Most people use ChatGPT like a smarter search bar. Type a question, get a wall of text, scroll, copy the useful bit somewhere else. The new approach skips the wall of text. You ask for something you can click, tick, and change, and it hands you that instead.
Ahoy, Captain YAR here. A post on r/PromptEngineering caught my eye this week, and it points at a shift worth knowing about.
The key idea
According to the post, OpenAI shipped GPT-6 on October 7 with a feature called Intelligent UI. Answers can now come back with tappable buttons, forms, charts, and interactive pieces you use right inside the chat. OpenAI’s own description, as quoted there, is that it can “quickly create a tool to solve a task right in the moment.”
So the chat stops being a place where you read. It becomes a place where you do.
One caveat before we go further. I’m working from that Reddit post, so check what your own plan and region actually show you. The post says the rollout is global and starts with Plus, Pro, Business, and Enterprise in the Chat tab. It also says OpenAI admits the design side still has room to improve, so some answers will look plainer than others.
Old way vs. new way
The old way: You ask, “Explain compound interest.” You get a clean paragraph. It’s correct. You nod, and then you open a spreadsheet to try your own numbers.
The new way: You ask, “Let me change the deposit and the rate and see what I’d have in 10 years.” You get something you can play with. You drag, you tweak, you see the result right away.
The difference is one small shift in how you phrase things. Stop asking for something to read. Ask for something to use.
The pattern that makes it work
Two ingredients:
- Give it your real numbers or content. Paste the actual bill, the actual plan details, the actual recipe.
- Tell it what you want to be able to do. Tick, enter, scale, tap, compare.
That’s it. Vague input gets you a generic widget. Real input plus a clear action gets you a tool that fits your problem.
Four prompts to steal
The original post shares these. Swap the brackets for your own stuff.
🍽️ Split the dinner bill
“Make me a tool to split this dinner bill: [paste items and who had what]. Let me tick who had each item and show what everyone owes, including tip.”
📱 Pick a phone plan
“I’m choosing between these three phone plans: [details]. Build me something where I can enter my usage and see which one is cheapest for me.”
🍳 Cook along with a recipe
“Turn this recipe into something I can follow while cooking: one step at a time, with a timer for each step that needs one, and a way to scale it for [number] people.”
🧠 Quiz yourself
“Quiz me on [topic] at [level]. Let me tap my answers and show me what I got wrong at the end.”
One commenter on the thread said the dinner bill one is clever because the person who drank three cocktails always forgets how math works. Fair point. A tool that does the math for them settles that argument fast.
How to get good results
- Paste first, ask second. Put your real data in the same message as the request.
- Name the controls. Say “tick boxes,” “a slider,” “a timer,” or “tap to answer.” The more specific the action, the better the tool.
- Keep one job per tool. A bill splitter should split bills. If you want more, ask in a follow-up.
- Iterate in chat. If a button is missing, say so. “Add a field for tip percentage” is a perfectly good next message.
- Expect some plain results. Per the post, design is still being polished. A basic layout that works beats a pretty one that doesn’t.
A fair word of caution
Not everyone in the thread was sold. One commenter said they don’t trust GPT for anything serious because it keeps editing and adding things nobody asked for. That’s worth taking seriously. If a tool handles money or anything important, sanity check the totals yourself before you rely on them. Run one simple case where you already know the answer.
Your move
Pick one small thing you do every week that currently lives in a spreadsheet, a notes app, or your head. Describe what you want to be able to do with it, paste in your real data, and see what comes back. Try one this week, and tell me which tool earned its keep.
Fair winds, and see you in the next post.
Frequently Asked Questions
Q: Why does it keep rewriting my text when I only asked for feedback?
One commenter says ChatGPT edits their text and slips in changes nobody asked for. Another suggests keeping a solid .md file and working on one or two things at a time, which they find gets the best results. If you only want feedback, tell it to list suggested changes instead of rewriting the text.
Q: Do I need to set up a standing brief before I start?
One reader keeps a solid .md file with their context and works on one or two things per chat, which they say gets the best results. Put in your goal, your audience, and any rules you want it to follow. That way you don’t have to re-explain yourself every time.
Q: Is it good for serious work, or mostly for show?
Opinions are split. One skeptic says ChatGPT is built to look clever and keeps changing things, so they won’t trust it with real work. Another says its writing is sharper than Claude’s when it isn’t being held back. Try a small, low-stakes task first and see which camp your use case falls into.
Q: Is the dinner bill calculator really worth building?
Yes, it’s a good example of something you’d actually use. People often get the math wrong after a few drinks, so let the tool do it. Give it the exact items and who had what, and ask it to show tip separately. Still, glance over the totals before you send anyone a payment request.
ChatGPT doesn’t just answer in text anymore. Since GPT-6 it can build you a working tool on the spot: a calculator, a planner, a quiz, a comparison you can click through. Here’s what to ask it for
by u/Professional-Rest138 in PromptEngineering