What Is ChatGPT and How Does It Work?
By Joe Fedewa – May 7, 2024
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Who Created ChatGPT?
How Does ChatGPT Work?
How to Use ChatGPT
Why Is ChatGPT Important?
ChatGPT is far from the only AI chatbot on the block these days, but it might be the
most well-known. In a short time, ChatGPT has evolved quite a bit. Here's where
ChatGPT came from, who made it, and how it works.
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Who Created ChatGPT?
ChatGPT was created by OpenAI. OpenAI is an artificial intelligence research
laboratory that consists of OpenAI Inc, a non-profit, and Open AI Limited Partnership
(OpenAI LP), a for-profit subsidiary.
OpenAI created GPT—the first version of what would eventually become ChatGPT—
in 2018. GTP-2 and GPT-3 were released in subsequent years, followed by ChatGPT
in 2022.
Beyond ChatGPT, OpenAI also created the image generator DALL-E and a video
generator called Sora. The overall goal of OpenAI is to develop "friendly AI" that
benefits humanity. The founders of OpenAI include Elon Musk, Peter Thiel, Sam
Altman, Reid Hoffman, Jessica Livingston, and Ilya Sutskever.
How Does ChatGPT Work?
OpenAI
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ChatGPT is an AI model that uses deep learning to generate human-like text based
on prompts from users like you. It works by predicting the next word in a given text,
based on the patterns it has learned from a massive amount of data during its
training process.
The training process is where the "magic" happens. OpenAI feeds ChatGPT with a
vast amount of text data. ChatGPT then uses that data to try to predict what the
next word should be based on the examples it was given. OpenAI evaluates those
predictions and makes adjustments. That process is repeated over and over again
many times.
Eventually, ChatGPT reached a point where its predictions were good enough to
generate human-like responses. However, it's important to know ChatGPT is not
constantly training. ChatGPT is not up to date on current events. At the time of
writing in May 2024, the dataset of ChatGPT 3.5 only goes up to January 2022, and
the cut-off is December 2023 for ChatGPT 4.
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Link copied Use ChatGPT
Using ChatGPT is very straightforward. It really is as easy as having a text
conversation with a friend. You'll first need to go to chat.openai.com in a web
browser or open the app on your iPhone, iPad, or Android device. You can create an
account or use it in a limited capacity without one.
Once you're in, type a prompt in the text box at the bottom of the screen. You can
ask a question or give it a request, like "Write a short story about a dog named
Clarence." Press the arrow icon to submit.
ChatGPT's response will appear in real-time as if it's a person typing. When it's done,
you can hear it read aloud, copy to your clipboard, regenerate, or submit it as a bad
response.
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Each prompt starts a conversation thread. ChatGPT will remember what you're
talking about, so you can enter follow-up prompts or change the subject entirely.
That's a brief overview of how easy it is to use. Check out our full walkthrough on
using ChatGPT for some extra tips. Essentially, treat the conversation like you would
with another person. No matter how confident ChatGPT sounds, it can very often be
wrong.
Why Is ChatGPT Important?
The big question a lot of people have about ChatGPT is why does it matter? We've
already seen the huge wave of AI image generators and heard everything from
glowing praise to doom and gloom. How does ChatGPT fit into the narrative around
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AI?
It's safe to say AI chatbots like ChatGPT will have more of an impact on the average
person than AI image generators. Major companies, including Microsoft and Google,
are already integrating OpenAI's technologies (Microsoft Copilot) or working on their
own competitors (Google's Gemini.) That will have a very real effect on how you
interact with the web.
We could be headed toward a world where you can simply ask AI for a recipe for
pancakes, and it will create one for you, eliminating the need to visit a recipe blog.
But that also comes with misinformation concerns. ChatGPT was trained on text
from the internet—notorious for being untrustworthy. What happens when your
search engine lies to you?
In general, there are a lot of questions about ChatGPT that we simply don't have
answers for yet. One thing seems clear at this point: ChatGPT is important, but how
important is yet to be seen.
That's the down low on ChatGPT. It's an exciting new development in the world of
technology and artificial intelligence. Chatbots are not a new idea, but ChatGPT will
spur a much more advanced generation of virtual friends. At the moment, it's mostly
fun to play around with, but it could have a much larger impact on our lives in the
future.
FAQ
What Does "GPT" Stand for in ChatGPT?
"GPT" stands for "Generative Pre-trained Transformer." A GPT is a language model
that has been trained on a vast dataset of text to generate human-like text. The
"Chat" part of "ChatGPT" refers to it being a chatbot.
Does ChatGPT Save Data?
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According to OpenAI, ChatGPT does not save data from individual interactions for
its own uses. Your input is processed to generate a response, and the data is not
stored by OpenAI after the conversation is over. However, each conversation is
stored inside your account so you can still find and share your past ChatGPT
conversations.
How Long Will ChatGPT Be Free?
ChatGPT is free to use for anyone with an account on OpenAI's website or limited
without an account. As of May 2024, there are no usage limits on the free version of
ChatGPT. However, there is a "ChatGPT Plus" subscription plan for $20 per month. It
includes reliable availability when demand is high, faster response speeds, and
priority access to new features. OpenAI says it will continue to offer free access to
ChatGPT.
When Was ChatGPT Released?
ChatGPT was released in November 2022 and had over one million users in just five
days. It followed up OpenAI's original GPT from 2018, GPT-2 in 2019, GPT-3 in 2020,
and GPT-4 in 2023.
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2024-07-11 08:21:34
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