Jan 12, 2023
by Aisha

Since its launch in November 2022, there has been a lot of buzz about ChatGPT. This "smart chat" invention of artificial intelligence has left even the most skeptical people surprised.

What is ChatGPT?

A form of generative language model is referred to as "ChatGPT," and its name comes from its acronym. In actual use, however, it is considered to be an artificial intelligence chat system that has been designed to hold conversations that are remarkably lifelike. OpenAI is a research company that was created in 2015 in San Francisco by Sam Altman, Elon Musk, Greg Brockman, Ilya Sutskever, and Wojciech Zaremba. OpenAI's headquarters are located in the city.

Answering questions, resolving arithmetic equations, producing texts, debugging and repairing code, translating between languages, summarizing literature, giving recommendations, classifying things, and describing what something does, such as a code block, are just a few examples of its many applications. Because it has so many different uses, it has the potential to simplify many aspects of people's lives.

Purpose of ChatGPT

Unlike a lot of people, you can use ChatGPT for numerous reasons besides just asking questions. A few of these reasons are listed below:

  • Texts of varying lengths, formats, and languages can all be generated with GPT's help. In addition, you can make summaries of news articles, descriptions of products, or even complete stories.
  • Because of this, issues may be broken down, and either solutions or answers to concerns can be conceived of and developed.
  • You are able to generate material for productivity programs such as reports, emails, and other information using GPT.
  • It is possible to utilize it to create engaging posts and messages for use on social networking sites.
  • It is possible to perform analysis on enormous data sets and derive useful information from those analyses.

ChatGPT Mechanism

The acronym GPT indicates generative pre-training transformer; GPT is actually a generative language that is based upon the transformer architecture. These models can learn to effectively complete natural language processing tasks and process vast amounts of text. With 175 billion parameters, the GPT-3 model is the largest language model to date. GPT must be "trained" on a massive corpus of text before it can function well. The GPT-3 model, for instance, read over 8 million documents and processed over 10 billion words during its training phase. The model picks up the ability to do NLP tasks and produce grammatically correct and logical prose from this data. As we've shown, if the model is properly trained, GPT can be put to work in a variety of contexts. Training was conducted using reinforcement learning, which is based on human input. In the end, human AI trainers were used in supervised fine-tuning to offer the interactions, during which they played the roles of both the user and the AI assistant. The mentors also received notes of advice to use in drafting their proposals. They combined this fresh dataset with the conversant InstructGPT dataset.

Creating a reward model for reinforcement learning

Acquiring baseline information was a prerequisite. There were two or more potential responses from the model, and they were sorted in order of quality. To gather this information, researchers randomly sampled interactions between trainers and ChatGPT. They tried out several conclusions for the coaches to rate.

Therefore, proximal policy optimization could be used to fine-tune these reward models. The trainings were also executed on a supercomputer running the Microsoft Azure platform. Finally, text is the input given to the model when using GPT in a chat. A query or a sentence providing context can both serve as this input. GPT takes this information as input and outputs a clear and relevant response. Actually, you can use this answer in a chatbot or any other program where it's important to produce text based on user input.

The concept of "transformer-based"

The type of data processing that is applied to a series of elements, like sentences or characters in a word, is called "transformation." On the other hand, transformers are types of models for machine learning that make use of transformation in order to handle a series of elements. 

The transformers are built on an architecture that relies on attention, a method that lets the model focus on specific sub-sequences of the input at various points in the processing. Therefore, the transformers can perform better in their information processing and NLP duties. An example of a generative language model built on the transformer framework is GPT (Generative Pre-Training Transformer). This implies that the model is designed to employ transformations and pay close attention to how elements in sequences, such as words in a phrase, are processed. This architecture has completely changed the way that many NLP jobs are performed because of how efficiently they can now be completed.

How do I use ChatGPT?

It is necessary to have access to the OpenAI API in order to use ChatGPT. Using a string of text as a prompt, the ChatGPT model can be used after obtaining an API key. After being trained, the model will produce an answer based on the data it has been given.

Steps to use ChatGPT

  • Open "openai.com" and create an account (if you already have one, just log in directly).
  • Click on ChatGPT on the bottom left.
  • Click "try it now" at chat.openai.com.
  • Enter the query you want to resolve in the input box at the bottom.

A ChatGPT App

ChatGPT's text-based conversational structure would make it fantastic software for smartphones, but it's not available on Apple's iOS or Google's Android just yet.

Benefits of ChatGPT

  • Large size: ChatGPT is a vast language model that was educated using a huge database of text. As a result, the model can produce natural-sounding responses to a wide variety of NLP tasks with a high degree of accuracy.
  • Human-like responses: It is possible for ChatGPT to produce responses that are not only incredibly topical to the question being asked but also display a level of knowledge and comprehension that is comparable to that of a person. Because of this, the paradigm is particularly useful for the production of new material as well as the translation of current information.
  • Adaptability: ChatGPT's adaptability makes it suitable for a variety of uses. You can use the model to produce appropriate responses to questions in an online forum, for instance.
  • Versatility: ChatGPT is a flexible program that can be put to use in many different linguistic processing scenarios. ChatGPT is a tool that can help you easily and rapidly generate high-quality text responses, whether you're a developer making a chatbot or a content creator seeking ideas.

Limitations of ChatGPT

  • Data dependence: the model of machine learning ChatGPT was taught using a vast data trove consisting of textual information. As a consequence of this, the level of precision and precision of the model's responses will be dependent on the quantity, variety, and quality of the data that was used throughout the process of training the model. If the model is not trained on a dataset that is sufficiently broad and diverse, there is a possibility that it will produce findings that are not acceptable or accurate.
  • Limitation in understanding: while ChatGPT may provide natural-sounding responses to prompts, it lacks human-level global knowledge and deductive reasoning skills. This means the model can struggle to come up with answers to abstract or complicated queries or to grasp the full significance of a given stimulus.
  • Bias: chatGPT, like other machine learning models, may occasionally provide biased answers. This can happen if the model is biased due to being trained on skewed or non-representative data or if its algorithms are flawed. Therefore, it is important for ChatGPT users to be conscious of the possibility of bias in the model's replies and to take measures to counteract it.
  • Chances of error: even an artificial intelligence-based model can make mistakes due to its technical limitations. However, the following steps can be employed to try and resolve any problem:
  • Log in from a different browser.
  • Try to refresh the login page.
  • Open the "OpenAI server" to check the current maintenance report.
  • If all these do not work, click on "ChatGPT Error Solution."

The world’s reaction to ChatGPT

Positive reception

The New York Times called ChatGPT "the best artificial intelligence chatbot ever released to the general public" when it was first introduced in December 2022. British journalist Samantha Lock of The Guardian praised its ability to produce "impressively detailed" and "human-like" text. After using ChatGPT to complete a student assignment, technology journalist Dan Gillmor concluded that "academia has some very significant difficulties to tackle" because the generated content was on par with what a decent student would deliver. When asked about Nazi Germany, ChatGPT users responded to claims like "Adolf Hitler built highways in Germany" with facts about the regime's use of forced labor, which earned praise from Slate contributor Alex Kantrowitz. Among "the generative-AI eruption" that "may transform our perspective about how we work, think, and what human creativity truly is," Derek Thompson placed ChatGPT in The Atlantic's "Breakthroughs of the Year" for 2022.

Criticism

Economist Paul Krugman predicted that the demand for knowledge workers would be impacted by ChatGPT in a December 2022 opinion essay. James Vincent of The Verge thought that the widespread interest in ChatGPT proved that AI had entered the mainstream. The tendency of ChatGPT to "hallucinate" has been noted by the press. Mike Pearl of Mashable put ChatGPT through its paces by asking it a series of tests. When he was looking for "the largest country in Central America that isn't Mexico," he queried ChatGPT. The correct answer is Nicaragua; however, ChatGPT gave the wrong one involving Guatemala. CNBC requested the words to "The Ballad of Dwight Fry," but ChatGPT instead sent completely made-up lyrics. The Australian Institute of Machine Learning's Professor Anton Van Den Hengel and other researchers were described by The Verge as likening ChatGPT to a "stochastic parrot."

Conclusion

This latest technology has received a lot of attention since its launch. However, people did not hold back from addressing and criticizing its limitations and disadvantages. Keeping the pros and cons aside, the invention of ChatGPT shows the advancements of AI technology today and prepares people to expect the unexpected in the future too.