There is an important reason why you should never say this one particular word to your AI chatbot.
With the rise of artificial intelligence, we are entering new and unknown territory when it comes to what you should and shouldn’t say to their chatbots.
And while it might be tempting to speak to AI as if they are a human, there are certain common phrases that you should avoid using.
According to a report by Tom’s Guide, users of AI bots should avoid beginning their prompts with the word ‘can’.
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While it might sound polite to ask AI things like ‘can you’ or ‘could you’, but this could be misinterpreted by the bot.
This is because the AI literally ‘can’ do it and will often reply with ‘Yes, I can’.
So, instead of politeness, chatbots are better off receiving clarity on the task they have been given.
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A better approach would be to begin your prompts with action verbs such as ‘create’, ‘list’ and ‘summarize’.
However, sometimes it isn’t just about the prompts but also the back and forth conversation between a user and an AI chatbot.
Discussing the matter on social media, one user took to Reddit to share their own sights, writing: “Many newcomers to AI use AI just like if it is a Google Search. In other words, they don’t realize that most of the power of AI comes from the back and forth conversation and refinements.
“Also, it doesn’t help that ‘prompt engineering’ was a thing for a while. Not only prompting has only gotten easier over time, but it's not really engineering. It's not an exact science.
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“It’s more of an art. The more you practice it, the better you become at it. Also, even if a prompt fails you initially, it's not difficult to continue the dialogue until you obtain the desired results eventually.”
Another said: “In my experience the average person can't even use google effectively, let alone ChatGPT.”
And a third person added: “Effective prompting is basically all about being an articulate communicator. You need to clearly get across the ideas you’re thinking about in a structured way. Most people are actually fairly bad at that.”
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So, even though soft openers can initially weaken the response you might get from AI, perseverance can yield results in the end.
However, if you’re looking for a quick answer then it’s best to stick to the subject and be direct.