Exploring the potential of custom GPTs

On Thursday 6 March, the AI and Machine Learning Competency Centre hosted their first hackathon event – Build-a-Bot: Hands-on AI for All – in partnership with OpenAI. This event saw over 100 colleagues from across Oxford come together to experiment with building custom GPTs with ChatGPT Edu. 

What are custom GPTs?

Custom GPTs are a feature in ChatGPT where users can create 'custom bots' for specific tasks or topics by combining instructions, knowledge, and capabilities. GPT creators can also enable tools the GPT can use like search, image generation or data analysis tools. For example, a GPT could behave as an FAQ-style chatbot – the creator would give the GPT a document of their FAQs along with instructions on how to answer. Users of the GPT will have exactly the same experience as chatting with ChatGPT but the answers will be based on the FAQ document and will follow the format set by the custom instructions.

“As a complete newbie on the AI/GPT front, I’m now a convert and eager to learn more and embrace this amazing resource.”

Working in teams of four, attendees created AI bots to assist with administration, research, or education. Throughout the day OpenAI representatives as well as the Competency Centre’s own expert team were on hand to help teams create GPTs which could solve problems and simplify their own work. Teams came up with a diverse range of ideas , including GPTs to proof and edit text in accordance with the University Style Guide, a GPT to help school students understand the requirements and expectations of an Oxford Physics degree before starting the application process, GPTs to help answer questions about University policies in a variety of different contexts, and a GPT to interrogate the UKRI funding website to identify grant opportunities in humanities. All these ideas aimed to replace or reduce hours' worth of manual work as well as even enable tasks which cannot be done now due to time constraints.  

Some of the winning  teams, rewarded with a year’s free licence to ChatGPT Edu and exclusive OpenAI merchandise, were able to design working prototypes of the following GPTs:

• Female Futurists with Digital Co-Supervisor (DCS AI) - This GPT was designed to streamline research supervision meetings by automating progress reports, updating project timelines, and structuring action plans. It can save students and supervisors time  by collating discussion logs, Teams meetings and student reflections, eliminating manual notetaking and summarisation. By improving documentation, communication, and project planning, it aims to enhance collaboration while reducing administrative workload.
• ParentBot Pioneers with Global Parenting Initiative (GPI) Monitoring & Management Assistant - This GPT is intended to support the Global Parenting Initiative (GPI) Monitoring and Management System by providing responses based on supplied documentation, helping to improve internal knowledge management, programme monitoring, and reporting.
• Rrrrrrrrmind with Rrrr_Mind - A Quant GPT assistant using the data analysis tool to help in the exploration of large data frames, extract relevant variables, clean, merge, and suggest improvements and recommendations on analysis strategies.
• Team Oxon with Oxford Cultural Assistant - This GPT was an example of how Oxford museums could help their curators use information about the of items they own. It aimed to help with the process of curating a museum exhibition based on a specified theme including suggesting possible items to exhibit and create a story around them.

“It was an incredibly enlightening experience. I appreciated the opportunity to expand my knowledge of ChatGPT and the broader applications of AI.”

Colleagues can start creating their own custom GPTs with an ChatGPT Edu license: purchase your own ChatGPT Edu licence and start exploring the potential of GPTs for yourself. 

Similar Build-a-Bot events are being planned, look out from more information on the Competency Centre webpage.