What is ChatGPT and why does it matter? Here's everything you need to know

ChatGPT is a natural language processing tool driven by AI technology that allows you to have human-like conversations and much more with a chatbot. The language model can answer questions, assist you with tasks such as composing emails, essays and code. Usage is currently open to public free of charge because ChatGPT is in its research and feedback-collection phase. 

ChatGPT was created by OpenAI, an AI and research company. The company launched ChatGPT on November 30, 2022. OpenAI is also responsible for creating DALLE•2, a popular AI art generator, and Whisper, an automatic speech recognition system. 

It's certainly made a big splash. "ChatGPT is scary good. We are not far from dangerously strong AI," said Elon Musk, who was one of the founders of OpenAI before leaving. Sam Altman, OpenAI's chief, said on Twitter that ChatGPT had more than one million users in its first five days after launching. Altman told Musk the average cost of each response was in "single-digits cents" but admitted it will need to monetize it eventually because of its "eye-watering" compute costs. 

Also: ChatGPT is 'not particularly innovative,' and 'nothing revolutionary', says Meta's chief AI scientist

Altman also noted the buzz around ChatGPT in a tweet: "interesting to me how many of the ChatGPT takes are either "this is [artificial general intelligence] AGI" (obviously not close, lol) or "this approach can't really go that much further". trust the exponential. flat looking backwards, vertical looking forwards," he said.

You can access ChatGPT simply by visiting chat.openai.com and creating an OpenAI account. Once you sign in, you are able to start chatting away with ChatGPT. Get your conversation started by asking a question. Because ChatGPT is still in its research stage, it is free to use and you can ask as many questions as you'd like. 

ChatGPT is free to use at the moment because it is still in its research phase. Because of the stir its advanced capabilities have made, a lot of people are flocking to use it. The website operates using a server, and when too many people hop onto the server, it overloads and can't process your request. This doesn't mean you won't ever be able to access it. It just means you should try visiting the site at a later time when fewer people are trying to access it. You can also keep the tab open and just refresh it periodically. 

Also: Microsoft just made a huge investment in ChatGPT maker OpenAI. Here's why 

The model has many functions in addition to answering simple questions, such as composing essays, describing art in great detail, creating AI art prompts, having philosophical conversations, and it can even code for you. My personal favorite is asking the chatbot for help coming up with creative holiday gift ideas for specific family members. The possibilities are endless. 

Also: People are already trying to get ChatGPT to write malware

OpenAI trained the language model by using Reinforcement Learning from Human Feedback (RLHF), according to OpenAI. Human AI trainers provided the model with conversations in which they played both parts, the user and AI assistants. 

ChatGPT is a language model created with the purpose of holding a conversation with the end user. A search engine indexes web pages on the internet to help the user find the information they asked for. ChatGPT does not have the ability to search the internet for information. It uses the information it learned from training data to generate a response, which leaves room for error. 

Despite looking very impressive, ChatGPT still has limitations. Such limitations include the inability to answer questions that are worded a specific way, requiring rewording to understand the input question. A bigger limitation is a lack of quality in the responses it delivers -- which can sometimes be plausible-sounding but make no practical sense or can be excessively verbose. 

Lastly, 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. Already this has led developer question-and-answer site StackOverflow to at least temporarily ban ChatGPT-generated responses to questions.

Also: I tested out an AI art generator and here's what I learned

"The primary problem is that while the answers that ChatGPT produces have a high rate of being incorrect, they typically look like they might be good and the answers are very easy to produce," says Stack Overflow moderators in a post. Critics argue that these tools are just very good at putting words into an order that makes sense from a statistical point of view, but they cannot understand the meaning or know whether the statements it makes are correct.

Although some people are using ChatGPT for some really elaborate functions such as writing code or even malware, you can use ChatGPT for more mundane activities like having a friendly conversation. Some conversation starters could be as simple as, "I am hungry, what food should I get?" or as elaborate as, "What do you think happens in the afterlife?" Either way, ChatGPT is sure to have an answer for you. 

I spent an hour with a new, ChatGPT-inspired AI chatbot, and I may die laughing

People are expressing concerns about AI chatbots replacing or atrophying human intelligence. For example, the chatbot can write an article on any topic efficiently within seconds, potentially eliminating the need for a human writer. The chatbot can also write an entire full essay within seconds, making it easier for students to cheat or avoid learning how to write properly. This has led to some school districts blocking access to it. 

Also: The ChatGPT revolution? Microsoft seems to have very big plans for this AI chatbot

Another concern with the AI chatbot is the possible spread of misinformation. Since the bot is not connected to the internet, it could make mistakes in what information it shares. The bot itself says, "My responses are not intended to be taken as fact, and I always encourage people to verify any information they receive from me or any other source." OpenAI itself also notes that ChatGPT sometimes writes "plausible-sounding but incorrect or nonsensical answers."  

ChatGPT is an advanced chatbot that has the potential to make people's lives easier and to assist with everyday tedious tasks, such as writing an email or having to navigate the web for answers. However, there are certain technical details that have to be figured out before it's widely used to prevent negative outcomes, such as the spread of misinformation. In general, AI and ML models rely on lots of training and fine-tuning to reach a level of ideal performance. 

Also: ChatGPT's next big challenge: Helping Microsoft to challenge Google search

Does it mean that AI is taking over the world? Not yet, perhaps, but OpenAI's Altman certainly thinks that human-style intelligence in AI is now not that far off. Responding to Musk's comment about dangerously strong AI, Altman tweeted: "i agree on being close to dangerously strong AI in the sense of an AI that poses e.g. a huge cybersecurity risk. and i think we could get to real AGI in the next decade, so we have to take the risk of that extremely seriously too."

He also noted: "interesting watching people start to debate whether powerful AI systems should behave in the way users want or their creators intend. the question of whose values we align these systems to will be one of the most important debates society ever has."

Right now, ChatGPT remains a free service, but with its skyrocketing popularity, it is only a matter of time before it shifts over to a paid subscription model. In January, OpenAI announced on its Discord server that it may soon start charging for ChatGPT with a version called ChatGPT Professional. 

Also: OpenAI's ChatGPT is scary good at my job

OpenAI uploaded a waitlist for access to the pro service on Discord. The waitlist outlines that the new service would provide users with service that is always available (no blackout windows), fast responses from ChatGPT and unlimited messages. While the cost for this service has not been announced, one of the survey questions on the waitlist form asks what price per month the user would consider paying for ChatGPT Pro.