Below we will go through how ChatGPT, copilot and others can (or cannot) currently support the application process. As a preface, AI developments are evolving at a very rapid pace, and although the conclusion of the summary below is clearly that at the moment this tool is not a major aid to the proposal writing process, this may not be the case in a few weeks or months. Despite the initial results, the purpose of this article is to encourage everyone to experiment and practice writing prompts (instructions to GPT), because - for the time being, mainly in the area of text generation - more and more impressive results can be achieved - also in the area of proposal writing.
In the following, we have mainly tested the free version of GPT, the recently released GPT-4.0 is slightly more efficient in handling the tasks below, although there are no breakthrough results there yet.
Not included are the more and more clever generative AI applications that do not yet provide valuable results in Hungarian (e.g. perplexity, jasper.ai, gemini).
I will evaluate the usability of the tools along the whole application process, how they perform in these:
Searching for applications
Interpreting applications
Writing proposals and completing documentation
Search for applications
How do I use it?
Chat GPT is a language model, not a search engine, so it does not - at least for the time being - provide a breakthrough solution for searching for applications. Both the free version Chat GPT 3.5 and the paid version GPT-4, which is already available as a test version, and the version GPT-4.0 so far produce the same bugs and shortcomings, i.e:
it lists non-existent, out-of-date applications
the URLs referred to are often incorrect and not real
the deadlines for applications, but there may also be an anomaly that a non-existent Fund name is cited by GPT...
Interpretation of applications
Summary: Even if not the search, browsing through multi-page documents can be made somewhat faster by e.g. Chat GPT. If you don't speak foreign languages, it can also help you with a foreign application.
How do I use it?
You can link to a call for proposals, but better still, you can upload documents to GPT, even in pdf format, by clicking on the attachment icon. What's it for? For example, you can upload 20-30 pages of calls for proposals (even if they are not in Hungarian) and ask GPT to interpret and analyse the call for proposals according to your specific questions. (We won't go into the data security issues related to uploading in detail here, just very briefly: if you upload publicly available documents, you don't need to worry about data security issues, but you should not upload, for example, databases containing sensitive or personal data, confidential documents, images that you don't want to be seen in public.)
It is important to ask clear, specific questions and give detailed, precise instructions.
For example:
The attached document is a call for applications. Please quote verbatim / translate into Hungarian the criteria that the applicant organisations must meet. Please list any conditions that you find in the call for applications. Indicate on which page of the attachment these conditions are found.
OR:
Please list the official documents that must be submitted when applying. Please also indicate on which page of the attached document this information is found.
OR:
I enclose with the attached call for applications my foundation's articles of association and last year's public benefit report. Please check whether my organisation is eligible to apply on the basis of the attached documents. Please describe exactly where the conditions referred to are found in the call for proposals and in the attached official documents.
OR:
Please return, in word format, the attached call for proposals, indicating in the text in yellow background colour the exact documents to be submitted by the applicant organisations.
Important: As all documents and responses sent by the GPT need to be checked, the overall time saved is minimal. ChatGPT often hallucinates here too. For example, despite your clear request, it may not highlight the documents to be submitted in the returned text in yellow, but rather, say, the application criteria. Or worse still, it may list completely different documents as being to be submitted, which are not included in the text. So it's not a perfect assistant in this area either, and you can probably only save time with it for longer applications.
Writing an application and filling in the application documents
Summary: If you have previously submitted a similar application, or if you have more of the information you need for your application available on our website, you can leave the writing of the application outline to ChatGPT.
How do I use it?
ChatGPT can hunt down the information we need to submit a proposal from the source documents it shares with us, with varying degrees of success. It won't do a perfect job, and all the information it produces will need to be checked, but it can do a pretty good job in many cases.
If the application does not need to be filled out in an online interface, but a downloadable excel, word or pdf document needs to be submitted, I can even use ChatGPT to fill out these files one-by-one. How?
Fill in the attached application form with the details of organisation xy, which can be found at www.organisationxy.org. Please return the completed documents to me in word format. If you do not find the answer to a question on the website, please leave it blank. Please also make sure that the format of the document you return is the same as the document you originally attached.
OR:
Please complete the attached application document based on the attached document (a previous similar application). If you do not find an answer to any of the questions, leave the answer blank. Please also ensure that the format of the returned document is the same as the original attached document.
For short texts, Copilot (Microsoft's AI-based virtual assistant) can also be used perfectly, except that the free version does not yet allow you to upload word or pdf documents, so you have to copy the text and it will send you back a stylistically and spelling-corrected text.
Again: the time saved overall by all this is minimal, because all the documents and replies sent by GPT have to be checked. For example, the format preservation doesn't succeed all the time. It also happens that the wrong answers are sent with the wrong questions. Usually, the system copes well with filling in the dry factual information (name, tax number, account number) that is readily identifiable in the source file (website or attached application). But for example, if you need to list, say, the officers of the foundation, the GPT often (not always) has a problem if the officers are not listed as officers in the source file, but as "board of trustees" or "supervisory board".
Remember, the GPT works with algorithms, it cannot guess what we are looking for, and it does not necessarily know what a terminology covers exactly in the case of our organisation. We have to be very precise, we have to be very specific, we have to be very clear.
Checking the application file
Summary: The Chat GPT is an excellent tool to check the style and grammar of the finished application documents. For this, the free basic Copilot via Bingen is perhaps even better, but again it is important to note that you cannot upload word or pdf documents to the free version, so you can only copy a text (of limited length) and Copilot will send back the corrected text. On request it will list what has been corrected in the text.
How does it work?
For example:
I send/attach a text. Correct spelling mistakes and suggest possible stylistic corrections. After the text, list all the corrections you have made to the original text.
Management of accounts, excel files
Summary: If you need to submit accounts in excel format, both Microsoft Copilot and Chat GPT can be used to compile and analyse them and check them.
How does it work?
By pressing the "Extensions" button in the top right corner of the excel toolbar, you have the possibility to add GPT as a plug-in to your excel program. What does this technically? Many functions that we used to do in excel with formulas and manual formatting are now done for us by GPT following our instructions. There are several plug-ins available in the plug-ins called GPT and mostly all of them have short video tutorials. Therefore, I will not go into detail about them here, but it is worth knowing that these plug-ins can, with a little practice, support the formatting, analysis and improvement of our excel spreadsheets.
AI based support tools are getting more and more capable every day, it is worth to make friends with them and try them with patience. Also, the above experience may be outdated the day after tomorrow due to the rapid pace of development. It's a fast world now!