What Does ‘ChatGPT’ Stand For? Everything To Know About the AI That’s Growing at a Faster Pace Than TikTok and Instagram
This AI might make you think you are communicating with a human.
Artificial intelligence (AI) keeps getting, well, more intelligent. What used to be a thing of sci-fi is now being used more and more in our daily lives. We've become reliant on quick answers to all of our questions as well as immediate responses to our every command. Most of us are familiar with communicating with Alexa and Siri but now things have even stepped up a notch with ChatGPT. So, what is ChatGPT, exactly?
Like Alexa and Siri, ChatGPT was created to answer our questions. However, one main difference is that ChatGPT is more conversational. Although conversations are via typing, instead of voice, ChatGPT is able to admit mistakes and remember previous conversations. It allows you to carry on more of a back-and-forth conversation than you would experience with Alexa or Siri.
And, the advances that have been made with ChatGPT are a big deal. According to ZDNET, ChatGPT has become the fastest-growing app of all time. In the two months since its release, there are over 100 million active users. Plus, significant AI improvements have already been made—we have more details on the latest version, GPT-4, as well.
If you want to get in with the action or just learn more about what ChatGPT is all about, we have the answers to some of the most commonly asked questions.
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What Does the Name 'ChatGPT' Mean?
The name ChatGPT stands for Chat Generative Pre-trained Transformer. This latest GPT technology is based on a deep learning model that evaluates the importance of the words or phrases in each input. This, in turn, makes the model capable of understanding the context enough to provide an answer that is meaningful and clear.
What Is ChatGPT?
According to Techopedia, ChatGPT is a complex machine learning model that is able to generate language with such a high level of accuracy that testers wouldn't be able to tell if they were communicating with a human or a bot. It can answer questions and assist with tasks such as analyzing, classifying and translating.
Put simply, ChatGPT is an AI-driven tool that allows you to have human-like conversations, answer questions and assist you with tasks such as composing emails, essays and code.
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Who Is the Owner of ChatGPT?
ChatGPT is a chatbot that was developed by OpenAI. The company launched ChatGPT on Nov. 30, 2022.
How Was ChatGPT Trained?
The process used for training ChatGPT is called Reinforcement Learning from Human Feedback (RLHF). This means that ChatGPT's language is continually updated to ensure the most human-like response. A simple example is, if a chatbot makes a statement like "I am a chatbot," it would be trained to respond more human-like with something like "I'm an assistant."
The initial model was trained with information from the internet including news articles, books, websites and more. But, to make the responses more human-like and conversational, human AI trainers also put data into ChatGPT, such as providing conversation examples from both a user and an AI assistant.
How Does ChatGPT Work?
ChatGPT works by attempting to understand your prompt and then responding in a way that it predicts will best answer your question, based on the data it was trained on.
The model is pretty smart in areas where there is appropriate training data for it to learn from, but not smart enough to replace an actual person. It keeps track of the conversation's flow and uses previous questions and answers to help inform its responses.
Developers have trained ChatGPT to answer our typed questions in a conversational way. However, it goes much further than that. There are a variety of tasks that ChatGPT can do based on the data and training it has received. Here are some examples of tasks that it can do:
Provide answers to questions
Complete a phrase
Write both fiction and non-fiction based on prompts
Produce human-like chatbot responses
Automate content creation for social media
Generate computer code
Translate text into another language
Perform calculations
Summarize a given text
Translate business reports
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How To Get Access to ChatGPT
You can access ChatGPT simply by visiting OpenAI and creating an account. Once you create an account, you can start a conversation by simply asking a question.
There is a free version of ChapGPT, but with all of the people flocking to use it, the server sometimes overloads and isn't able to process requests. OpenAI's premium plan, ChatGPT Plus, allows you to get reliable access even during peak times for $20 a month.
Where Does ChatGPT Get Its Data?
ChatGPT data comes from a large variety of sources like Wikipedia, books, news articles and journals. However, the data is only as recent as 2021, so some of the information it generates may be outdated. This means that ChatGPT isn't always accurate.
Another problem is that ChatGPT usually is unable to correctly cite its sources since it doesn't know which specific source it's referencing for a piece of information.
What Are ChatGPT's Limitations?
Currently, there are some things that could be improved upon with ChatGPT's capabilities.
Instead of asking for clarification on ambiguous questions, the model just takes a guess at what your question means, which can lead to unintended responses to questions.
Responses are sometimes incorrect but look like they might be correct.
The data only goes up to 2021, so newer data is not learned/communicated.
What Are Some Concerns With ChatGPT?
Students may use ChatGPT to cheat or to write papers.
It may contribute to the spread of misinformation because of the inaccuracy of some responses.
ChatGPT has sparked concerns about human workers being displaced because of its ability to provide information and answers.
Some believe it may pose a cybersecurity risk.
What Is Chat-GPT Plus?
Chat-GPT Plus is a premium version of Chat-GPT that costs $20 a month to access.
According to OpenAI, the benefits of this version include:
General access to ChatGPT, even during peak times
Faster response times
Priority access to new features and improvements
What Is GPT-4?
"GPT-4 is more creative and collaborative than ever before. It can generate, edit, and iterate with users on creative and technical writing tasks, such as composing songs, writing screenplays, or learning a user’s writing style," according to OpenAI.
OpenAI took into account the feedback from the users of ChatGPT (which runs on a program known as GPT-3.5) while working on GPT-4. Besides making this version safer and more creative, GPT-4 is also "40% more likely to produce factual responses."
However, as Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, tweeted about this update: “It is still flawed, still limited, and it still seems more impressive on first use than it does after you spend more time with it."
GPT-4 Waitlist
Right now, there is a waitlist to gain access to GPT-4. During the gradual rollout of this version, OpenAI is prioritizing access to "developers to build applications and services."
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