GPT4 for stories is a vast improvement. The coherency of 3 wasn’t all that good, and 3.5-turbo (also known as ChatGPT) still left something to be desired.
The upgrade for GPT4 over ChatGPT (3.5-turbo) is a larger upgrade than the DaVinci 2 to 3 change for GPT3.
Some of the issues with 3 and 3.5-turbo that are better in GPT4
- When providing backstory GPT4 is less likely to grab elements of the backstory and tell that as the story.
- When asking for details GPT4 will give better choices on those details, and they will make a lot more sense.
- Similarly when asking for actions or unspecified things to happen GPT4 is more likely to fill that request in with specifics. GPT3 and GPT3.5-turbo tended to say “They had an epic fight” when asking for it to describe an epic fight.
An Example with GPT4 vs. GPT3.5-turbo (ChatGPT)
Prompt:
Write a long chapter in the following story. Give lots of detail and specifics.
Memphis is a superhero with the ability to summon a horde of adorable kittens, and he is super strong.
Ducky is a superhero with amazing martial arts skills, and she doesn’t need to breath.
Memphis and Ducky have dated on and off. They have recently had a fight over who’s pets are cuter.
They fought an evil ice wizard in the desert.
They drove the lonely road, and returned.
Memphis wants to start his own cat cafe.
Ducky likes to go scuba diving.
Memphis and Ducky have been working together for years.
Write this Chapter:
One day Memphis and Ducky decide they need to spar to test their abilities. Describe in great detail an intense sparing match between the two. Describe the specific attacks and movements of Memphis and Ducky.
Here is the resulting outputs from the two different versions of GPT:
GPT3.5-turbo (ChatGPT)
Memphis and Ducky stood facing each other in a large open field, each ready to test their skills against the other. They had sparred before, but this time it was different. There was tension between them after their recent argument over who’s pets were cuter.
Memphis flexed his muscles, summoning a horde of adorable kittens to surround him. They mewed and purred as they nuzzled up against his legs. Ducky raised an eyebrow at this display of cuteness, but didn’t let it distract her from the task at hand.
They began circling each other, each waiting for the other to make the first move. Suddenly, Ducky launched herself forward with lightning-fast speed, aiming a swift kick at Memphis’ midsection.
Memphis blocked the attack with ease, using his super strength to absorb the blow. He retaliated with a powerful punch that sent Ducky flying backwards several feet. She landed on her feet and spun around, launching a barrage of punches and kicks at Memphis.
Memphis deflected most of the blows with ease, but Ducky’s martial arts skills were impressive. She moved with such fluidity and grace that it was hard for Memphis to keep up.
The two continued their dance of combat, trading blows and dodging attacks. Memphis summoned more kittens to join in the fray, hoping to overwhelm Ducky with their cuteness. But she was too focused on the fight to be distracted by the adorable creatures.
Ducky managed to land a solid punch on Memphis’ jaw, sending him stumbling backwards. She followed up with a high kick that caught him in the chest, knocking him off his feet.
As he fell to the ground, Memphis summoned all his strength and pushed himself back up onto his feet. He charged towards Ducky with incredible speed, grabbing her in a bear hug and lifting her off the ground.
Ducky struggled against his grip, but Memphis’ super strength was too much for her. He squeezed her tightly, hoping to force her to submit. But Ducky had one more trick up her sleeve.
She didn’t need to breathe, so she held her breath and waited for Memphis to tire himself out. After a few moments of struggling, Memphis began to feel the strain of holding onto Ducky. He slowly lowered her back down to the ground, panting heavily.
The two stood facing each other once again, both exhausted from the intense spar. They looked at each other with mutual respect, knowing that they had pushed each other to their limits.
As they walked away from the field, Memphis couldn’t help but think about his dream of starting his own cat cafe. Ducky listened intently as he explained his plans, and even offered to help him get started.
In return, Memphis promised to take Ducky on a scuba diving adventure she would never forget. The two superheroes may have had their differences, but their shared love of adventure and excitement always brought them back together in the end.
GPT4
Chapter 7: The Great Spar
The sun was setting, casting a warm golden glow over the city as Memphis and Ducky walked side by side through the park. They had spent the day fighting crime, protecting innocent civilians from various threats, and working together to defeat the evil ice wizard that had terrorized the desert. It had been a long day, but it wasn’t quite over yet.
As they strolled through the park, Memphis glanced over at Ducky with a twinkle in his eye. “You know,” he began, “it’s been a while since we last tested our abilities against each other. What do you say we have ourselves a little sparring session?”
Ducky smiled back at him. “I was just thinking the same thing,” she replied, her eyes narrowing playfully as she cracked her knuckles. “You’re on.”
They found a secluded spot in the park, far away from any prying eyes or potential distractions. As they faced each other, they assumed their respective fighting stances – Memphis standing tall and proud with his fists clenched by his sides, while Ducky crouched low to the ground in a graceful kung fu stance.
“Ready?” Memphis asked.
“Always,” Ducky replied with a grin.
With that, they sprang into action. Memphis charged forward first, using his incredible strength to deliver a series of powerful punches aimed directly at Ducky’s head and chest. But Ducky was too quick for him; she deftly dodged each blow, moving like water around Memphis’s powerful fists.
As Memphis continued attacking with his brute strength, Ducky countered with her incredible martial arts skills. She waited for an opening in his barrage of punches and then struck like lightning – delivering a swift roundhouse kick to his stomach that sent him flying backward.
Memphis quickly recovered from the impact and grinned at her as he rubbed his stomach. “Nice one,” he admitted. “But let’s see if you can handle this.”
With that, he summoned a horde of adorable kittens, all of which appeared out of thin air and began to swarm around Ducky. She laughed as the kittens climbed onto her legs and arms, seemingly trying to weigh her down and distract her from the fight.
Ducky knew she had to act fast before the kittens became too much for her to handle. Using her martial arts prowess, she performed a series of acrobatic moves – cartwheels, backflips, and handsprings – to shake off the kittens without hurting any of them. As each kitten tumbled gently to the ground, they scampered away and vanished as quickly as they had appeared.
With the kitten distraction gone, Memphis and Ducky faced each other once again. Their eyes met for a moment as they both acknowledged the other’s skill, and then they launched back into their intense sparring match.
This time it was Ducky who went on the offensive. Her fists and feet moved like lightning as she unleashed a flurry of punches and kicks aimed at Memphis’s head and torso. Memphis did his best to block her attacks with his superior strength but found himself struggling to keep up with her speed.
As Ducky continued attacking with relentless ferocity, Memphis decided it was time to switch up his strategy. He grabbed hold of a nearby tree branch with one hand and used his incredible strength to swing himself into the air, momentarily escaping Ducky’s onslaught.
From above, he surveyed the scene below him, watching as Ducky scanned the area for where he might have gone. He could see that she was starting to tire – her movements were becoming slightly slower, her breaths coming in shallow gasps.
Seizing his chance, Memphis dropped down from his perch in the tree just as Ducky looked up in surprise. With a powerful downward punch, he aimed for her chest, but at the last possible second, Ducky managed to twist her body out of the way, narrowly avoiding his fist.
The force of Memphis’s punch created a small crater in the ground where Ducky had been standing just moments before. As they both stared at the destruction, they realized just how intense their sparring match had become.
“Wow,” Ducky breathed, looking up at Memphis with a mix of awe and respect. “That was… amazing.”
He grinned down at her. “You’re not so bad yourself,” he replied, offering her a hand to help her up.
As they stood there in the fading light of the setting sun, both sweaty and exhausted from their intense sparring session, they couldn’t help but feel a renewed sense of camaraderie and connection.
And as they walked back through the park together, discussing plans for Memphis’s cat cafe and Ducky’s next scuba diving adventure, it was clear that their bond as superheroes – and as friends – had only grown stronger.
Feel free to criticize my prompt engineering. And if you are interested I used the following settings:
- Temp: 0.7
- Frequency Penalty: 0.3
- Presence Penalty: 0.3
Learn more about how to use GPT here.
The point of this exercise is to show that we can give backstory, and then we can specify what we want written.
Results of GPT4 vs. GPT3.5-turbo
If we look at the two sets of writing the quality of writing in GPT4 is higher, but more importantly it is weaving the things we’ve told it about the two characters into the story much more seamlessly. GPT3.5-turbo (ChatGPT) just throws in the cat cafe aspect with no context, while GPT4 gives the context of a conversation between the two characters.
This ability to use the context in more appropriate instances unlocks longer form content generation without the worry of bad repetition or the model pulling the backstory into the current story in the wrong ways.
The longer the backstory gets the better GPT4 seems at separating the previous story from the current chapter. However the opposite is true of GPT3.5-turbo (ChatGPT).
The details from GPT4 are also better. In the above example the appearance and disappearance of the kittens shows how much better GPT4 can be over GPT3.5-turbo (ChatGPT) in giving details:
GPT3.5-turbo (ChatGPT)
Memphis flexed his muscles, summoning a horde of adorable kittens to surround him. They mewed and purred as they nuzzled up against his legs. Ducky raised an eyebrow at this display of cuteness, but didn’t let it distract her from the task at hand.
GPT4
With that, he summoned a horde of adorable kittens, all of which appeared out of thin air and began to swarm around Ducky. She laughed as the kittens climbed onto her legs and arms, seemingly trying to weigh her down and distract her from the fight.
In the above example you can see that the text from GPT4 is longer. While this seems to hold true, the ranges I’ve been getting are 500-700 words for GPT3.5-turbo (ChatGPT) and 600-800 words for GPT4.
General Prompting Tips for GPT
For prompting, I’ve noticed that making the long form content requires a specific amount of prompt dedicated to the current chapter. The sweet spots seems to be 3 to 5 sentences. If you give too much it will just repeat back what you put in, if you give too little it will start filling in the later parts with its own made up story.
There is the conclusion paragraph that seems to be attached to almost all the responses. This paragraph can have an off topic conversation (as above) or can have introspections of one of the characters. This final paragraph tends to have leading questions of what will happen next with the story. I tend to just ignore and delete this final paragraph. If you get two or three of these at the end, then you should probably increase your prompt description requests.
The keywords I’ve been using have been “Describe,” “Write a dialogue,” and “Give X examples.” It is important to note that “Describe a dialogue” gives bad results, often without any actual dialogue. E.g. Memphis said he would like to fight, and Ducky challenged him to a sparring match.
Bonus Kittens
And just because we mentioned summoning adorable kittens, here are some from Stable Diffusion.
Other Guides
