ChatGPT is an artificial intelligence (AI)-powered chatbot designed to simulate natural human conversation. This is a project of OpenAI, an artificial intelligence research company also responsible for the DALL-E artificial intelligence art generator.
ChatGPT is an AI language model that can answer questions and generate text based on prompts. It is built on a generative machine learning model, which means it is given a large data set of information and trained to create new text based on the original information.
It's also a natural language AI, which means you can interact with it like you would talk to a human and it will react in the same way. It runs on OpenAI's servers and you can access it through a web browser.
It can conduct conversations, answer questions, summarize and condense text, translate between many different languages, and even analyze text for emotional subtext. It has a considerable knowledge base and can answer questions on a variety of topics and even write and debug computer code.
ChatGPT is built by OpenAI, a research company dedicated to developing and experimenting with artificial intelligence systems. In addition to ChatGPS, OpenAI has many other artificial intelligence projects underway.
The most notable of their other projects is DALL-E, an artificial intelligence capable of generating artwork based on textual prompts. They've also built a speech recognition system called Whisper, an algorithm that generates music called Jukebox, and even a team of video game bots that successfully defeated Dota 2, a five-on-five MOBA. Human players.
OpenAI launched ChatGPT on November 30, 2022, but it is built on the earlier generative pre-trained (GPT) model that OpenAI has been working on since 2018. The version released in November 2022 is a prototype intended for training and feedback, which is why OpenAI is freely available to the public.
OpenAI released the paid version ChatGPT Pro in February 2023. This premium version does not replace the free version, which is still available. The Professional Edition provides access to new features and also gives paying users priority over server resources.
While free users can still use the service, they will receive a "full" error message whenever too many people try to use ChatGPT. Subscribers can bypass this message because their requests are prioritized.
The latest version is Chat-GPT 4o, released in May 2024. This version returns results faster (320 milliseconds on average, which OpenAI claims is similar to human response times).
ChatGPT may not have any direct impact on your daily life right away, but AI systems like this will have widespread impact in the future. However, you can now use it in a number of different ways. You can ask it questions, have conversations, ask it to help you write emails and other documents, and even find bugs in your computer code.
One way ChatGPT may have affected you is in the way others use it. For example, a colleague or acquaintance may have used ChatGPT to compose an email and then send it to you as if they had written it themselves.
If you are a teacher, you will also want to keep an eye out for papers and other assignments written by ChatGPT.
ChatGPT is also useful as a secondary tool, rather than just doing work for the user. For example, you can ask it to provide a creative prompt or title to start telling a story, simplify a complex topic to help you understand it, or even write a prompt that can be used with the AI art generator.
Even if you don't plan to use ChatGPT yourself, it may eventually be integrated into other services you use.
For example, Microsoft has integrated artificial intelligence technology into its Bing search engine and developed its own version called Copilot. This integration allows search engines to answer questions in natural language and perform many of the other functions ChatGPT is known for, rather than simply returning web search results.
You can try ChatGPT for yourself on ChatGPT's site, but free accounts have limited server access. If too many people try to use it at the same time, you will see an error message and be given the opportunity to provide your email address. If you enter your email address, OpenAI will notify you when server congestion is low.
You need an account to use ChatGPT, but if the servers are crowded, you won't see the sign-up option. In this case, you can go directly to ChatGPT's registration page to register.
To start using ChatGPT, you need to create an account or log in using an existing OpenAI account. You can use the same account for all OpenAI services, so if you have used DALL-E in the past, you can use that account directly. A basic account is free, but a premium ChatGPT Plus account gives you early access to new features for $20 per month.
After registering and logging in, you can use ChatGPT simply by typing in any question you want answered. You can format your question or prompt as if you were talking to another human being and it will understand. It also remembers your previous questions and their previous answers, so you can ask it to rephrase the answer or elaborate, and it can do that.
ChatGPT can do a lot of different things, and it can even give you an overview of its various features if you ask. If you're excited to start using ChatGPT but aren't quite sure how to use it, here are some of its most important features:
- Conversation : ChatGPT is a chatbot in that it conducts a conversation as if there is another person on the other end of the connection. You can talk about a variety of topics, from current events to philosophy.
- Answer questions : If you ask a question, ChatGPT will answer it. You can ask about current events, history, science, and a variety of other topics, but AI generally won't make guesses, especially of real people.
- Generate text : You can ask ChatGPT to generate text in a specific style or format, such as writing a poem, article, or email. You specify the theme, style, subject matter, and other factors and it fills in the rest.
- Translation : If you enter a piece of text within quotes, you can ask ChatGPT to translate it into other languages.
- Simplify : ChatGPT will compress or simplify long, complex paragraphs for you.
A chatbot is a computer program that interacts (usually text-based) with basic questions and other text input. Recently, chatbots have become quite sophisticated and can respond to many more topics than in the past. Chatbots are a form of artificial intelligence, but they must rely on the information they collect rather than new ideas generated by a program.
Artificial Intelligence (or AI) is software designed to imitate human thinking. While some of what has been created is impressive, it's not as complex as what humans already have. If you're interested in learning more, we have an article on the four types of artificial intelligence and artificial intelligence vs. machine learning.
