by Internet is being completely overtaken by ChatGPT.
OpenAI, a research company specializing in artificial intelligence (AI), made the platform publicly available on December 1.
It was an instant success, with millions asking the chatbot for help with tasks including their homework, party ideas, scheduling, and simplifying long text documents, essays, and complicated topics.
Within two months, ChatGPT had jumped to 100 million users, passing university exams and scaring the teachers by the way.
The success of the chatbot has sparked a renewed AI race into big tech to create the next great chatbot. Google is ready to release its own rival ChatGPT that could help drive more direct answers on Google Search. While Microsoft has taken advantage of its OpenAI status investor to add ChatGPT skills to your business and workplace services, including Teams and your Bing search engine.
Here is everything you need to know about the viral chatbot.
What is GPT Chat?
ChatGPT is a chatbot that can answer your questions using its AI knowledge bank to spit out text responses. It is designed in such a way that users can receive jargon-free and technical answers based on their inputs.
Its creator OpenAI is an independent research body founded by Elon Musk and sam altman in 2015.
The AI-powered chatbot is available to the public for free on the OpenAI website as part of a public testing phase that began in December.
The key difference between ChatGPT and other AI chatbots is that the platform can answer follow-up questions, admit its mistakes, challenge incorrect premises, and reject inappropriate requests.
You can even review and write code in seconds and solve complex math problems.
How does ChatGPT work?
ChatGPT is a free service, but only during the research preview. This means that one can simply head over to OpenAI website and click the “Try ChatGPT” button to start using the platform.
You can sign up or use your OpenAI account to start using ChatGPT. However, due to continued demand, you may be forced to wait in line to use the bot during peak periods.
The platform is not free from bugs or limitations: the website reveals that ChatGPT occasionally creates responses that sound plausible, inaccurate, or nonsensical.
It also can’t provide up-to-date information, as the data it trained on covers events up to 2021. This means it’s completely unaware of everything that happened after that time, according to OpenAI. For example, you may not know who the president of the United States is, what the latest viral meme is, or what day it is, the company adds.
OpenAI says it reviews people’s conversations with the bot to make it smarter. You can rate your responses by using the thumbs up or down buttons to leave comments. Those concerned about privacy can request to have their account deleted, which will result in their data being deleted entirely.
Is ChatGPT free?
As mentioned above, ChatGPT is currently free to use during its trial period.
However, OpenAI has launched a new subscription plan in the US for $20/month. ChatGPT Plus, as it is known, is currently available by invitation only to those who have signed up to join the waiting list. It includes benefits like 24/7 access to the bot, even during peak hours, faster response times, and priority access to new features and enhancements.
OpenAI has said that the premium plan will allow it to continue providing free access to ChatGPT.
Can ChatGPT overthrow Google Search?
At the time of writing, no, because Google is a search engine and ChatGPT is a chatbot.
The main goal of ChatGPT is to use natural language processing technology to simulate human-like conversations with users, whereas Google is designed to search for information on the Internet. Although ChatGPT can tell you how our galaxy formed, it won’t know what time your local Tesco closes, for example.
However, both platforms have one thing in common: they serve the same purpose, which is to help users with answers to a variety of questions.
So ChatGPT could eventually help you navigate the web by getting direct answers to your queries, instead of forcing you to navigate through endless search results. That’s why Microsoft is reportedly adding it to its overlooked Bing search engine.
Not to be outdone, Google promises to let the public play with its latest AI language model as part of its search engine, known as LaMDA. Short for Language Models for Dialog Apps, Google has said the technology can understand millions of topics and generate “natural” responses to questions.
So far, only select employees and members of the public have been able to test the bot. But that could be about to change, as Google reportedly plans to unveil a public version that some suggest could appear at an event on February 8.
