Chat GPT is getting a lot of attention right now some of it good some of it not so good and it
feels like we're collectively all trying to figure out how we feel about it if it's something that we
want to use I recently made a video rating chat GPT data analyst project recommendations and it
really enforced to me it highlighted again to me the importance of how we structure questions and
the answer we get that is asking good questions can really significantly change the outcome of
the answer which can then change the outcome of the action that we take this isn't news to me
I've worked in the analytics space for over 15 years I teach a course about thinking like an
analyst and part of that is asking good questions and sometimes asking multiple questions to make
sure that we're getting to the heart of what needs to be done and not just how we immediately think
to phrase the question because a lot of times we jump to Solutions rather than Act actually framing
a problem statement or a question in the way that we need to and would be most helpful that leads me
to this video let's talk about chat GPT and the importance of good questions if we think about
this from a business perspective most companies Pride themselves on giving customers what they
want you might too whether those are internal or external customers we all have some sort
of customer as a product of the work that we're doing when we have customers come to us and tell
us that they want something specific sometimes they might be framing that in a way that lets
us deliver what they need to them and other times what they're asking for isn't actually what they
really want sometimes those requests are going to be really straightforward and there's there's
no ambiguity in what's being asked but other times how that question is structured highly
changes the result we got so if I look back at the video I did on rating chat GPT data analyst
project recommendation I asked six different questions I'll put them up on the screen now I
think when I look at these that these sound like very much the same question or if we were having
a conversation you might see these as the same question we're talking about best data analyst
project number one portfolio project best project for a career change top project number one top
best these all sound like words that mean the same thing but what I found is the answer chat
GPT gave me was very different for different ones of these I had some that were a little bit similar
but they were were by and large most of them were quite different from each other and if I just went
into it assuming that the answers they gave me were indeed answers to my question and I would be
running into some problems I might be doing some things that aren't entirely accurate now you can
say Chat GPT is still learning and that's true that's really how all of these models are built
they're meant to continually learn Tachi PT warns you not everything is at accurate that's always
going to be the case there's always going to be more learning that could happen in that model
knowing how to ask a good question and evaluate whether the answer is actually responding to your
question can really help though whether it's with chat gbt or just in general answering questions
asking questions making sure that communication isn't lost along the way taking this from a data
analyst angle the real value of data analysts and business analysts in a company is helping
to decipher what the problem is and come up with solutions that answer to the actual problem that
solve the actual problem a lot of times this involves asking a series of questions to get to
the heart of what really needs to be accomplished versus just what's being asked there are some
cues that we can take from the analytics process to help us evaluate the chat GPT answers we're
getting for instance with chat GPT when I type in a prompt that I'm looking for a response to
every States what it's capturing that as in many cases the restatement on the set of six questions
I asked was very similar to the question I asked but there was one case where I got a
wildly different restatement still in the same realm of topics but definitely not the question
I asked when I asked for the number one project for aspiring data analysts I got a definition of
Chris DM and that process back instead while this is related it's in the analytics space it's not a
project and if you look at the details and you can go back and watch the video if you want to
know more about the details of what it told me it guides you in a way that would not be practical
for someone that's aspiring to get into a data analyst job to do there are steps of that process
that are only practical when you're in a working environment doing the job that you couldn't do
in a project environment so if I was trying to make a career change and I would go there and ask
ask it for a project and it gave me that I might feel a little frustrated I might
feel a little lost like I couldn't accomplish it because it's something that would be very
hard to do but the answer I got also wasn't the answer to the question I asked it was the answer
to something that it thought was similar and that's something to be aware of when you ask
questions it is very common for us to substitute knowledge we have where things don't make sense
or are more complex so here it's substituting this for some reason seeing them as equivalent
even though they're not that's a quick check you can do when you're asking questions or verifying
validating the information you're getting back is this actually answering what I asked or is
it answering something that's a little bit different or maybe vastly different that was
a little simpler for it to answer this isn't a new problem with chat GPT it's just another
opportunity to highlight this is something that's important it's this aspect of critical thinking
of analytical thinking that brings a lot of value into what people do in the workplace especially as
data analysts but anything that you're doing where you're analyzing information it's helpful
to think about these questions we've certainly all run into it before or at least I've run into
cases where type something into Google I didn't get the results I wanted I typed it a slightly
different way and I got the answers that I was looking for or I was searching a site of shopping
for something I searched for something that in my mind is how people would categorize it and didn't
quite get at what I wanted restated the search and got something that more aligned with it I am not
actively thinking through this analytical thinking process about the questions and whatnot in those
moments but I am evaluating the information and not just taking it as face value was accurate
that's something to be aware of to be careful of when you're using chat GPT or any of these
AI machine learning generating models that they are very much learning they're not authorities on
it they can be really helpful but you also have to be aware of the responses you're getting and how
they've been if you have interest in learning a lot more about thinking like an analyst I'll link
below to my course think like an analyst where we dive a lot more into asking good questions but
really also the entire analytical thinking process how to be more effective at what you're doing how
to evaluate information how to communicate it in a good way thank you so much for watching