An Autoethnographic Reflection of Prompting a Custom GPT Based on Oneself
Priscilla Lo · 2024
What if you could have a chat with yourself? OpenAI’s introduction of custom GPTs in November 2023 provides an opportunity for non-technical users to create specialized generative artificial intelligence chatbots. Users can write prompts in plain language rather than code to instruct how the system should behave. What can one learn from using non-technical methods to develop a specific chatbot persona? To explore this, I conducted an autoethnography of my experience developing and interacting with a custom GPT based on myself. My findings include a discussion of my experiences throughout the process, and its impact on my personal introspection and understanding of prompt engineering. I summarize first-hand challenges and insights intended to inspire further discussion on the topic of generative AI and chatbots.