ChatGPT – The New Chatbot Everyone is Talking About
OpenAI’s latest release that everyone is talking about, ChatGPT, has achieved such an incredible burst in popularity that it’s even got Google shaken up.
What is ChatGPT?
Released at the end of November last year, Chat Generative Pre-Trained Transformer (ChatGPT) has unlocked a whole new level of artificial intelligence. This new language processing tool can produce poems, write essays, and even help people to fix errors in lines of code – a huge benefit when it comes to software engineering! The chatbot is set to transform industries and the future of the workplace.
There is some competition between OpenAI and Google, both major players in AI, and rumour has it that ChatGPT has sparked some worry for Google.
How does ChatGPT work?
The chatbot is as easy to use as a search engine, a question or command can be typed in and the AI will instantly begin crafting its response. The basic version of ChatGPT is currently free to use and available to anyone, although it does have some restrictions and limited responses.
It is possible to upgrade to the ChatGPT Plus membership which bypasses wait times and gives priority access. With the application being so popular, there may be a queue for the free version at peak times so the upgrade can help to avoid this.
Created by OpenAI, the software has been trained and tweaked from one of their prior models. Generative Artificial Intelligence, like ChatGPT, is educated on information from across the web such as news articles and websites. This of course leaves room for factual error when there are so many unreliable sources on the internet.
Why is ChatGPT such a hit right now?
The insanely popular chatbot from OpenAI is reported to have received 13 million unique visitors per day in January, doubling the levels seen in December just weeks after release.
Swiss bank UBS estimate that ChatGPT reached 100 million monthly users throughout January, making it the fastest-growing consumer application in history! According to data, this statistic took TikTok nine months and Instagram two and a half years to achieve.
Elon Musk, one of the founders of OpenAI, prior to his departure from the company stated that “ChatGPT is scary good. We are not far from dangerously strong AI.”
Refined though Reinforcement Learning from Human Feedback, AI trainers were able to provide the bot with two-part conversations, according to OpenAI. Making the bot unique with the ability to converse in a way that would have you believe you were speaking with a real person.
Concerns about ChatGPT
Although it’s been quick to impress, some serious pitfalls have already been highlighted.
One of the biggest concerns is that the bot generates incorrect answers, and many people across social media have attested to this saying that the bot cannot even answer basic math questions correctly. This can especially be a concern in the case of someone asking the bot for medical advice.
However, OpenAI are aware of this limitation. ChatGPT constructs every answer word by word instead of apps such as Siri who will browse the web and present you with the sources. So, although the chat is great at arguing its point – the point might not always be correct, at least not yet.
Over the years, job roles have massively changed thanks to technological advancements. AI technology can be a brilliant way to make learning more accessible, an easy way for businesses to create unique artwork, or help companies with their customer services. The downside to all of this is that more jobs could be taken away from humans and handed over to robots.
Endless headlines prophesise the end of professions in fields such as media, law and education. Even for wealth management services there is a threat. In an experiment where the chatbot was asked to construct an investment portfolio, ChatGPT was able to compose one and respond within seconds. Right now, humans are still needed to moderate the chatbots unreliable suggestions however in years to come, future models could tell a different story. If you are looking for up to date advice on financial planning and wealth management, do not hesitate to contact us today.
ChatGPT can also write assignments, proofread, and improve essays. It is a worry that high school students could take advantage of this software instead of learning and putting in the work themselves. Potentially leading to lower cognitive development. Who knows the potential harm this could bring to future generations.
So, what is next?
Regardless of the negatives, ChatGPT is just the beginning. All these points can be seen as good or bad for several reasons. While one person may gain, another may be left out of a job. And while there might be benefits at present, the future could be detrimental.
Undeniably, it is incredible that this technology can exist in the modern world. But do we really want robots taking over every aspect of human life?
