Well, howdy there! You’ve made it to the second edition of AI Unlocked. How were the AI-assisted brainstorming sessions? I’m curious how it went for you.
The post below was first published in 2023. Use the menu above to read the original five AI Unlocked newsletters.
Before we dive in, here’s three key points to keep in mind:
- You likely already email people with some AI assistance. For example, Google’s Smart Reply feature uses machine-learning techniques to suggest potential replies, and it’s been around for years.
- Don’t share company (or any!) secrets. When you prompt the chatbot, that shared data is often stored in some capacity, and deleting it is more difficult than just closing your account or removing it from your prompt history.
- It’s not appropriate for every situation. An email sharing basic updates? That’s probably fine. A consolation email to a grieving coworker? That may come across as insensitive. Not every email needs ChatGPT’s input, if you catch my drift.
Right now, check out senior editor Tom Simonite’s 2017 piece about Ray Kurzweil's work at Google to bring AI to email. After that, read or listen to my piece from early in 2023 on how AI could transform email. How has the discussion around artificial intelligence changed in the past five years? Do you already have a favorite AI-powered tool that you use to manage your inbox? (I still want to test out more automation tools, like Superhuman.)
Prompt Pro Tip
For better results, don’t be afraid to give the chatbot a general idea of how you’d like the email to be structured. Also, try experimenting with how chatbots can adjust the tone of your writing. When I tested ChatGPT Plus and Gemini Advanced, I found that Gemini did a much better job of rewriting conversational emails into work-appropriate messages.
Instead of: Write an email explaining that a current project is behind schedule due to power outages in our neighborhood.
Try: Write a two-paragraph, professional email to my boss explaining that a current project is behind schedule due to power outages in our neighborhood. Suggest potential subject lines as well.
My Prompt
Google, Microsoft, and other companies are building AI drafting tools that fit right into your inbox. If you find an integration that works well for you, perfect! For now, copy-and-paste is my reliable friend.
This time, I asked ChatGPT:
I'm a journalist reaching out to experts for an article about how AI-assisted emailing works. Write a two paragraph email seeing when they are available this Tuesday in PT.
(For the prompt above, would I send this out to a source as is? Nope. But the structure is a decent starting point, and it could work with a couple tweaks.)
Your Prompt
For today’s exercise, we’re planning a pretend party with the chatbot of your choice! (No good theme ideas? Ask the AI for suggestions!) After you settle on a theme and you know who to invite, let’s focus on sending out the perfect email invitation. Try prompting the chatbot at least three different ways, and analyze what’s different about the responses. Should the tone be more formal or more casual? How could the email invitation better convey the vibe you want for the party? Should emoji be involved?
💬 So, how did it go this time? For this week’s extra credit—purely optional—jump into the discussion section at the bottom of this article to share how your party planning went!
Pause and Think
Take some time to think about all the information a chatbot could store on you if it wrote all your emails. How does this compare with the mountains of data Google Search knows about you? What topics are you OK with the chatbot knowing? What personal details would make you uncomfortable?
Senior writer Matt Burgess wrote an article on the limited privacy options offered by OpenAI for ChatGPT users. In it, he steps you through how to turn off your chat history. Do you think companies should ask for consent before using your data to train their AI models? What data deletion control would you like to see added to the tools?
Yes, Context Matters
You’ve made it to the end of the second newsletter!
Want to discover the latest tips and tricks for making the most of chatbots and AI tools in your everyday life? Sign up for a whole new season of AI Unlocked now!
And for further reading, check out these fascinating articles:
