Club Benefits
To say there’s an overwhelming amount of AI chatbots to use would be an understatement.
We’re sure you’ve dipped your toes into the AI waters by interacting with ChatGPT since it's one of the most popular AI tools in the space. Recently, the “QuitGPT” movement has gained plenty of steam and resulted in ChatGPT users cancelling their subscriptions due to the AI’s parent company, OpenAI, finalizing an agreement with the United States Department of War. That partnership has injected a sense of fear and distrust into former ChatGPT users who suspect that the US military will incorporate the AI technology into their efforts to do advanced mass surveillance on its citizens.
If you’re hoping to transition from ChatGPT and adopt a new chatbot in its place, allow us to direct you to one of the best alternatives: Perplexity. It excels as a search-and-answer engine that pulls answers from the web with valid citations, focuses on research & fact-checking, and provides compatible tools such as Comet and Perplexity Computer that improve your web browsing experience & workflow, respectively.
As a first-timer, be sure to make good use of the seven following prompts to become familiar with Perplexity’s capabilities and realize why it makes sense to keep it with you as your primary AI assistant.
Let Perplexity learn who you are and help you deepen your knowledge on a specific topic
Introducing yourself to Perplexity so it can get to know you better is the first thing you should do. The best way to approach that process is by prompting Perplexity to act like it's interviewing you and tailoring what it does to fit your best interests.
This prompt should get you on the right track: “Act as my personal assistant. Ask me 5-7 questions to better understand my goals, work, and interests. Then propose 3 ways you could save me time every week and what follow-up questions I should ask you next.”
If you’re always using AI to perform deep dives on the topics you’re motivated to learn more about, Perplexity is great at helping you in that area since it’s great at breaking down complex topics, bringing up legit sources, and properly structuring the information it gathers.
The best prompt to use in this situation is, “I’m new to [insert topic here]. Give me a concise, well-structured overview of that topic. Include key concepts, current trends, 3-5 major debates, and 5 of the best sources to read about on this topic.”
Shopping and decision-making
Whenever you’re debating over what to buy, which career path you should head into next, or looking for the best option to consider for other types of situations, this simple prompt should push you in the right direction: “Help me decide between [option A] and [option B] on [insert subject for clear context here]. List what type of information you need from me. Then build a pros and cons table and highlight the main tradeoffs. And finally, give me a clear recommendation on which option I should choose.”
For beginners who want a clear roadmap on how to learn a specific skill, Perplexity can help you in that area with ease. This prompt will help you adopt a clear path towards your next skill adoption goal: “I want to go from a beginner to an expert in [insert skill here] over the next [insert timeframe here]. Create a staged learning plan with milestones, training tasks, and the best sources (books, educational courses, and websites) for each stage of that plan.”
It’s easy to find yourself stressed out by information overload with tons of tabs open while you’re looking for the best information to adopt during a research project. To get the most clarity possible on whatever you’re studying, put this prompt into action to relieve you of that mental strain: “I’m overwhelmed by all the information about [insert topic here]. Ask me to post the notes and links I already have. Then organize them all into themes. Reconcile all the advice that conflicts with each other. Finally, create a one-page briefing with your recommended next steps.”
Streamline your workflow and help you improve at a certain skill
You can turn Perplexity into your new project manager with the following prompt whenever you’re looking to improve your workflow: “I’m working on [insert project here]. Help me break it into phases, deliverables, and deadlines. Then create a checklist, potential risks, and templates or example outputs I can reuse for future projects.”
And finally, you can make Perplexity adopt the role of a coach (without all the yelling, of course) and let it help you get better at learning a new skill or topic. Use this prompt to get the best results: “For [insert topic or skill here], follow this loop: explain its concept in simple terms with one analogy, give me a short practice exercise, check my answers and correct me whenever I’m wrong, and suggest what I should learn next.”
Bottom line
Now that you’ve migrated over to Perplexity, it’s worth putting these seven beginner prompts into practice to see what areas your new AI chatbot outshines ChatGPT in.
You’ll quickly begin to see the benefits of using Perplexity before long and get accustomed to its reliance on giving users heavily-cited information and a suite of extra tools that will help further your goals.
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More from Tom’s Guide
- What Is NotebookLM? Here’s what Google’s AI research and note-taking tool can do for you
- Claude hits No. 1 on the App Store as users flee ChatGPT over OpenAI's 'Department of War' deal
- ChatGPT vs Claude: I put both default models through 7 real-world tests — one is the clear winner
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