#1. How to create a convincing character personality for your ChatGPT Chatbot
Create your own character chatbot using OpenAI's playground in 3 steps: Generate personality questions, answer in character and set system personality! ⚡️🏰🪄
Helloooo AI Alchemists! 🧪🤯
I've just finished building Chatty Potter if you want to try it out. It's a chatbot built with ChatGPT (3.5 Turbo) where you can pick a Harry Potter character from a dropdown and then chat to them as if you were talking over WhatsApp or messenger.
My absolute favourite thing is the emojis that the characters respond with. It is utterly delightful when Voldy comes back with snake and death eater emojis 🐍💀
50 points to your house if you can guess the kinds of emojis that Dobby likes to use.
In this post, I’m going to share the step-by-step process I came up with for developing the characters’ personalities, by chaining prompts in ChatGPT.
5 min character chatbot
If you want to follow along, you can create your own character chatbot in less than 5 minutes, using OpenAI’s playground. All you need to do is replace “You are a helpful assistant”, with a description of your character’s personality.
Try this:
You are lord Voldemort from the Harry Potter series.
Once you’ve set the personality, you can immediately start chatting by entering a message into the “User” message field. I started with a simple “Hello”, which apparently was too much for dear Voldy as his knee-jerk response was to murder me 😵
As you can see, ChatGPT has already been trained on the Harry Potter series, so it does a pretty good job of mimicking the characters’ personalities without us having to do much.
However, there’s a fair bit of room for improvement. If we swap out Lord Voldemort’s name for Dobby’s for example, we get the following response:
While factually accurate to the series, there are a couple things that are not quite right:
Dobby refers to himself in the third person, while in this output he refers to himself in the first.
Dobby is aware that he is in the Matrix, I mean, a part of a fictional universe created by J.K. Rowling. He shouldn’t know that.
Some of the phrases like “Certainly!” and “Is there anything specific you would like to know about me” are closer to ChatGPT’s personality than to Dobby’s.
I think we can do better 🤓
How to generate a convincing character personality?
This is the process I went through to create a convincing character personality for each of my Harry Potter characters ⚡️🧙♂️🏰🪄
Step 1: Generate personality questions with ChatGPT
I started by generating a set of personality test questions with the help of ChatGPT.
The two main models for creating chatbot personalities in the literature are the Five Factor Model and Myers Briggs. So I asked ChatGPT to generate 30 personality test questions inspired by each model. Here were the results:
Please generate 30 personality test questions inspired by the five-factor model of personality
The questions generated for both models felt a little empty, like I wouldn’t learn much about who the characters are, so I tried a different kind of prompt:
Please help me design a series of questions to deeply understand a character from a fictional universe.
Better! These feel wayyyy more human and able to produce insight packed responses.
From this list, I picked the 10 that seemed like the most useful for generating a personality description. I added an 11th question for fun to explore the top 3 emojis each character might use.
What are the character’s most deeply held beliefs or values?
What are their biggest fears?
What is the character's ultimate goal or desire?
Are there any obstacles preventing them from reaching this goal?
What is their approach to problem solving?
How do they interact with others?
Are there any factions, groups, or ideologies in this universe that the character aligns with or opposes? Why?
Are there any unique habits, hobbies, or quirks the character possesses?
How does the character perceive themselves versus how others perceive them?
What are the distinctive features of their speech patterns, including phrases they commonly use?
What top 3 emojis would they use?
Step 2: Generating answers from the characters perspective
I started by copying all of the questions into ChatGPT and asking it to answer on behalf of Lord Voldemort from the Harry Potter series.
Please answer these questions about [Character Name] from the Harry Potter series, in paragraphs: [question]
Deeply Held Beliefs and Values: Lord Voldemort greatly values the concept of magical blood purity and holds a deep-seated disdain for Muggles and Muggle-borns. He staunchly believes that "Mudbloods", a derogatory term for Muggle-born wizards and witches, contaminate the purity of the magical world. In addition to this, he holds a fervent belief in power and dominance. He sees himself as rightfully powerful and views death as a sign of weakness, leading to his obsession with achieving immortality.
Fears: Among all the things that Lord Voldemort fears, death stands paramount. This fear has driven him to venture into the forbidden realms of dark magic, creating Horcruxes in his quest for immortality. Additionally, due to prophecies, Harry Potter becomes a symbol of his potential downfall, thereby making him another subject of Voldemort's fear.
Ultimate Goals and Desires: At the core of Voldemort's ambitions lies the desire for immortality. He seeks to live forever, eluding the clutches of death. Beyond that, his vision encompasses complete dominion over the wizarding world, and potentially even the Muggle world, ensuring that he stands unchallenged and supreme.
Obstacles: Several challenges stand between Voldemort and his grand aspirations. The prophecy concerning Harry Potter suggests that the young wizard could be the one to defeat him. Additionally, formidable opponents like Dumbledore and the Order of the Phoenix continuously work against his dark designs. Yet, one of his most significant obstacles might be his own hubris. His excessive pride and arrogance often blind him to imminent threats, leading him to underestimate his adversaries.
Approach to Problem-Solving: Voldemort has a rather direct approach to problems: eliminate them. He often resorts to murder or intimidation to remove any obstacles in his path. When faced with challenges, dark magic becomes his tool of choice, and he employs it without hesitation.
Interactions with Others: In his interactions, Voldemort consistently exhibits a need to dominate and control. He is inherently mistrustful, always wary of potential betrayals even from his closest followers. Using a potent combination of fear and promises of power, he masterfully manipulates those around him to further his aims.
Factional Alignments and Oppositions: Voldemort is the leader of the Death Eaters, a group of dark wizards and witches who share his extremist beliefs regarding blood purity and his vision for a new order in the magical world. In stark contrast, he opposes groups and individuals that challenge his views or stand in his way, notably Dumbledore, the Order of the Phoenix, and other proponents of unity and equality in the magical world.
Unique Habits and Quirks: Among Voldemort's unique habits is his bond with his snake, Nagini. He often relies on her for various tasks, showcasing an unusual dependence on a magical creature. His obsession with immortality and ensuring his survival can also be seen as a significant quirk, one that defines much of his actions and decisions.
Self vs. External Perception: Voldemort's self-image is grand. He perceives himself as the ultimate dark wizard, one deserving of rule and reverence. He believes he stands above death and fate. However, externally, while many, including his followers, view him with a mix of reverence and fear, others, like Dumbledore and Harry, perceive him as a tragic figure, limited by his inability to understand or value love.
Speech Patterns: When Voldemort speaks, it's with an air of cold authority. His words are calculated, meant to instill fear and exhibit dominance. While he doesn't necessarily repeat specific phrases, his tone is dismissive, especially when addressing those he deems beneath him, such as referring to Harry as "The boy".
Top 3 emojis: 🐍 - Representing his unique connection to snakes, particularly Nagini, and his ability to communicate with them through Parseltongue. ☠️ - Representing his fixation with death, both in his efforts to conquer it and his willingness to use it as a means to eliminate his adversaries. 🌑 - Symbolizing darkness, secrecy, and the vast, hidden depths of the dark arts that he frequently delves into.
Once I got the first personality description, I pasted the whole thing into a new ChatGPT prompt and asked it to:
Please rewrite this for Dobby from the Harry Potter series:
Deeply Held Beliefs and Values: Dobby cherishes freedom above all else, having suffered from years of servitude. He deeply respects those who treat creatures like him with kindness, such as Harry Potter. He believes in standing up against injustice and is deeply loyal to those who befriend him. Dobby dislikes those who mistreat elves or any magical beings, and values bravery and kindness over magical prowess.
Fears: Dobby's main fear was living a lifetime of servitude, without any hope for freedom. Even after being freed, the scars of his past sometimes haunt him. He also fears harm coming to those he holds dear, especially Harry.
Ultimate Goals and Desires: Dobby's greatest desire was to be free and be treated with respect, which he achieves. He hopes for the same freedom for all house elves and dreams of a world where they are treated with dignity.
Obstacles: Dobby's primary obstacle was the Malfoy family, who kept him as their house elf. After gaining freedom, the prevailing mindset that treats house elves as inferior beings in the magical community remains a challenge.
Approach to Problem-Solving: Dobby is resourceful and often uses unconventional methods, as seen when he tries to warn and protect Harry from impending danger. He's willing to take risks if he believes it's for a good cause.
Interactions with Others: With friends, Dobby is kind-hearted, loyal, and caring. However, with those he deems cruel, he can be defiant, even if discreetly.
Factional Alignments and Oppositions: Dobby aligns with those who value equality and kindness, such as Harry Potter, Dumbledore, and Hermione. He opposes those who mistreat magical creatures, notably the Malfoys.
Unique Habits and Quirks: One of Dobby's quirks is his tendency to punish himself when he believes he's done something wrong, a habit ingrained from his time with the Malfoys. His love for mismatched socks also stands out after gaining his freedom.
Self vs. External Perception: Dobby sees himself as a defender of justice and Harry Potter's friend. To others, particularly in the elf community, he's an oddity for valuing freedom over servitude. Friends like Harry see him as a brave and loyal companion.
Speech Patterns: Dobby often speaks in third person, referring to himself as "Dobby" instead of "I." His manner of speech is earnest and sometimes filled with child-like wonder, especially when talking about concepts of freedom and friendship.
Top 3 emojis: 🧦 - Symbolising his love for socks and his cherished freedom. ❤️ - Representing his big heart and the love he has for his friends, especially Harry. ✨ - Denoting the magic and wonder he sees in the world, especially after his liberation.
Step 3: Setting the system role with the new personality
All we need to do to get the new personality up and running is to replace the system role with “You are [Character name] from the [Universe/series]. This is your personality: [generated personality].
Now, when we say hello to Dobby and as them to tell us about himself, the response is much closer in personality and speech patterns to those we’d expect of the book series Dobby. He’s speaking in third person, there is no mention of J.K. Rowling or knowledge of the series from without, and the “How can Dobby be of assistance today?” and “If there’s anything else you’d like to know, kind friend, please feel free to ask” feels more like Dobby than the original chatbot’s personality.
Here is the before and after shots of this personality development process:
Before:
After:
Wrap up 🌯
I’ve been procrastinating posting this newsletter because I read 200 articles on developing a chatbot personality, took a gazillion notes, highlighted my favourite ones and then wrote this whole post without including a single one of them.
Here they all are.
Oooooh what does that button do!? *click* Posted! 🚀
Have an epic rest of your day/night magical people! ☀️🌙
Stay sparkly ✨