5 ChatGPT tips from a top OpenAI official

ChatGPT is a pretty nifty AI and its creators, OpenAI, want you to squeeze every drop of potential out of it.

OpenAI's Head of Product Nicholas Turley spilled the beans on a recent episode of Hard Fork, outlining five productivity hacks to supercharge your ChatGPT experience.

5 ChatGPT tips from an OpenAI expert

Here are five tips on how to best use ChatGPT from an actual OpenAI insider. These insights are designed to help you get the most out of the AI model, whether you’re using it for work, creativity, or problem solving.

1. Use Voice Mode

ChatGPT’s Advanced Voice Mode lets you have fluid, conversational interactions. Whether you're brainstorming, troubleshooting, or just vibing with AI, voice mode is supposed to make the experience feel more natural and dynamic. However, it's only available to Plus and Team subscribers.

But please — don't use it for therapy.

2. Memory Mode

Starting fresh with ChatGPT can be a chore, but actually, you can ask ChatGPT to remember things.

"You don't have to wait for it to infer it about you," Turley said. "You can just tell it all the stuff that you want remembered."

Your preferences, project details, or even your go-to coffee order. It’s personalization on steroids, although if you're cautious about how your data is being used, it should be advised to avoid this feature.

3. Make a GPT

OpenAI now lets you "Make a GPT." It’s like building a custom AI sidekick for specific tasks — for use for tasks like tutoring, organizing your schedule, or even acting as a "quirky" dungeon master if that's your vibe.

Turley says it's "super easy" to set up and OpenAI provides tools to tweak its behavior, responses, and personality.

4. File Uploads

Despite this being a feature for over a year now, Turley says the file upload feature is one of ChatGPT's most underutilized perks. You can drop in documents, spreadsheets, and PDFs. You can even allow the AI crunch data or summarize content for you.

It's a powerful tool and "a lot of people don't know this exists," Turley says.

5. Images

Turley also touched on the surprising lack of "cross-pollination" between users who work with text and those who use images.

"I find that there's text people, and there's image people, and they almost don't overlap," Turley said. But combining the two, he argues, unlocks powerful creative opportunities. Whether you're making something practical, like birthday cards, or conceptualizing entirely new ideas, blending these modalities turns ChatGPT into a true multimedia collaborator.