How can you directly influence ChatGPT to generate text with a more formal tone?

You can directly influence ChatGPT to generate text with a more formal tone through prompt engineering. This involves carefully crafting the prompt to include specific instructions and stylistic cues that guide the model towards using more formal language. For example, the prompt can explicitly request a formal tone by including phrases such as 'Please respond in a formal tone' or 'Provide a professional and courteous response.' Additionally, you can use vocabulary that is inherently formal and avoid colloquialisms, slang, or contractions in the prompt. Requesting that the response be suitable for a 'business report' or a 'scientific publication' can also signal to the model that a formal tone is required. For example, instead of asking 'Tell me about the weather', a prompt designed to elicit a formal response might be 'Please provide a detailed meteorological assessment of the current conditions, suitable for presentation to stakeholders.' The more specific and direct the instructions, the more likely the model is to adopt the desired tone.