What is ChatGPT? Explained by Digimagg

What is ChatGPT?

ChatGPT, developed by OpenAI, is an AI chatbot proficient in conversing with humans and producing diverse text outputs, such as recipes, code, essays, and letters. It can assess writing, summarize lengthy documents, and translate text. The premium version of ChatGPT includes additional functionalities like image and voice inputs and integration with other OpenAI tools like DALL-E, the image generator.

How does ChatGPT work?

ChatGPT harnesses the power of a vast neural network language model trained on extensive internet data, including Wikipedia entries and scholarly papers. When presented with input, such as a partially completed sentence, ChatGPT predicts the most likely next word based on context, akin to auto-complete. This predictive process unfolds progressively, from individual words to sentences, paragraphs, and entire pages of text.

To process immense volumes of online content and generate text responses, ChatGPT relies on transformer architecture, denoted by the "T" in its name.

Moreover, the language models within ChatGPT are specifically tailored for dialogue and were honed using reinforcement learning from human feedback (RLHF). This methodology incorporates human input during training to enhance alignment with user intent, resulting in more natural-sounding conversations.

Sam Stone, the director of product management, pricing, and data products at Opendoor, a real estate tech firm, highlighted how RLHF integrates human judgment into the model training process. This not only aids in determining optimal outputs but also enhances the training regimen, leading to more effective question answering capabilities.

Who created ChatGPT?

OpenAI, headquartered in San Francisco, introduced ChatGPT on November 30, 2022.

Established in 2015, OpenAI was co-founded by prominent figures such as business magnate Elon Musk and former Y Combinator President Sam Altman, along with other entrepreneurs. Noteworthy investors include Microsoft, Thrive Capital, Reid Hoffman, Peter Thiel, and Jessica Livingston, Y Combinator's founding partner.

Before ChatGPT, OpenAI rolled out various products, including Whisper, an automatic speech recognition software, and DALL-E, an AI art generator creating images from text prompts.

Initially conceived as a non-profit with a mission to advance artificial intelligence for the broader benefit of humanity, unbounded by profit motives, OpenAI evolved into a "capped profit" corporation in 2019, while still maintaining its non-profit activities.

What can ChatGPT do?

ChatGPT has demonstrated significant practicality, especially within business contexts, and its impact on the everyday internet user's experience has been profound, as noted by Raghu Ravinutala, co-founder and CEO of customer experience startup Yellow.ai.

"We've witnessed its effects already," Ravinutala shared with Built In. "And I believe we can expect even greater advancements as this technology continues to evolve and gain wider acceptance."

Generating Content

ChatGPT is one of many AI content generators tackling the art of the written word — whether that be a news article, press release, college essay or sales email.

All a user has to do is hop on ChatGPT and type in a quick prompt. If they want to create a blog post about the health benefits of sweet potatoes, they just need to type in “Write an article about the benefits of sweet potatoes.” The model will then generate a draft that the user can edit and refine as needed.

Refine, Interpret, and Condense Text

ChatGPT offers versatility beyond content creation, including text translation, summarization, sentence completion, dialogue generation, and more. It can also be tailored for specific purposes like legal or medical documents by training the model on domain-specific data.

Code Generation

ChatGPT possesses the ability not just to create functional computer code across various programming languages, but also to translate and debug code. Its extensive training allows it to access a vast amount of documentation, enabling it to generate code swiftly and offer detailed explanations. Some developers have even utilized ChatGPT to develop applications, like a spreadsheet assistant adept at executing intricate calculations based on straightforward commands.

Respond to Inquiries

ChatGPT functions akin to a search engine, albeit with a twist. Instead of generating a list of websites, it furnishes users with concise answers directly. For instance, queries such as "What attractions should I visit during my upcoming trip to Paris?" or "What gift suggestions are suitable for Father's Day?" yield responses directly from ChatGPT. Additionally, individuals have sought guidance on matters like relationships and financial advice from ChatGPT.

Assistance with Client Support

ChatGPT and similar conversational AI models have garnered significant attention in the customer service sector, providing a means to automate responses to customer inquiries instead of relying solely on human representatives. Ravinutala suggested that sizable language models such as ChatGPT can aid customer experience companies in automating service interactions, enabling them to gain deeper insights into user intent and tailor responses accordingly. He also mentioned that Yellow.ai’s sales team has already started leveraging ChatGPT for crafting emails to customers, with human intervention for minor adjustments as required.

How to access ChatGPT?

You can also use ChatGPT through a mobile application available on iOS and Android devices. Simply download the ChatGPT app from the App Store for iPhone and iPad or from Google Play for Android. 

To get started, you'll need to create an OpenAI account and agree to the terms of service. After that, you can begin using ChatGPT right away.

Is ChatGPT free?

ChatGPT is offered free of charge, but individuals seeking enhanced features can opt for a subscription-based version named ChatGPT Plus, which is available for $20 per month.

With ChatGPT Plus, for $20/month, users gain access to:

• ChatGPT availability even during peak server loads.
• Quicker response times.
• Priority access to new features and enhancements.
• The capability to generate images using DALL-E.

Constraints of ChatGPT

Although possessing notable strengths, ChatGPT is not flawless. It exhibits limitations, particularly concerning inaccuracies and biases.

 Inexact data

ChatGPT's dependence on online data renders it susceptible to misinformation, thus impacting the accuracy of its responses. This susceptibility often results in what experts refer to as "hallucinations," where the output is linguistically sound but factually erroneous.

These hallucinations pose significant challenges, especially when ChatGPT is employed in tasks such as news article composition, historical inquiries, or healthcare guidance. For instance, a New York lawyer inadvertently cited six nonexistent court decisions in a client's personal injury case by relying on ChatGPT.

Rather than seeking clarification or admitting uncertainty, ChatGPT tends to speculate on the meaning of ambiguous questions and provide answers accordingly. Due to its proficiency in articulating incorrect information, detecting and managing fallacies becomes challenging.

Consequently, ChatGPT has faced considerable criticism. Ravinutala emphasized the experimental nature of ChatGPT's functionality, highlighting the inability to wholly rely on its results.

Partial responses

ChatGPT is also prone to generating biased outcomes. While it's commonly understood that not all information found on the internet is reliable, biases such as racism, sexism, and various prejudices proliferate online, leaving it to the individual to discern their credibility. However, ChatGPT lacks this discernment capability. Despite the guardrails implemented by OpenAI to mitigate biases, the chatbot still exhibits a tendency to allow biases, both subtle and overt, to influence its outputs.

Stone remarked, "There are historical associations that these statistically driven models may pick up on, but projecting these associations into the future can be perilous, especially if we're uncertain about their implications. We need to exercise extreme caution."

Employment disruption

Professionals in writing and marketing across various sectors express concerns about the potential for ChatGPT and other AI writers to jeopardize their jobs.

However, Stone remains optimistic, stating, "When technology enhances people's productivity, it typically leads to increased employment." He draws parallels to the impact of inventions like personal computers and the internet on office workers' productivity. Stone suggests that technologies such as ChatGPT will function as tools rather than substitutes for many professionals. "We'll utilize language models to assist in drafting initial versions and brainstorming. However, the expertise of domain professionals will persist in refining and improving the output beyond what a model alone can achieve."

Plagiarism

ChatGPT's remarkable writing capabilities have stirred some controversy. Educators fear that students may exploit it for academic dishonesty, leading certain schools to entirely restrict access to the platform.

ChatGPT 4 vs. ChatGPT

In March 2023, OpenAI introduced GPT-4, a highly anticipated language model set to serve as the foundational engine for ChatGPT moving forward. This new model is multimodal, meaning it can process both images and text inputs, albeit it generates only text as output.

GPT-4 exhibits significantly improved performance compared to its predecessor, GPT-3.5, which formerly powered ChatGPT. OpenAI subjected the newer model to a comprehensive array of professional and academic benchmark tests. While GPT-4 demonstrated "human-level performance" in several scenarios, it still fell short of human capabilities in many instances, according to OpenAI.

For instance, in a simulated bar exam, GPT-4 achieved a performance level within the top 10 percent of test-takers, whereas GPT-3.5 scored in the bottom 10 percent. Additionally, OpenAI asserts that GPT-4 generally provides more reliable responses than GPT-3.5, offering factual answers that adhere to the guardrails designed to prevent biased outputs and other issues.

However, akin to GPT-3.5 and similar systems, GPT-4 is not without flaws. It remains susceptible to generating fabricated information, and there's still a possibility of eliciting biased or inappropriate language from the model.

Despite its advancements, much remains undisclosed about GPT-4. OpenAI has revealed limited details about the model's size and has kept information about the extent of its training data confidential, citing competitive and safety concerns.

The Future of ChatGPT

ChatGPT sparked what some analysts describe as a race among technology companies to develop advanced AI technology and introduce top-tier AI chatbots to the market.

Following the success of ChatGPT, Microsoft launched a revamped version of its search engine, Bing, alongside an AI chatbot (powered by GPT-4) in February 2023. Not to be outdone, Google unveiled its own AI chatbot, Gemini, in March 2023.

Ultimately, OpenAI aims to achieve artificial general intelligence (AGI), where machines can perform tasks and exhibit behaviors akin to humans. "We are very much here to build AGI," stated co-founder and CEO Altman in an interview with StrictlyVC.

However, as of now, "this technology is remarkable, but it's still in its early stages," noted tech industry analyst Kagan, drawing a comparison between ChatGPT and the Ford Model T in the automotive industry. "It was a groundbreaking innovation, but it pales in comparison to what we have today."