I’m Vanessa Raath, and if you don’t know me yet, I’m a Talent-Sourcing Trainer with a deep passion for all things AI. Today, I want to walk you through the process of creating your own ChatGPT, something that has been a game-changer for me.

This is a transcript from my YouTube Channel so if you prefer, you can watch the original video here.

Why Create Your Own GPT?

Let’s start with a quick disclaimer: to build your own GPT, you need to subscribe to OpenAI’s paid plan. It’s a modest investment of $20 per month, which translates to about R370 here in South Africa. While the free version of ChatGPT (currently at 4.0) is impressive, it doesn’t quite match the capabilities of a custom GPT tailored to your specific needs.

Here’s a simple example to illustrate: When I asked the free version to create a training agenda for two of my courses, it gave me a well-meaning but incorrect response. It didn’t accurately reflect the content of my courses, highlighting a common issue known as “hallucination” where the model generates plausible but incorrect information.

Now, let’s compare that with my custom GPT, which I’ve aptly named “Van’s PA.” I asked it the same question, and it nailed the answer perfectly, producing a detailed, accurate agenda with all the correct timings and learning outcomes. This precision is what makes creating your own GPT so invaluable—it’s been trained specifically on my content, understands my tone, and requires minimal editing.

How to Get Started

To create your own GPT, you first need to have a paid OpenAI account. Once that’s set up, head to the top-right corner of the ChatGPT interface, where you’ll find the option to create your GPT. You can explore the existing GPTs created by others in the GPT store for inspiration, but today, we’ll focus on building your custom one.

Begin by configuring your GPT—give it a name that reflects its purpose, like “Talent Hunters GPT” if you’re building one for a recruiting community. You can write a description, set instructions, and even create a unique image with DALL-E, OpenAI’s image generation tool. But don’t worry, you can refine all these details later.

Feeding Your GPT

To make your GPT truly yours, you’ll want to upload relevant documents and information. For example, I’ve uploaded PDFs, PowerPoint presentations, and Word documents that contain my course material. The GPT then assimilates this data, enabling it to generate content that’s spot-on with my requirements.

Each time you upload new information, you’ll need to update your GPT. This keeps it sharp and ensures it has all the latest details. For instance, if I want “Van’s PA” to generate an agenda for my AI training course, it can do so quickly and accurately because it’s been fed all the relevant details.

Testing and Refining

After setting up and feeding your GPT, you can test it out by asking specific questions related to the content you’ve uploaded. For example, ask it to summarize a document or outline a training session. If the response isn’t quite right, you can always go back, refine the inputs, and improve its performance.

Conclusion

Building your own GPT is a powerful way to streamline your work and save time. It’s a tool that evolves with you, learning from the content you provide and delivering results that are increasingly aligned with your needs. So, if you’re ready to supercharge your productivity, I highly recommend giving this a try.

If you have any questions or need further assistance, feel free to reach out. And don’t forget to subscribe to my channel for more insights like these.