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Custom instructions for ChatGPT

openai.com

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Re: Custom instructions for ChatGPT

#71

Post by __loam »

_ea1k wrote: post #31
minimaxir wrote: post #2

The biggest weakness of the ChatGPT Webapp is the inability to tinker with the system prompt, which is what can really control how ChatGPT behaves and can correct a large number of undesired behaviors people keep complaining about. This is most likely using system prompt engineering on the backend, so hopefully people will also realize that prompt engineering is not a meme by finally giving them a mechanism to custom…

I've heard people describe "prompt engineering" as just people who know how to craft prompts well. I hope we converge on a better definition than that soon. Maybe the name can change too.

I think the people who know what they're doing are probably going to come up with some quantitative ways to evaluate the performance of prompts. That's where the real engineering will come from. You could even have chatGPT generate prompts for you and evaluate the best performing ones.

Any moron can make up a prompt and say "yeah looks good enough".

Re: Custom instructions for ChatGPT

#73

Post by mjsweet »

I just went into beta features, enabled it and then immediately started writing my custom instruction. A few minutes later I tried to save the instruction and I received an error. I then refreshed the page, and discovered neither the beta option toggle nor the custom instructions panel were available. I live in Australia (I noticed it's not available in the EU or UK) and I wonder if we can't get it here in Australia or they have pulled the feature for now?

Also, I just noticed that my chats are following my custom instructions, even though the settings panel is no longer there.

Re: Custom instructions for ChatGPT

#74

Post by __loam »

visarga wrote: post #25
minimaxir wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A fun note is that even with system prompt engineering it may not give the most efficient solution: ChatGPT still outputs the avergage case. I tested around it and doing two passes (generate code and "make it more efficient") works best, with system prompt engineering to result in less code output: https://github.com/minimaxir/simpleaichat/blob/main/examples...

I am often struggling to make GPT-4 respect the explicit requirements in the prompt. It would usually be inconsistent in how it applies them.

It is impossible to guarantee any output from this system. Anyone telling you otherwise is a liar.

Re: Custom instructions for ChatGPT

#75

Post by glenstein »

mjsweet wrote: post #73

I just went into beta features, enabled it and then immediately started writing my custom instruction. A few minutes later I tried to save the instruction and I received an error. I then refreshed the page, and discovered neither the beta option toggle nor the custom instructions panel were available. I live in Australia (I noticed it's not available in the EU or UK) and I wonder if we can't get it here in Australia…

I'm in the US and I'm not seeing them available despite being a paid user.

Re: Custom instructions for ChatGPT

#78

Post by glenstein »

jamesgreenleaf wrote: post #39
mellosouls wrote: post #17

Very useful. "No need to apologise all the time" will be a handy pre-command. On a more specific note, I have frequently tutted at having to type out the context I am coding in every time I start a new chat (which is normally the same at least for specific projects and tasks); this is clearly a good example of listening to user feedback.

That's a good one. I've also told it to avoid blanket disclaimers, which pop up all the time if you ask about anything related to nutrition or fitness.

Yes, I've noticed this as well. In a way, I believe this is faithful to the actual cadence of nutrition and fitness communication, but never the less frustrating and I would even argue counterproductive.

If you asked a nutritionist about tyrannosaurus rex, you would probably get an answer like "remember, learning about the Tyrannosaurus Rex is not a panacea, and should be complimented with research of a wide range of other dinosaurs."

Re: Custom instructions for ChatGPT

#79

Post by thoughtpeddler »

mjsweet wrote: post #73

I just went into beta features, enabled it and then immediately started writing my custom instruction. A few minutes later I tried to save the instruction and I received an error. I then refreshed the page, and discovered neither the beta option toggle nor the custom instructions panel were available. I live in Australia (I noticed it's not available in the EU or UK) and I wonder if we can't get it here in Australia…

This just occurred to me as well but I'm a US-based Plus user.

Re: Custom instructions for ChatGPT

#80

Post by jcutrell »

glenstein wrote: post #75
mjsweet wrote: post #73

I just went into beta features, enabled it and then immediately started writing my custom instruction. A few minutes later I tried to save the instruction and I received an error. I then refreshed the page, and discovered neither the beta option toggle nor the custom instructions panel were available. I live in Australia (I noticed it's not available in the EU or UK) and I wonder if we can't get it here in Australia…

I'm in the US and I'm not seeing them available despite being a paid user.

Same here. I assume progressive rollout
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