Workarounds for 10 ChatGPT Limitations

The following information came from an excellent PowerPoint presentation “Unlocking AI for Small Businesses” by Colin Gonsalves, founder of ZenPath AI.

ChatGPT is a large language model (LLM)[1] that is continually expanding its capabilities. Even though many of its original limitations have been resolved, some remain. The good news is that there are workarounds. Here are 10 limitations—along with workarounds-- of LLMs in general that apply to ChatGPT.

1.     Knowledge Cutoff: No information after training date

•       Provide recent context in prompts

•       Create custom instruction sets

•       Regular content updates

2.     Hallucinations: Confidently states incorrect information

•       Human verification of outputs

•       Request reasoning explanations

•       Cross-check important facts

3.     Context Window: Limited text processing capacity

•       Chunk large documents

•       Use summarization first

•       Implement specialized document tools

4.     Lack of Understanding: Pattern recognition without comprehension

•       Provide explicit context

•       Break complex tasks into subtasks

•       Design workflows with verification steps

5.     No External Data: Cannot access real-time information

•       Connect APIs to business systems

•       Implement retrieval-augmented generation (RAG)

•       Build custom knowledge bases

6.     Privacy Concerns: Data sent to public tools isn't private

•       Consider private enterprise solutions

•       Anonymize sensitive information

•       Create clear AI data policies

7.     Reasoning Limits: Struggles with complex logic

•       Break problems into smaller steps

•       Use structured formats

•       Implement verification checkpoints

8.     Bias Reflection: Can reflect biases in training data

•       Review outputs for potential bias

•       Create diverse review teams

•       Test with different perspectives

9.     Inconsistent Quality: Outputs vary based on prompting

•       Create standardized prompt templates

•       Develop prompt libraries

•       Train team on effective prompting

10.  No Independent Agency: Cannot take actions independently

•       Design human-in-the-loop processes

•       Clearly define decision boundaries

•       Establish oversight protocols

So don’t let limitations prevent you from even trying ChatGPT. Nothing is insurmountable. Also, don’t be intimidated by its power. While it is extremely powerful, it’s also friendly. Interreact with it as you would with any expert in the field.

Have a conversation—you’ll be surprised at how quickly you become a ChatGPT expert!

For a no cost discussion of your situation and how we can leverage metrics-based marketing to grow your business call 630-363-8081 or email jeanna@smartprcommunications.com.

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[1] LLM’s are designed to predict the next word in a sequence of text. They learn patterns from vast amounts of text data then undergo fine-tuning to improve usability.