ChatGPT/AI for boring work case studies?
June 25, 2023 8:32 AM Subscribe
I have to write really, really boring case studies (technical) for work. There's only so many ways I can say "utilized GoLang to write extensions for Kubernetes in order to increase product ideation" or something like that. Has anyone done this and is there a trick or good/better way of getting this to work well so I don't spend all day saying the same thing over and over? A particular AI product that does this? Any other non-AI specific ideas on how to accomplish this would be really helpful.
My work likes really, really dense case studies which I don't agree with, but that's a non-topic. I prefer terse, business level paragraphs describing the problem, solution, and problems we ran into and how we got around them basically. Then a section on technologies used since some managers LOVE seeing "Salesforce" and specific technologies.
I work with foreigners who don't speak English as a first language so I think there's a cultural thing so there's an idea that more is better, whatever. I'm hoping of writing a simple "normal" case study and have AI fill it out so I don't spend hours trying to figure out how many ways to say "implementation."
Any tips or tricks to do this? Again my idea is to sketch out a draft and then just see how much AI expands this. Most things around AI/ChatGPT are not around work busy work. I know this is a controversial topic but I think this is probably not as controversial as making up a college essay.
Thanks!
My work likes really, really dense case studies which I don't agree with, but that's a non-topic. I prefer terse, business level paragraphs describing the problem, solution, and problems we ran into and how we got around them basically. Then a section on technologies used since some managers LOVE seeing "Salesforce" and specific technologies.
I work with foreigners who don't speak English as a first language so I think there's a cultural thing so there's an idea that more is better, whatever. I'm hoping of writing a simple "normal" case study and have AI fill it out so I don't spend hours trying to figure out how many ways to say "implementation."
Any tips or tricks to do this? Again my idea is to sketch out a draft and then just see how much AI expands this. Most things around AI/ChatGPT are not around work busy work. I know this is a controversial topic but I think this is probably not as controversial as making up a college essay.
Thanks!
ChatGPT can absolutely do this. I've provided it with a bullet points outline of what I want to say in work emails with the instruction "write a few paragraphs based on these bullet points in a formal manner". It spits out very convincing text. I have noticed it struggles to get terminology correct with niche topics; you'll need to proofread and tweak the output yourself to make sure it's 100% correct, but it can absolutely do the heavy lifting for you.
posted by wandering zinnia at 8:36 AM on June 25, 2023 [1 favorite]
posted by wandering zinnia at 8:36 AM on June 25, 2023 [1 favorite]
You can definitely let ChatGPT to rewrite paragraphs for you to your specific use case, like "rewrite the input to a grade level of 12, with minimal jargon, limited to 600 words, with a professional tone, that is understandable by people who are not Americans". You basically have to describe your audience to ChatGPT.
Just make sure you proofread EVERYTHING. ChatGPT is known for "hallucinations" (i.e. making up facts) but you're not using its knowledge of facts, just its knowledge of language to rewrite your own stuff.
posted by kschang at 8:51 AM on June 25, 2023
Just make sure you proofread EVERYTHING. ChatGPT is known for "hallucinations" (i.e. making up facts) but you're not using its knowledge of facts, just its knowledge of language to rewrite your own stuff.
posted by kschang at 8:51 AM on June 25, 2023
One thing to be very careful of with ChatGPT is how sensitive/private the info you're feeding into it is - if you give it data, it keeps and uses (and may spit out for someone else) that data. So for example the NIH has just issued a ruling about how and where generative AI can be used for privacy reasons.
posted by restless_nomad at 9:14 AM on June 25, 2023 [4 favorites]
posted by restless_nomad at 9:14 AM on June 25, 2023 [4 favorites]
Don’t put any proprietary company info in. Companies are starting to roll out policies about this.
posted by matildaben at 9:38 AM on June 25, 2023 [1 favorite]
posted by matildaben at 9:38 AM on June 25, 2023 [1 favorite]
Response by poster: Thanks all, we have no specific policy but I'm sure if I asked the question legal will ... be legal. There's really no proprietary information (one of the reasons I'm sort of against doing these people seem to just list random technologies just to as there's a cultural belief that it is important we show we can use SQL rather than say "presented these problems, evaluated constraints and solutioned using this technology" but that's a separate issue.
Previously for formal things like case studies I provide a high level business case and how we created workshops and methodologies to create solutions the technology itself being secondary to understanding the business problem then have a copy writer clean it up but again this is just "Used SQL to connect to a website" and do it a hundred times :D.
Thanks for input and not quite the exact questions but any suggestions on trying to introduce traditional strategy approach in describing approach into a large "body shop" would be helpful. I come from a traditional consulting background with a heavy emphasis on technology ("digital agency") so this world is a bit foreign to me.
I'll let everyone know how using ChatGPT works, and maybe if I have some time later find a private LLM to get around legal matters should they arise. I notice our offshore uses Grammarly (?) for work emails but their use case is different than building up sales portfolios, they're just trying to improve English and it doesn't work.
posted by geoff. at 10:30 AM on June 25, 2023
Previously for formal things like case studies I provide a high level business case and how we created workshops and methodologies to create solutions the technology itself being secondary to understanding the business problem then have a copy writer clean it up but again this is just "Used SQL to connect to a website" and do it a hundred times :D.
Thanks for input and not quite the exact questions but any suggestions on trying to introduce traditional strategy approach in describing approach into a large "body shop" would be helpful. I come from a traditional consulting background with a heavy emphasis on technology ("digital agency") so this world is a bit foreign to me.
I'll let everyone know how using ChatGPT works, and maybe if I have some time later find a private LLM to get around legal matters should they arise. I notice our offshore uses Grammarly (?) for work emails but their use case is different than building up sales portfolios, they're just trying to improve English and it doesn't work.
posted by geoff. at 10:30 AM on June 25, 2023
I would also totally use ChatGPT for this, and I'm curious to see how well it works for you. Like mentioned by others, you basically need to tell it exactly what to do, and it will. So tell it who your audience is, the style of writing you'd like, what key points to mention, how long it should be, and anything else you might find relevent. Pretend you're trying to coach an intern to do it. I've had success asking it to first create an outline, tweaking it myself, and then asking it to write section by section. If you already have an example that you think it should emulate, definitely tell it that and provide it. All the gotchas about sharing proprietary info have been covered already. And the $20/month for access to GPT-4 will probably be helpful; I've found its a lot less likely to be excessively repetitive and just a much better writer overall.
posted by cgg at 11:48 AM on June 25, 2023
posted by cgg at 11:48 AM on June 25, 2023
I recommend Quillbot for paraphrasing and Hemingway to clarify (and shorten) what is being written.
posted by seawallrunner at 9:41 AM on June 28, 2023
posted by seawallrunner at 9:41 AM on June 28, 2023
This thread is closed to new comments.
Also, if your readers may be feeding your text into Google translate or other machine translators, best to keep the text direct, even if it feels blander to you as a reader of English.
posted by zadcat at 8:35 AM on June 25, 2023 [3 favorites]