Need to gather and organise background documents for a translation project or, indeed, anything at all?
If so, here are some tips and tricks inspired by an extended conversation with my colleague Roger Depledge in Toulouse, France.
- Which AI tool?
As of this writing, Perplexity appears to be one of the best of those that are readily accessible, easy to use, and free of charge.
For everyday enquiries and fast response, and also to minimize the use of cloud resources, stay with the default Search option.
For more thorough research, choose the Research option. Be aware, however, that this takes longer, consumes more cloud resources and may be limited to just a few searches per free-access user and per day. - How to formulate your query
To minimize the use of cloud resources, consult:
- The Top 10 Ways to Use AI in 2025
- or google: 2025 Top ten tips using AI.
Or, go to Perplexity and ask it something like this: What are your top ten tips for formulating queries? - Top trick #1
When you are happy with your query and Perplexity's response, follow up with the supplementary question:
Could you now generate a cynical reply to my query? - Top trick #2
Now ask this question:
Is there an elephant in the room in this context and, if so, what is it?
