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Chapter 1: ChatGPT and GPT-4

GPT Model Overview​

ModelContextBest For
GPT-3.5 Turbo4K-16KFast, cost-effective tasks
GPT-48K-128KComplex reasoning, coding
GPT-4 Turbo128KLong documents, detailed analysis

System Prompts​

GPT models support system prompts for persistent instructions:

System: You are a helpful coding assistant. Always explain your code with comments and suggest best practices.

User: Write a function to sort an array.

Best Practices for GPT​

  1. Be explicit about format requirements
  2. Use temperature settings (0 for consistent, 0.7+ for creative)
  3. Leverage system prompts for consistent behavior
  4. Break complex tasks into steps

GPT-Specific Techniques​

JSON Mode​

Return your response as valid JSON with this structure:
{
  "summary": "...",
  "key_points": ["...", "..."],
  "recommendation": "..."
}

Function Calling​

GPT-4 supports structured function outputs for integration with applications.

Key Takeaways​

Summary
  1. Use system prompts for consistent behavior
  2. Temperature controls creativity vs consistency
  3. JSON mode for structured outputs
  4. GPT-4 excels at reasoning and coding

Next: Claude and Anthropic β†’