Talking to a billionaire about how he uses ChatGPT

Talking to a billionaire about how he uses ChatGPT

From 🇺🇸 My First Million, published at 2025-07-16 13:17

Audio: Talking to a billionaire about how he uses ChatGPT

Unlocking the Secrets of ChatGPT

  1. The Main Idea in a Nutshell

    • AI like ChatGPT is like a super-smart intern that knows everything on the internet, and you can make it way more powerful by learning a few key tricks to give it more information and abilities.

  2. The Key Takeaways

    • The AI's Short-Term Memory: AI has a "context window," which is like a single sheet of paper. It can only look at a limited amount of information at one time, including your question and its answer.
    • Giving the AI Your Brain: You can't just upload your whole life to ChatGPT, but there's a special tech (called a "vector database") that lets you give the AI a library of your personal documents. It can then search that library to answer questions about things it was never trained on, like your school notes or emails.
    • Giving the AI Superpowers: A clever trick called "tool calling" lets the AI use other tools, like a live internet search or a calculator. It's like your super-smart intern can now ask for help to get real-time information.
    • From Tool to Teammate: The expert says we should start thinking of AI not just as a tool (like a calculator) but as a "digital teammate" that can help us with complex projects from start to finish.
    • Fun Facts & Key Numbers: Fact: The expert, who co-founded a $30 billion company, was experimenting with this kind of AI chat 2 years before ChatGPT was released to the public. He now uses his personalized AI 10 to 20 times a day.

  3. Important Quotes, Explained

  • Quote: "> It's like hiring a really, really good intern that has a PhD and everything... They're trained, show up for the first day of work. That's all they know. They're not learning anything new. And they know nothing about your business."

    • What it Means: This means AI is incredibly knowledgeable about all public information (like the internet up to a certain date), but it knows nothing personal about you, your life, or your school. It's brilliant but has no personal context.
    • Why it Matters: This is the perfect way to understand both the power and the limitations of AI. It helps you see why you need to give it specific information (like your notes or project details) to make it truly useful for your own needs.

  • Quote: "> The right mental frame of reference you should have, it's you to the power of AI. AI is an amplifier of your capability."

    • What it Means: Don't think of AI as something that's just going to replace you. Think of it as a tool that makes you better, faster, and more capable—almost like giving yourself a superpower.
    • Why it Matters: This is a positive and powerful way to look at AI. It encourages you to learn how to use it to your advantage instead of being afraid of it.

  1. The Main Arguments (The 'Why')

    • The expert argues that you can make AI way more useful by understanding how it works and using a few clever "hacks."
      1. First, he explains that AI has limits. Its knowledge is frozen in time, and it has a limited memory (the "context window"), so it can't just read thousands of your documents at once.
      2. Next, he shows how to get around these limits. You can use something called a "vector store" to give the AI a searchable library of your personal information. When you ask a question, this system finds the most relevant documents from your library and hands just those to the AI.
      3. Finally, he points out that a new feature called "tool calling" is a game-changer. It allows the AI to "ask for help" from other tools, like a live web search, to get up-to-the-minute answers and do things it couldn't do before.

  2. Questions to Make You Think

    • Q: Can I just upload all my personal files to ChatGPT to make it smarter about me?
      • A: The text says not directly into the main ChatGPT window because of its limited memory (the "context window"). The expert uses a more technical method with APIs and a "vector database" to store his information. He says that big companies are starting to build easier versions of this for everyone, but the most powerful way is still a bit complex.
    • Q: Is it safe to give a new app access to all my private emails and data?
      • A: The expert says he wouldn't trust a new, unknown company with all his data right now because of security and privacy risks. He predicts that major, trusted companies like Google or OpenAI will be the ones to offer this service safely in the future.
    • Q: Does the AI actually "think"?
      • A: The speaker disagrees with people who say AI is just "fancy autocorrect." While he agrees it's not the same as human intelligence, he argues that what it does is a real form of creativity and problem-solving, not just randomly repeating things it has read.

  3. Why This Matters & What's Next

    • Why You Should Care: AI is becoming a part of everything, from schoolwork to future jobs. Learning how it really works (beyond just asking it simple questions) is like learning how to use the internet in the 90s—it will give you a huge advantage. It can help you brainstorm essays, explain difficult science concepts, or even learn a new skill much faster.
    • Learn More: Check out YouTube for videos explaining "How Large Language Models Work." Channels like Kurzgesagt or Marques Brownlee (MKBHD) often have great, easy-to-understand videos that use visuals to explain complex tech like this.

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