Also: How to use ChatGPT to write an essay If you’re a student writing a research paper, someone wanting to know more about a lengthy article, or someone who wants to know more about a complicated subject, you can use ChatGPT to simplify the process.
How ChatGPT can create summaries for you
Materials needed: You will need a device that can connect to the internet, an OpenAI account, as well as a URL to an article, research paper, or the title of a book. The process should take about one to three minutes.
What are ChatGPT’s limitations?
If you’re using ChatGPT to summarize an article, book, or piece of research, keep in mind that ChatGPT isn’t aware of events that occurred past 2021. Also: How to use ChatGPT to write Excel formulas Log in or sign up for an account. Also: How to use ChatGPT to write code After you type in the prompt, paste the copied URL of your article or research paper, and ChatGPT knows you’re requesting the chatbot to give you a summary. Then, press the send button, and the chatbot will provide you with a summary. Or – sometimes, it won’t. Using ChatGPT to summarize an article via URL is a hit or miss. Sometimes, the chatbot will provide you with a seemingly accurate and short summary of an article. But other times, it will hallucinate or give you an error message saying it cannot access the internet. It’s recommended that you read the article or research paper in its entirety before asking ChatGPT to summarize it, that way you can decide if the chatbot’s response is accurate. The more reliable but more tedious way to get an more accurate summary is by copying and pasting the text of the article or research paper into the prompt. It’s not recommended to use ChatGPT to summarize a book you haven’t read to make sure you’re not regurgitating false information into a book report or to a person wanting to know about the book. But if it’s been a few years since you’ve read the book and you want a refresh, using ChatGPT to summarize it can be useful. For example, suppose you ask ChatGPT to tell you about Joe Biden’s campaign this year to ban TikTok. In that case, the chatbot will tell you, “It is currently unclear what actions, if any, the Biden administration may take regarding TikTok in the future.” If you try to get around this and provide ChatGPT with an article that contains information post-2021, it may hallucinate. Here, I asked the chatbot to summarize an article about a new app I wrote about this week, and it made up a few details.
Can ChatGPT summarize a PDF?
If you can open a PDF in your web browser, you can try copying the link and pasting it into ChatGPT. But with using URLs in ChatGPT comes the possibility for the chatbot to hallucinate. It’s best to read the PDF and use the chatbot as a summary tool and not as an educator.
Can ChatGPT summarize an email thread?
Sort of. If you want to copy and paste every single email, ChatGPT can summarize the thread’s contents for you. It would be more helpful to scan an email thread yourself and ask ChatGPT to help you write a response based on the key points you know about the conversation. Editor’s note: We’ve added additional context to the step concerning ChatGPT summarizing articles by URL.
