The next step for publishers is to learn from your audience's questions

Last week I listened to the recent mini episode of the People v Algorithms podcast in which Troy and Alex discuss AI. (Brian was away somewhere.) Alex mentioned how he used ChatGPT to fine-tune the story for his latest game while he was driving to meet Troy for dinner.

I've always used chat GPT on my desktop computer, but after hearing Alex's story I downloaded the app on my phone and had a lovely conversation with Hal about my next fiction book.

It was an amazing experience. You should try it.

Unfortunately, when I came back to restart the conversation an hour later, Hal had lost the thread, which was quite a mystery to me because when I log in to ChatGPT on my real computer I can see the entire conversation. Also, when I asked ChatGPT how I could memorialize the conversation, it gave me a bunch of dumb answers, like maybe I could record it.

So ChatGPT still has a ways to go, but it’s pretty amazing.

Just this morning I read unCharles’ latest essay, titled “Peas,” in which he evaluates the value of questions in social media.

He ranks things as follows. Likes, then comments, then questions. Questions get the top spot because they foster more interaction.

Personally, I hate this monetization of crowds. Social media often seems to boil down to this – if you can do something that will gather a lot of eyeballs – and we know perfectly well what kinds of “somethings” gather eyeballs – you become a star and you get rich. We have prominent celebrities these days whose only real talent is getting attention.

That doesn’t sit well with my Celtic and Germanic soul.

But questions … that’s another thing. A question tells you a lot about the person asking the question. For example,

* What he’s wondering about, and interested in
* What’s unclear, which may indicate knowledge or education level
* What perspective he’s coming from
* His emotional state
* His problem-solving approach or method
* His needs or motivations

In short, there’s a whole world of information you can get from a question.

Publishers like to ask questions of their audiences, and that’s a good way to increase engagement. My friend Lev Kaye specializes in that sort of thing, so look him up if you want to get more interaction from your audience.

But questions are the next step.

You know that the era of search is ending, and that people will expect to be able to ask a question and get an answer. By now you should be building a large language model on your content – or at least thinking about it.

Take it to the next step. Don’t only answer questions for your audience. Learn something from those questions.

Links
====

People v. Algorithms Podcast
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/people-vs-algorithms/id1642958293

Uncharles
https://uncharles.substack.com/

Credspark
https://www.credspark.com/