How to Get a ChatGPT Account and Start Asking Questions

In this guide, we'll learn how to set up a ChatGPT account and begin asking your first questions. We'll start by requesting an account associated with the NEI team, followed by logging in and navigating the ChatGPT interface. Understanding the features and limitations of ChatGPT, including privacy considerations and model capabilities, will help you effectively use this tool. We'll also cover how to initiate new chats and explore different topics.

Get a ChatGPT Account with your NEI email associated with NEI's team account

Hi, today we'll discuss how to get a ChatGPT account and start asking your first questions. First, if you don't have a ChatGPT account or it's not linked to the NEI team account, you will need to email JP Mayhew. Write something like, "JP, I'd like to get a ChatGPT account associated with the NEI team. Can you help me with that?" Send the email to jpm@nei.org.

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Once you've done that, JP will send you a follow-up email with all the instructions. Your ChatGPT account, linked to your NEI email, will then be associated with the NEI team account on ChatGPT. You'll be all set.

Logging into ChatGPT

When you're ready to start, navigate to your browser's address bar and type "ChatGPT."

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Go to the top right corner and click "Login."

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Simply type your NEI email address and your password that you have created for your ChatGPT account.

Then click continue.

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Basic Layout and Orientation

Now that you are logged in, you can start chatting with ChatGPT.

But before you dive in, I will go over some basic navigation for you.

In the upper right corner, you'll see the NEI logo, indicating you're logged into the NEI team account.

At the bottom, you see the key notes that NEI workspace chats are not used to train OpenAI's models, and there's a disclaimer that ChatGPT can make mistakes.

Just because they don't use our chats to train their models doesn't mean our chats and any uploaded documents aren't temporarily going to their servers. So make sure you read, understand, and comply with the NEI guidance on Use of AI. It will specify that you should never upload documents that contain personally identifiable information (PII), nor documents that contain business sensitive, confidential, or proprietary information.

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In the upper left corner, you will see "ChatGPT 4.0," indicating the model you are currently using. I will do another video on the different models and what they are best used for. But for now, ChatGPT 4o is the best all around model, so we will stick with that.

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Here, you have your sidebar, which you can open or close based on how clean you want the screen to be. The sidebar will display past chats that you have had if you want to go back to a topic. It also can keep "CustomGPTs" that you use readily accessible. We will go into both chat history and CustomGPTs in a future video.

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You also have the pencil icon for starting a new chat. When you've been discussing one subject and want to switch to a different topic, start a new chat. This ensures fresh information without being clouded by previous discussions. Just click "new chat" and then start asking your question.

Chat with ChatGPT - Ask Questions or Tell it to Perform a Task

Right in the middle of the main window is where you will simply start typing your question or your instructions in plain language. So let's get started.

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For this example, I'll start with a simple question: "What does the ADVANCE Act mean for the U.S. NRC and the nuclear industry?" Then, I'll click the button to proceed.

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If you watch, you can see that ChatGPT indicates that it's searching the web and then will provide a summary of the basics of the ADVANCE Act. I could request more details. I could type, "Please tell me each section in the act and what it requires the NRC to do." I could also ask it to search the NRC's website for their timeline and milestones in responding to the ADVANCE Act. You can have additional discussion questions and choose the level of detail you prefer. This is a starting point.

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I should note that it searched the Internet and provided some links and sites it used for reference.

ChatGPT 4.0 was trained on data up to October 2023. For questions beyond that, like current weather, it will search the Internet, as it doesn't have post-October 2023 data. For instance, the ADVANCE Act occurred in July 2024. The model may know based on context that it needs to search the web, for example if you ask for today's weather, it knows that is after October of 2023. In this case it also automatically detected that it needed to search the web for information on the Advance Act. But if the model might not know you can always tell it to please search the web and provide up to date information and analysis for your querry.

There you go, that's how to log in and ask your first question!