Arguably, one of the best uses of an LLM is to help brainstorm ideas. In this post, I want to show you a wide range of topics that an LLM can be helpful with when it comes to brainstorming.
To help me in this process, I’m going to go a little meta and ask ChatGPT to help me brainstorm examples of areas that ChatGPT can help me with when it comes to brainstorming.
And so, I’ll ask ChatGPT the following: “What types of ideas are an LLM good for helping brainstorm?”
Here’s how ChatGPT responded:
1. Creative Projects
Writing: Story plots, character development, titles, poetry, or dialogue.
Art: Concept themes, color palettes, or design motifs.
Music: Lyrics, album names, or instrumental themes.
2. Problem Solving
Business Challenges: Marketing strategies, customer engagement ideas, or new product features.
Personal Productivity: Time management techniques, habit-building strategies, or workspace organization.
Education: Learning methods, mnemonic devices, or teaching approaches.
3. Strategic Planning
Career Growth: Networking strategies, skill-building plans, or pivoting to new roles.
Entrepreneurship: Business models, funding strategies, or branding concepts.
Life Events: Wedding planning, travel itineraries, or gift ideas.
4. Innovation and Design
Tech: App features, software development ideas, or tech-driven solutions.
Products: Prototyping ideas, consumer product features, or packaging concepts.
Science: Hypotheses for experiments or interdisciplinary applications of technology.
5. Content Creation
Social Media: Post ideas, hashtags, or visual content themes.
Blogging: Topics, outlines, or headlines.
Videos and Podcasts: Episode concepts, interview questions, or scripting help.
6. Brainstorming for Personal Use
Lifestyle: Home improvement projects, hobbies to try, or workout routines.
Wellness: Meditation practices, self-care routines, or stress management ideas.
Relationships: Fun date ideas, ways to reconnect with loved ones, or thoughtful gestures.
7. Group Activities and Games
Icebreakers: Conversation starters, team-building activities, or party games.
Educational: Quiz questions, puzzles, or trivia themes.
Collaborative Projects: Co-creation prompts, brainstorming exercises, or creative challenges.
8. Marketing and Branding
Campaigns: Slogans, taglines, or promotional themes.
Ads: Concepts for visuals or copy.
Brand Identity: Naming businesses, crafting mission statements, or defining brand voice.
9. Exploring New Interests
Learning: New fields to explore, resources to start with, or fun facts about niche topics.
Experiences: Travel destinations, books to read, or events to attend.
Networking: Icebreaker topics, online community recommendations, or ways to meet like-minded people.
10. Generative Challenges
"What If" Scenarios: Exploring alternate realities, speculative fiction, or hypothetical solutions.
Idea Mashups: Combining unrelated ideas for novel concepts.
Random Inspiration: Creative prompts, visual descriptions, or word associations.
There’s a lot of stuff here, with 10 general topics, and then numerous subtopics within each topic. I’m going to demonstrate one example from each general topic, just to give you a sense of the gamut of ideas that ChatGPT can help you brainstorm about. But I encourage you to test drive ChatGPT brainstorming yourself as well!
For Topic #1: Creative Projects, I asked ChatGPT: “I am writing a blog post about how to use an LLM for various brainstorming activities. Can you please help me come up with witty blog post titles?
Here’s how ChatGPT responded: https://chatgpt.com/c/6796794f-e2c0-8008-b246-2607a2fc03fe
There are some pretty interesting ideas here! Now, the thing with brainstorming is that even if I don’t find any of these suggestions to be perfect, that’s okay. I can either tweak them to perfection, or at the very least, these suggestions may spark my own creativity so that I can think of ideas that I’m happy with.
I want to mention that when I prompted ChatGPT, I did not turn on the “Search the Web” feature, which is a feature I discussed at length in the previous post. Although the “Search the Web” feature is critical when asking ChatGPT for factual information, it’s not necessary for brainstorming.
According to ChatGPT itself, when it comes to brainstorming and certain other tasks, it’s actually better to have the “Search the Web” feature turned off. Here is the explanation ChatGPT gave me:
https://chatgpt.com/c/67967d84-0034-8008-aedf-8825b6ca4b0d
I’ll possibly dive into these issues further in a future post. But I was curious to see side-by-side the difference between asking ChatGPT to brainstorm with and without the “Search the Web” feature activated. So, I began a new chat and this time turned the “Search the Web” feature on when prompting it for blog post titles. Here’s what ChatGPT had to say:
https://chatgpt.com/c/67967df9-6db4-8008-ac0c-871be11aab4a
It’s admittedly a bit subjective to say this, but it does seem to me that the suggestions were somewhat wittier when the “Search the Web” feature was turned off. See what you think when you compare the results of the two chat conversations. In any case, I plan to do further research on this issue.
Let’s move on to Topic #2, which is Problem Solving. I prompted ChatGPT like so: “I would like to get more people to subscribe to my blog. Can you please help me generate marketing ideas that don’t cost money?”
Here was the advice I was given: https://chatgpt.com/c/679679bf-248c-8008-82ae-6ec5d90ba51c
These seem like pretty standard suggestions, but they’re certainly solid. And I appreciated that there were no fewer than 14 strategies.
For Topic #3, Strategic Planning, I asked: “I am going away with my wife and young children for a winter vacation that lasts one week. Can you suggest places to go that are within a 2 hour drive from Chicago?”
For this chat, I turned the “Search the Web” feature on. Firstly, I need to make sure that ChatGPT can figure out what locations are within a 2-hour radius from Chicago - which is something that the Internet may be necessary for. Also, I want ChatGPT to have the latest info, such as a brand new attraction that opened last month.
Here were some recommendations by ChatGPT: https://chatgpt.com/c/67967a26-8184-8008-9247-1e0d941f55cf
For Topic #4, Innovation and Design, I prompted ChatGPT as follows: “Can you help me brainstorm app ideas which leverage AI under the hood?” I was curious to see what the LLM would come up with. Here’s what it had to say:
https://chatgpt.com/c/67967a6f-1fec-8008-bd18-540b2e7629b1
I would have to assume that all of these ideas are already in existence in some form, or at least in the process of being developed. But some of them are certainly interesting, and not ones I would have thought of on my own - especially the Dream Visualizer.
For Topic #5, Content Creation, I asked, “Can you help me brainstorm blog post topics for my blog about AI? Please include hashtags for each topic.”
Here were ChatGPT’s ideas: https://chatgpt.com/c/67967b00-b45c-8008-b3bd-7f5db645c25d
Each of these post topics is solid, and I will likely cover most of them in the future. The hashtags seemed to be on the mark as well, although I’m not really a social media guru.
When it came to Topic #6: Brainstorming for Personal Use, I asked ChatGPT: “Can you brainstorm ideas that can help me fall asleep more quickly at night?”
I may or may not actually have this problem.
Here’s what ChatGPT suggested: https://chatgpt.com/c/67967b5e-0ed4-8008-8954-1b9282d1bac6
I don’t think there’s anything here that I haven’t considered before, but at least it’s a solid list.
I got a slightly different list when I turned on the “Search the Web” feature. Doing this actually makes sense so that ChatGPT can access the latest scientific research. Here’s that list if you’re interested: https://chatgpt.com/c/6796f8eb-5a2c-8008-bb70-a9eb82af27d6
For Topic #7: Group Activities and Games, I asked a hard question: “I’d like to play a game with my kids (ages 3 through 17) for 2 hours on a weekend. Do you have any ideas for games that we can all enjoy together?”
It’s a tricky question since what game would both a toddler and a teenager appreciate?
ChatGPT’s ideas were interesting and (mostly) not half bad: https://chatgpt.com/c/67967bb9-0690-8008-9c5f-be28654704cc
However, Chutes and Ladders is completely out of the question for me. I can’t stand that game. Also, it didn’t fully explain how teenagers might enjoy it.
For Topic #8, Marketing and Branding, here was my prompt: “Can you help me generate a logo for my blog? It’s called A Common-Sense Guide to AI - and is about helping people understand how best to use AI for all different sorts of everyday applications.”
Here’s what I got:
Now, this gets into the whole idea of AI generating images, which is something I’ll save for future posts. If you haven’t seen this stuff before, you should definitely test drive this feature - it’ll blow your mind. But for now, let’s move on.
For Topic #9: Exploring New Interests, I asked, “Can you recommend books for someone who is new to AI but wants to learn more about it?” I made sure to turn on the “Search the Web” feature so that ChatGPT can access even recently published books.
Here were the suggestions I was given: https://chatgpt.com/c/67967c7c-93a4-8008-9d79-146141afdfe4
I can’t speak to the quality of these suggestions since I haven’t researched these books yet. But they seem reasonable!
For the final topic - Topic #10: Generative Challenges, I went with the mashup idea. I asked, “Let’s do an idea mashup. Can you mash up an LLM with other concepts?” I understood going in that the results I might get could be very similar to my chat about AI-powered apps, but I was curious to see if ChatGPT might go in some other unexpected direction.
But indeed, it suggested AI-based apps: https://chatgpt.com/c/67967cb6-09d4-8008-ad62-6b707641d1ed
However, and this may be subjective, to me these suggestions are a bit more out of the box than the suggestions from the previous chat. I’ll let you be the judge, though.
Well, that’s the end of this post. I hope it helped open your eyes to some of the possibilities in using AI to help with brainstorming. I’m sure you can think of your own great brainstorming examples as well - go ahead and try it out.
-Jay
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