Everyone’s talking about ChatGPT.
Perhaps the single most exciting chatbot technology to emerge since the dawn of conversational intelligence, ChatGPT marks the beginning of a new era in artificial intelligence. Even if you don’t consider yourself a technology buff, you’ve probably heard about ChatGPT by now.
Created by OpenAI, a major player in the AI industry, ChatGPT is currently making its way into various facets of the business world. Already market leaders in Unified Communications, Microsoft has invested strategically in the OpenAI platform and is currently rolling new functionality into tools like Bing, Viva Sales, and even Microsoft Teams Premium.
But what exactly is ChatGPT? How does it work, and what makes it different from the other AI algorithms that have fuelled business bots in previous years?
What is ChatGPT? An Introduction
So, what is ChatGPT?
Who better to ask than ChatGPT itself?
Here’s how ChatGPT describes itself:
“I’m ChatGPT, a large language model trained by OpenAI. I use state-of-the-art natural language processing techniques to generate human-like responses to text-based conversations. I’ve been trained on a vast corpus of text data and can answer various questions and engage in many different types of conversations. My primary goal is to assist users in finding answers to their questions and providing helpful information in a conversational manner.”
To put it simply, ChatGPT is a generative AI tool and chatbot designed to provide conversational responses to queries. The solution was designed by OpenAI, a research and deployment company committed to expanding the boundaries of artificial intelligence with the goal of benefiting humanity.
Built on top of OpenAI’s GPT-3 family of “large language models”, ChatGPT sorts through vast amounts of information in seconds to produce conversational, human-style responses to questions. ChatGPT doesn’t just generate basic answers to queries; it speaks in an engaging, human format, curating numerous data points into the most useful response it can muster.
How Does ChatGPT Work?
ChatGPT has become so effective at creating human responses to queries that it’s even left some users questioning whether it might be sentient. However, the algorithm works like any other computer program or AI system – through careful coding and training.
OpenAI trained the language model using Reinforcement Learning from Human Feedback. In other words, human trainers offered the model conversational data to teach it both how human beings speak and how it should respond to questions.
The technology builds on the foundations of OpenAI’s GPT-3 autoregressive language model. GPT stands for “Generative Pre-Trained Transformer” – a type of neural network machine learning model built using billions of data points from the internet.
GPT-3, first produced in 2020, uses deep learning algorithms to produce human-like text when given initial text as a response. ChatGPT’s technology is actually a slight step up from GPT-3, as it’s based on the next generation of the technology – GPT 3.5.
However, the concept is primarily the same.
ChatGPT might seem like it’s coming up with entirely creative responses to questions, but it’s actually just regurgitating information based on what it’s learned by interacting with billions of data points. Like many modern AI systems, ChatGPT is also constantly evolving. Professionals in the OpenAI team constantly evaluate the results generated by ChatGPT to finetune its responses.
What is ChatGPT Used For? Capabilities and Limitations
Fundamentally, ChatGPT is intended to be more than just a question-and-answer bot.
Users can leverage the algorithm to write essays and poems in a specific tone of voice. It can write basic computer programs and code, have philosophical conversations, and so much more. The technology can provide medical guidance, create recipes, and even provide project briefs.
Microsoft is currently embedding components of ChatGPT into Teams to help employees work more cohesively together in a hybrid environment. Within Teams, ChatGPT will be able to summarise meetings, respond rapidly to messages with personalised data, and more.
Currently, ChatGPT stands as one of the best examples of the potential Generative AI has to offer. It can instantly and efficiently produce information with very little initial input from a user. However, it’s far from infallible. Like any AI, ChatGPT is vulnerable to a number of issues, including bias and potential inaccuracies. Currently, it has relatively limited knowledge of the world after 2021, although this is something OpenAI is working to correct.
Additionally, it can occasionally generate inaccurate responses to questions. If users ask the system a very well-structured question, with the right guidance, they’ll have a good chance of getting an accurate response. However, a poorly articulated question can lead to confusing results.
What’s more, if a user asks the same question multiple times, they can end up with different answers. ChatGPT might be one of the most advanced chatbots we’ve seen, but it’s still a bot with the same limitations as any other.
How Do You Use ChatGPT?
While ChatGPT has benefits and limitations, just like any other artificial intelligence tool, it’s certainly an interesting development in the AI field. Used correctly, it can be beneficial. Already, it’s helping sales professionals on Viva Sales respond rapidly to messages via email with highly personalised content enhanced by CRM and Microsoft Graph insights.
It’s also currently free to access, even for users who don’t have a Microsoft account. All users need to do is open chat.openai.com and create an account, and they’ll be able to start experimenting with the service. There are rumours that a premium version of the software might be coming in the future. However, it’s difficult to say when they’ll emerge.
Once users have an account, all they need to do is enter a prompt into a text box, and the system will respond. There are even classes available right now to teach people how to use the bot more effectively.
Is ChatGPT the Future?
It’s difficult to say whether ChatGPT will become the yardstick by which all future bots are measured. However, for now, it’s definitely making waves in the AI ecosystem by showing just how human and conversational the right algorithms can be.
ChatGPT offers a fantastic insight into the power of generative AI technology, and countless businesses are already paying attention. In the future, ChatGPT could be the technology that inspires a new generation of communication, collaboration, and creativity tools.
