This morning I tried using ChatGPT as a recommendation engine, and the results were better than expected, in several ways.
Here’s how it performs at recommending experts in a given field, scientific papers, travel destinations, and fiction authors.
Note that I used GPT-4, the newest version, which you have to pay for.
ChatGPT Is Great For Book Recommendations
I like novels and short stories that blend science fiction and fantasy elements, and those are hard to find, so I started there.
Looks great so far– I’m already familiar with a lot of those, and I' enjoyed 80% of the ones I’ve read so far. That’s great as a test, but I want to learn about authors I’m not familiar with.
Even better! I know a few of these, but not most of them. Note that not all of these books blend sci-fi and fantasy, but a lot do, and again, I’ve like what I’ve read from this list so far.
On to the next subject…
Using ChatGPT to Find Experts In A Field
In this case, evidence-based personal trainers and fitness gurus.
Again, great recommendations, but I’m familiar with almost all of them. Also, you may have noticed that the evidence-based fitness industry is pretty male-dominated. Let’s get some more recs, with women this time.
Okay awesome! I’ve heard of a few of these but Jordan Syatt is the only one I’m really familiar with. He’s not usually lumped in with the “evidence-based” group because he relies on a lot of personal anecdote, but his advice is legit and science-backed.
Speaking of diversity, let’s revisit our last subject:
Non-Western Fantasy and Sci-fi Authors
There are a few good reasons to want to see more non-western voices in fantasy and science fiction. Aside from the usual political/equity reasons for wanting more diversity, it gives you more variety in settings. With fantasy in particular, this is a good way to break out of the tired old “medieval Europe but with magic” tropes.
You may have noticed that several of these authors are Americans who were born in the USA. However, the specific books it recommends either have African (Okorafor) or Asian (Marjorie Liu) inspired settings, and one (Jemisin) isn’t based on any particular real-world culture. That’s cool because it means these recommendations are in the spirit of what I wanted, even though they don’t strictly obey the letter of my request.
Maybe that’s just accidental, but in any case this isn’t the first time ChatGPT has seemingly showed some ability to give me what I want even when it’s not strictly what I asked for.
ChatGPT For Travel Recommendations
Here’s another fun one.
The places I listed include three cities, two islands and a country, and ChatGPT had no problem interpreting a list that combined them. It still spat out specific destinations rather than whole countries.
I’ve been to the first two of these, and several more are on my to-do list, but half of these are places I haven’t considered.
By this point it’s clear that if you’re somewhat familiar with the subject you’re asking about, the first ten recommendations are likely to be things you already know. I still like starting with ten as a test; if you like the results, you can ask for more, get recommendations you didn’t already know about, and be confident that they’re good.
Ten Groundbreaking Studies On Longevity
I’m planning an article on longevity research, so let’s see if ChatGPT can help me find good studies to read and use as sources for the article.
This is the first time I’ve seen it actually link to sources. I was under the impression that this would only become possible with some of the new plugins that are being rolled out; I’m on the waiting list for plugin access but haven’t gotten it yet.
Let’s try one more thing….
Yep, GPT-4 can cite sources if you simply tell it to. Note that it doesn’t seem to be able to embed links in text, and instead has to write them out. We’ll still need a plugin for embedded links. ChatGPT also doesn’t have access to any information post-2021, so until it gets real-time search engine access this won’t be useful for anything requiring timely information. Still, citing sources means you can now use it to write authoritative articles and fact-check it during editing.
With this update, it looks like I’ll be using ChatGPT to some extent in most of the articles I write from here on out. It’s also looking like a great way to find new things to enjoy, and to quickly educate yourself on a subject.