ChatGPT offers multiple AI models, each with its own strengths and weaknesses. The most versatile model is probably GPT-4o, which is the best choice for a wide range of uses.
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Ask GPT-4o to Search the Web
One of the most useful features of the GPT-4o model is that it can search the web, something that the o1 model isn’t able to do. However, GPT-4o is much more useful than simply a direct replacement for Google.
That’s because GPT-4o can use natural language processing to search for the intent of your query, rather than simply the keywords that it contains. It means that GPT-4o can find answers that traditional search engines can’t and allows GPT-4o to answer the type of queries that I’ve been wishing search engines could answer for years.
For example, you can’t remember the name of a TV show you watched. You know it was written by and starred an actress who was in another TV show, but you can’t remember what that show was called either. However, you can remember that one of the actors in it was Tom Hanks’ son.
If you ask Google “What’s the name of that tv show written by and starring the woman who is in that other show with tom hanks son with all the couples,” the top result is Bosom Buddies, a TV series from 1980 starring Tom Hanks. None of the results on the first page are of any use, and I got as far as the fifth page of results before giving up looking for one that could help.
Stick the same query into GPT-4o and hit the globe icon to make ChatGPT search the web, and I get exactly the answer I was looking for. GPT-4o was able to understand my rambling query and find the information I needed by searching the web.
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Use GPT-4o to Generate Images
One of the things that impressed me most when AI burst onto the scene a few years back was the ability to generate images. It blew my mind that simply by asking, generative AI could create an image that had never existed before, such as a bald spaceman riding a pig.
Initially, you needed to use dedicated apps or services to generate images, but image generation is now baked into GPT-4o, meaning you can ask ChatGPT to generate an image directly within a chat.
The beauty is that if the image doesn’t turn out quite like you hoped, you can add refinements to it just by explaining them to ChatGPT, without having to write out a new prompt from scratch. It doesn’t always work as you’d hope (try getting ChatGPT to create an image of Santa without a beard, for example) but it’s a quick and easy way to produce almost any image you could ever imagine.
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Choose GPT-4o for Advanced Voice
When ChatGPT first introduced a voice mode, it was reasonably good. You could have a back-and-forth conversation, although the responses would sometimes take a while to come back. If you wanted to interrupt ChatGPT, you’d have to tap the screen, which didn’t really make it feel like you were having a genuine conversation.
Advanced Voice takes things to a whole new level. The responses are almost instantaneous, and the speech model is so good that you really do feel like you’re talking to a real person at times.
The real proof of how good Advanced Voice is was when my daughter was stuck for ideas of what to do during recess. She had a long back-and-forth with ChatGPT in Advanced Voice mode and was able to get some excellent ideas. She had absolutely zero issues with getting the information she wanted; for her, it was just like talking to a real person.
To access Advanced Voice, open a chat, select the GPT-4o model, and tap the sound wave icon. You’ll need to be a Plus, Pro, or Team subscriber to get full access to Advanced Voice, but If you’re a free user, you can access a preview of about 15 minutes each month or use Standard Voice.
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Turn to GPT-4o for Creative Tasks
If creativity has never been your strong point, GPT-4o can really help. Generative AI models are very good at creative tasks, and the results can be truly impressive.
For example, do you need a story about a monkey with narcolepsy that solves crimes in downtown New York? Just ask ChatGPT, and it will knock one out for you in seconds. I can recommend the book Benny the Blue Whale by Andy Stanton for an interesting read; he uses ChatGPT to write an entire (hilarious and NSFW) story about a blue whale with a magical appendage and discusses ChatGPT’s failures and successes as he goes.
Stories aren’t all that GPT-4o can write. You can create original poetry that mimics the style of your favorite poet, generate lyrics for a song, or write dialog for a movie script.
There are plenty of other creative uses, too. You could create character descriptions for a novel, create puzzles to build into a video game, generate social media copy, ask for creative writing prompts, produce a list of gift ideas, and so much more.
I even use GPT-4o to recommend new books, movies, music, and TV shows, and I’ve discovered some excellent new stuff by following its recommendations.
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Use GPT-4o for Translation
GPT-4o is also multilingual. If you want to translate something to or from a different language, just ask ChatGPT and it will do it for you almost instantly. You can even ask ChatGPT to use cultural idioms or tone to make your translation seem like it was written by a native speaker.
The multimodal capabilities of GPT-4o mean that you can translate directly from images, too. I had some peanut butter from Holland that I was given as a gift. There was a lot of writing on the label, so I took a photo and ChatGPT translated it for me in an instant.
You can even use Advanced Voice to practice your conversational skills in another language. I have ChatGPT speak to me in Italian, and I have to respond in the same language. I gave instructions that if I make an error, ChatGPT should correct me, but in a gentle way so as not to hurt my feelings. It’s far less daunting than trying to speak to a real person and is a genuinely useful way to practice speaking a foreign language.
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Make GPT-4o Your Personal Assistant
GPT-4o continues to gain new features. One of the newer features is Tasks, which allows you to create prompts that are acted upon at scheduled times. For example, you can ask to be reminded about doing some Italian conversation practice every weekday at 6 pm, and ChatGPT will do so.
Using scheduled tasks isn’t perfect, and it won’t replace your to-do app just yet, but it’s a step in the right direction towards ChatGPT becoming a truly useful personal assistant. You can get reminders, generate creative writing prompts every day, or just be woken up with a positive message and an amusing AI-generated image.
You can even get ChatGPT to remember things that you can ask about at a later date. I’m using the feature to remember where I’ve put items that I only rarely use, to save me from wasting hours hunting them down whenever I need them.
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Use GPT-4o For Projects
Another recent feature added to GPT-4o is Projects. At first glance, it seems like a fairly basic feature that lets you place your conversations into folders to keep them better organized. However, two additional features make Projects really useful.
Firstly, you can upload files that all chats in the Project can access. For example, you can upload a PDF of the instruction manual for your new camera. In any chat within that project, you can ask a question such as how to change the autofocus mode, and ChatGPT will be able to pull the information from the manual.
Secondly, you can create custom instructions that only apply to chats within your Project. This effectively allows you to create multiple personalized versions of ChatGPT that do specific things. For example, I have a Project with instructions to take anything I enter as a prompt and to search for it on the How-To Geek website, which is a much quicker and more effective way of finding all the articles on a specific topic than using the search feature on the website.
ChatGPT has multiple different models available, but currently, GPT-4o is the most versatile. You can use it for everything from generating images and writing stories to practicing your language skills and managing your tasks.
While some models, such as the o1 model, are superior at complex problem-solving tasks, GPT-4o is usually my go-to model for most of the queries I enter in ChatGPT.
