By Martin Stut, 2023-09-23

Install GPT4All and let it rewrite your text by choosing a suitable model and prompt, as demonstrated in this article. (Updated for GPT4All 2.5.2 2023-11-24)

Issue

You speak and write some English, but not near native quality. But you need to publish English texts, even if just as a chat message to a team. You can’t run each chat message by a native speaker friend, because they have lots of other things to do. So you are looking for machine help.

Solution

Let AI do the job. AI is said to be occasionally hallucinating about facts and conclusions, but it’s good about grammar and spelling. So you create the content and AI can adjust the words.

Someone said, “AI is like a parrot and a text mechanic.” That’s what I’m trying to use it for. Comparable to a pocket calculator in Mathematics. Not a supercomputer or Wolfram Alpha, but a pocket calculator.

Tool

Because your content may not be public, eg. intended for an internal message within your organization, you cannot use online services like Grammarly. Therefore, you must utilize a locally running AI. A colleague pointed me to GPT4All.io . Their smaller models run on computers with as little as 8 GB of RAM, while the larger models require 16 GB. You don’t need a GPU; the standard CPU of your desktop/notebook computer is sufficient. GPT4All supports all major operating systems: Linux, Mac, Windows.

Initial one-time Setup

Download GPT4All app

  1. Point your web browser to gpt4all.io
  2. Download the installer for your operating system type (Windows, Mac, Ubuntu). Ubuntu should also work for Debian, Mint and other Debian-derived systems.
  3. Install the downloaded package on your computer.
  4. Select “no” to the Opt-in questions (after all, you are doing this to keep things confidential).

Download Models

Note: Do this when you have good, unmetered Internet connectivity. The models are approximately 3-8 gigabytes each to download.

  1. Start GPT4All
  2. In the top left corner, click on the “Burger” icon (three horizontal lines).
  3. In the lower left corner, click on “Downloads”.
  4. Identify the line of the “Mistral Instruct” model.
  5. In the right corner of the model’s line, click on the “Download” button. Wait until about 4.1 gigabytes have downloaded.

If you want to experiment with other models, repeat step 6.

If you want to download only one model, choose “Mistral Instruct”.

Configure the App to Speed Up Your Text Checking Workflow

  1. Start GPT4All
  2. In the upper right corner, click on the gear icon. A Settings window opens.
  3. In the left pane, make sure the “Models” tab is selected. The header of the main pane is now “Model/Character Settings”.
  4. In the Model/Character line, select “Mistral Instruct”
  5. Click on “Clone”
  6. Edit the “Unique Name” field to something like “Mistral Instruct Grammar Checker”
  7. Edit the Prompt Template field to read (Please ensure that the prompt text is a single line. Although I divided the lines to improve readability, doing so has resulted in poorer outcomes.) :
[INST]Please correct any grammatical or spelling errors in this text
while staying as close to the original content as possible.
Do not consider the context when making your corrections
and only provide the revised version.

%1 [/INST]
  1. Close the Settings and the GPT4All Chat app

Daily Use

  1. Open the GPT4All App
  2. In the top center, select your newly configured Model, e.g. “Mistral Instruct Grammar Checker”
  3. In the lower “Send a message” field, enter your sentence and click on the arrow in the right side.
  4. Check the output. If you believe that the AI output can be improved, or if you simply wish to view a different version, click on the ‘Regenerate response’ button.

To check another sentence or paragraph, just repeat from step 3.

Conclusion

GPT4All can help you improve your English communication by providing grammar and spelling corrections for your written text. This tool uses artificial intelligence to identify errors in your writing and suggest corrected versions. You can use this app daily as a part of your writing routine.