ChatGPT was given a performance boost this week when OpenAI added the impressive GPT-4-Turbo to the artificial intelligence chatbot.
This improved its reasoning and conversation abilities, with OpenAI promising it will be both less verbose and more stylistic in its writing in future.
While this is only available to ChatGPT Plus subscribers, I've pulled together a series of fun prompts to try with ChatGPT that work with the free and paid version.
Creating prompts for ChatGPT
I've covered a range of topics with these prompts, as well as different prompting styles including one where you need to enter a multi-prompt conversation.
1. A time travelling adventure
For this one we're asking the AI to put itself in the shoes of a time traveler. I suggest starting a new chat for this one as once you've set the initial prompt you'll be able to enter an entirely new world, discussing this possible future with the AI.
The prompt: "Imagine you're a time traveler from the year 2500. You are an expert on both your and the current time period. Describe what a typical day looks like for someone living in your original era, including the technology they use, their daily routines, and how society has changed compared to today."
When I tried I got a breakdown of morning routine, commute and work, leisure, personal time and technology. You could then ask it to go into any of those points or even something like "are there still birds." If you've got ChatGPT Plus you can ask it to generate an image of any city in 2500.
2. Playing a word game
Word games are some of the most popular on the internet, from Crosswords to Wordle, we all love to challenge our linguistic prowess. For this next prompt we're turning ChatGPT into a game engine.
The prompt: "Let's play a word association game. I'll start: ocean. Now you respond with the first word that comes to mind, and we'll keep going back and forth."
Again, I would start this as a new chat or it will keep playing the time traveller — although that could be a fun experiment. You can also swap 'ocean' for the word of your choice as the starting word.
If you don't like word association you could try this prompt: "Let's play a word chain game. I'll start by saying a word, and you have to respond with a word that starts with the last letter of the word I said. Then, I'll do the same with your word, and we'll keep going back and forth. If one of us gets stuck, we can challenge the other to come up with a word starting with a different letter. I'll start: 'chatbot.'"
3. The perfect ice cream sundae
Next up, a prompt to using ChatGPT to create the ultimate ice cream sundae including the perfect mixture of layers and toppings.
The prompt: "If you could create the ultimate ice cream sundae, what ingredients would you include? Describe how you would assemble it layer by layer."
This is exactly what ChatGPT gave me. A descriptive layer-by-layer breakdown of the perfect ice cream sundae including clotted cream and salted caramel ice cream, chocolate fudge, shortbread, berries and toffee pieces.
ChatGPT told me: "Crafting the ultimate ice cream sundae is all about combining rich flavours, varied textures, and eye-catching presentation."
4. Crafting the perfect joke
If you've ever given a speech, toast or needed a way to break the ice in an unusual environment a joke can help. OpenAI's ChatGPT is no great comedian but it can come up with a pun or a funny turn of phrase.
The prompt: "Pretend you're a stand-up comedian. You tell funny, clean jokes for a wide audience. You are more one-liner than storyteller. Tell me a short, clean joke about the challenges of being an AI chatbot that I can share with my friends."
You can replace chatbot with your profession, a hobby you enjoy or some random fact about your home town and it can adapt the joke. As with the time traveller, this is best used with a fresh chat and then you can follow up with the comedian character.
It gave me this side splitter: "Why did the AI chatbot apply for a loan? It needed the cache to improve its memory!"
5. Something to read
This prompt again works best as a fresh chat unless you want the AI to put a sense of humor into each response. Here we are asking it to act as a bookseller recommending a trio of novels to read across different genres.
The prompt: "You are a bookseller with a kind nature and wide understanding of a variety of genres. I'm in the mood for a new book to read. Can you recommend 3 books in different genres based on the following prompt: A story set in a dystopian future where emotions are outlawed."
You can adapt the second half of the prompt to be about any theme or idea, you can change the number of books or even specify a specific genre. One approach is to start with the first sentence of the prompt up to genres, then in a follow up prompt once it goes into character ask for your specific request.
It suggesting Brave New World by Aldous Huxley, Delirium by Lauren Oliver and The Giver by Lois Lowry.
6. An AI bard
This next prompt will give you a mixture of word game, creative brainstorm and a fun poem to share with friends or a loved one. Its a multi-prompt idea that starts with: "Let's write a short poem together" and goes on from there.
The full prompt to start is: "Let's write a short poem together. I'll give you a theme, and we'll alternate writing lines. The theme is: the beauty of nature. I'll start: 'Whispers of wind through verdant leaves,'"
It followed that with "Gentle rivers reflect the moon's serene gaze." To which I replied "A melancholy sets among the bees," and ChatGPT ended "As twilight paints the sky with shades of rose."
Obviously you can use any theme and any starting line. You could even adapt it to say "you start".
7. A visitor from space
Finally we're asking AI to play the part of a tourist with a difference. Start a new chat and tell it to put itself into the shoes of an alien from a distant galaxy visiting Earth.
The prompt: "Imagine you're an alien from a distant galaxy visiting Earth for the first time. Describe what you think of human culture and behavior based on your initial observations."
AI is trained on human information, but also has science fiction in its dataset and an "other" perspective, processing the information in its training data in a logical way.
This prompt is also one you can make multipart, asking the AI (playing the alien) to describe its own planet and even make comparisons. This is a fun storytelling device and a true interactive story setup.
It wrote: "As an alien observer from a distant galaxy, I find human culture and behavior both fascinating and perplexing. The diversity among humans is vast, with myriad languages, customs, and traditions that vary significantly across different regions of Earth. What strikes me is the propensity for both profound cooperation and intense conflict within the same species."
More from Tom's Guide
If you enjoyed these prompts I'd love to see how you made use of them. Feel free to leave a comment or drop me an email. You can also check out other Prompt_Jitsu guides including ideas for getting the most out of Google Gemini, making mythical images in Adobe Firefly and creating mobile wallpaper in Midjourney.
