Welcome back to the /promptcollective newsletter. Today I will offer acting jobs to Chatbots - let’s see how that goes…
Maybe some of you noticed, that this edition is a week late. I take full blame for that - my day job has been quite intense in the last few weeks. But the good news is, that we are working on some really cool AI-powered projects at my company DRIVE beta, that I will soon be able to share here in the newsletter. If you think anyone else might be interested please share the link with them:
The power of non-human user panels
One of the things almost anybody who is working in the creative industries with developing ideas can agree on is that it is great to get user feedback as much as possible. Not all of us have access to a research division or funds to run user research. And with a busy schedule, it is easy to think “Oh I know what they would be saying” or just unconsciously assume that everybody thinks like you or push it further ahead: “We will do that once the project is further along”.
The good news is: With large language models we now have the possibility of creating non-human user panels to at least give us an idea of what the feedback could look like. This is something that I have been doing for quite a while now - and I find it both very informative and super entertaining.
Today I am sharing two techniques to get feedback from non-human users.
The person-as-bot-technique
The first technique is about creating a bot representing a potential user, for you to have conversations with. For this, I use the platform poe.com. On Poe you can create chatbots based on different large language models. For this test today I created two: Leonie Zinger, a GenZ representative, and Robert Anderson, a boomer. I told both of them about my idea of developing a workplace comedy set in a Mars mission training camp. First up - Leonie:
Allright - and next up Robert:
I really like this technique as it gives you the chance to come back to your bots again and again to get feedback, or just for fun… If you want to say hi you can meet Leonie here and Robert here.
The one-shot-user-panel-technique
An alternative to creating a bot for each character you want to chat with is to have ChatGPT simulate a group conversation. I created this prompt for the purpose using ChatGPT 4:
And here is the result:
I really like this technique as well. It gives you the option to just re-run the panel a couple of times, experiment with the amount of participants and rounds as well as the briefing for selecting the people on the panel.
Final thoughts
Both of the above techniques work pretty well to get a quick first glance at possible user reactions and thoughts. Of course, they do not replace actual engagement with an audience, but they sure beat just guessing and they have the potential of continuously gaining new perspectives on your work as you go along.
The one-shot-user-panel-technique is a new idea I am experimenting with and that I will finesse over the coming weeks. Right now I still think that the results are a bit too much middle of the road, so my next goal will be to get some more varied and surprising results.
Something I Loved This Week
If you enjoy reading this newsletter and the experiments and thoughts we share, I think you will be interested in www.aiinhollywood.com. A great source for insights and thoughts about AI and the movie industry.
Thank you for reading along. If you're interested in exploring all things AI in the creative industries, don't hesitate to reach out at join@promptcollective.xyz.
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Until next time,
Hannes & Jes