers various AI, machine learning, and natural language processing courses, which can provide a foundational understanding of the technology, how it works, and how you might use it in various settings. 

For instance, develop your skills by completing Vanderbilt University’s ChatGPT: Master Free AI Tools to Supercharge Productivity Specialization, where you can learn how to use ChatGPT to streamline your workflows. Or take IBM’s Generative AI: Prompt Engineering Basics, which addresses best practices for developing effective ChatGPT prompts. Upon completion of either progra, you willm gain a shareable certificate to include in your resume, CV, or LinkedIn profile.