Welcome to "I am GPTed," the podcast hosted by yours truly, Mal—the Misfit Master of AI, the only person who went from rolling their eyes at chatbots to accidentally being asked for AI advice at family gatherings. I'm still waiting for my Nobel Prize in Accidental Tech Competence, but until then, let's get you GPTed.

Today's hot technique: **role prompting**. If you want your AI assistant to spit out advice like a Nobel-winning chef or a therapist who doesn't secretly judge you, just tell it to *act as* that role right up front. Seriously, it’s that easy.

Before: “Write a recipe using chicken and rice.”
After: “Act as if you’re my nutritionist. Write a chicken-and-rice recipe that’s balanced and quick for people who have no patience (like me).”

The first one gets you something even your dog would side-eye. The second? Now you’ve got health-conscious, time-saving magic with no extra fees. When I first tried this, I just asked regular questions and got bland copy-paste nonsense. It was like asking my vacuum cleaner for stock advice. Give it a role—it wakes right up.

Now, onto a practical use case you probably haven’t considered: **AI as your personal decluttering coach**. Most people use chatbots for work emails or—as I used to—mindlessly generating fake Latin poetry for party tricks, but did you know you can say: “Act as a professional organizer. Help me plan a five-minute daily routine to stop my house from looking like a ‘before’ photo?” Turns out, AI gives better cleaning advice than any influencer who owns an absurd number of woven baskets.

Let’s talk mistakes. Beginners—like seasoned ex-skeptics such as myself—often forget to **give clear instructions about the desired output format**. My early prompts? “Summarize this.” That was it. What did I get? A summary so vague it could’ve been about 17 different topics. Now I say, “Present this summary as bullet points, keep it under 80 words, and make it readable for a third grader.” Pro tip: The AI isn’t psychic. Be specific, and it’ll stop pretending to be a magic 8-ball.

Simple exercise time. Try this:
- Pick a real problem (“I need three dinner ideas using only stuff in my fridge”).
- Assign the AI a relevant role (“Act as a chef with zero tolerance for food waste”).
- Specify output (“Give me three recipes in a numbered list with estimated prep times”).
- Review what you get.
Doesn’t quite work? Try refining your prompt—more details, more role info. Repeat until it feels less like random recipe roulette and more like culinary genius.

And here’s a tip for **evaluating and improving AI output**: Once you get a response, ask the AI to critique its own work—“What could be better about this answer?”—and then request an improved version. It’s like bootstrapping your very own AI editor. (Credit to Ethan, whose name I drop so I sound more credible.)

Quick story before I let you go: My first month with prompting, I honestly thought “Act as a…” was something only Silicon Valley types used at brunch to impress each other. Now it’s my go-to life hack. Yesterday, I used it to draft an apology email to my dentist. AI—making me slightly less of an embarrassment since 2023.

Subscribe to "I am GPTed" wherever you listen. Thanks for spending time with Mal—your friendly, slightly sarcastic AI misfit. Want to get smarter? Visit quietplease.ai. And remember: this has been a Quiet Please production—go forth and get GPTed.

This content was created in partnership and with the help of Artificial Intelligence AI