
Never use "summarize this"! (Podcast)
From Digital Digging by Henk van Ess
September 28, 2024 · 12 min
About this episode
Henk van Ess discusses the pitfalls of using AI chatbots for summarization and offers tips for better results.
Welcome to Digital Digging , I’m Henk van Ess, and today I talk about summarizing with AI chatbots. You’ve probably tried it—just typing “Summarize this” into ChatGPT and hoping for the best. Don’t! It’s like asking for a full meal and getting a side salad. In this episode, I cover some highlights from my article “Do Not Use ‘Summarize This’” and break down how to get the summary you actually need. Whether you’re trying to condense War and Peace —which, spoiler alert, is more than just ‘Russia had a rough time, some people fell in love’—or customizing your prompts for better AI results, I’ve got you covered! Get full access to Digital Digging with Henk van Ess at www.digitaldigging.org/subscribe
People in this episode
Host: Henk van Ess
Topics covered
- AI chatbots
- summarizing
- prompt engineering
- content creation
- digital education
Keywords
- AI
- summarization
- ChatGPT
- prompts
- digital education
- content summary
Mentioned in this episode
Organizations: Digital Digging, ChatGPT
Books & works: War and Peace
More episodes of Digital Digging
- Episode 9: From hidden data to insight: the power of vibecoding · January 17, 2026 · 13 min
- How Claude was weaponized by hackers · November 14, 2025 · 12 min
- Episode 7 of Podcast / How DeepSeek controls the conversation · January 29, 2025 · 21 min
- Claude VisualPDF: Why It’s a Big Deal · November 11, 2024 · 9 min
- The Shitification of Google · October 3, 2024 · 14 min
- Cracking cases through a delicate dance of human and machine · September 24, 2024 · 16 min
Explore listener stats, chart rankings, contacts and more on the Digital Digging podcast page.