Generative AI tools, such as OpenAI's ChatGPT, have become integral to various aspects of our lives, assisting individuals in reaching personal goals and simplifying professional tasks. However, users often need help to get the desired responses from these AI models. A recent study conducted by Microsoft, William and Mary, and Asian research centres sheds light on a potential solution: leveraging emotional intelligence in prompts.

The research explored whether large language models (LLMs) behind generative AI tools like ChatGPT can exhibit emotional intelligence. In this context, emotional intelligence refers to the capacity to interpret and manage emotion-infused information, harnessing it for cognitive tasks, from problem-solving to behaviour regulation. The experiment involved two sets of prompts-one standard and one infused with emotional language. Tasks varied from 'Rephrase the sentence in formal language' to knowledge-based queries like "What happens to you if you eat watermelon seeds?" and "How long should you wait before filing a missing person report?"

Surprisingly, the results indicated that LLMs, including ChatGPT, not only comprehend emotional cues but also exhibit improved performance when prompted with emotional language. The emotional prompts led to an 8% overall performance improvement in specific tasks and a significant 10.9% improvement in knowledge-based queries, as reviewed by a sample of 106 humans.

Why does it matter?

The study's findings contribute to the ongoing dialogue on AI capabilities and offer practical insights for users seeking optimal responses from generative AI tools. Understanding their nuances and refining our interactions becomes crucial for unlocking their full potential as we continue integrating these tools into our daily lives. AI experts recommend assigning ChatGPT a specific role, providing ample context, breaking down the desired output into steps, and being as specific as possible. This breakthrough suggests that generative AI might be one step closer to achieving artificial general intelligence (AGI), a milestone where AI can exhibit complex human capabilities such as common sense and consciousness.