OpenAI's New Chatbot Explained: What It Is And Why It's Such A Big Deal

ChatGPT is an AI model that has been trained and developed by a company called OpenAI. It interacts with people conversationally, which in theory should increase accessibility by making the model easier to use. You don't have to learn a special language or input method to use ChatGPT; you simply ask it a question as you would a person. Then, you can talk to it further to refine its answers until you have what you want. 

Although it has been hitting the headlines in recent weeks, ChatGPT is far from the first AI model that is capable of learning, and it is also far from the first "chat bot." If you're in your late 20s or early 30s, you may remember hurling abuse at "Smarter Child" on MSN Messenger or AOL Instant Messenger until the bot blocked you. That was a very limited, very primitive, chatbot. Things are of course more advanced now, and part of that is down to neural networks. An AI based on a "neural network" is designed to spot patterns across large datasets and use those patterns to form a conclusion. According to the MIT Technology Review, ChatGPT is a "language model" which is a type of neural network. In addition to having access to a massive dataset, it also uses feedback from human testers to refine both the content of its answers and how it interacts with people.

Like many similar programs, ChatGPT relies on a large dataset from which it sources answers. The exact contents of the dataset are unknown, but we do know it uses the same dataset as OpenAI's other product — InstructGPT. What makes ChatGPT different is the way it was trained. Humans working on the project held conversations which were then uploaded into ChatGPT's dataset, hopefully making its conversations seem more natural. A reward model was also used, which encourages the AI to produce better responses.

So that's how it works. Coded into the AI is the ability and willingness to learn, its functions, and some boundaries it shouldn't cross. When someone interacts with OpenAI, it looks through its dataset and uses pattern recognition to settle on the most likely answer. It then uses the training it received to present that answer in a conversational manner. The boundaries are also there for a reason. If the dataset is harvested from the internet, as most of them are, it will likely contain some degree of controversial or biased information. Rather than risk ChatGPT presenting this information, OpenAI has opted to keep the bot well away from controversial topics. Which may be smart, considering how often neural network AI has gone down a dark path.

ChatGPT's accuracy varies pretty greatly, and it's clear that the model is still very much a work in progress. For the example above, we actually asked the watch to help us service a "Rolex Seamaster," which doesn't exist. Rolex makes the similarly titled Submariner, while Omega makes the Seamaster. ChatGPT didn't flag our mistake, which could lead to issues if we were actually expecting it to talk us through something like a watch service. Different manufacturers use different construction methods, so getting that detail wrong could lead to some major mistakes.

As ChatGPT relies on a neural network, it also relies on the information in that network being accurate. As it is the largest compilation of data humanity has ever known, the internet is often used as the basis for these networks. The internet is also full of inaccurate information. As ChatGPT spots patterns, it will be accurate with commonly known dates and subjects. If you ask when Ben Franklin's birthday is, it'll say January 17, 1706, because that information appears in a lot of places. More obscure information is less likely to be accurate. Accuracy also seems to go out the window during storytelling. The model tends to heavily gravitate toward cliches and has a heavy western slant to its fiction writing. So if you're using it for storytelling purposes don't expect it to crank out the next Breaking Bad or Game of Thrones.

Google is very worried about ChatGPT, but it isn't because it thinks the bot itself is going to replace the world's most popular search engine. Instead, the silicon valley giant worries that competitors will get an edge by incorporating some of ChatGPT's features into their own search engines. As a result, Google has taken a number of actions to ensure it isn't left behind in the AI arms race. In recent months, it has brought back its co-founders to work out how to best implement AI into its products and worked on an AI bot of its own. The result was Bard, which the company unveiled in early February. Unfortunately for Google, instead of showing ChatGPT how it should be done, Bard accidentally highlighted the limitations of current AI by displaying incorrect information during an advertisement for the platform.

Still, despite the early embarrassment, Google is likely to push ahead with Bard and its competitors are almost certainly looking at ways to enhance their own products with similar AI models. ChatGPT and programs like it will not replace search engines. Instead, they'll help them become easier to use and more helpful.

ChatGPT's potential impact on academia has hit the headlines in recent weeks, with the New York Times reporting that a student had even been caught trying to submit an essay that was written by the AI. ChatGPT also seems to have done a decent job of it, with the Northern Michigan University professor who spotted the fraud, Antony Aumann, lauding it as "the best paper in the class," and praising its examples, arguments, and overall structure. Professor Aumann has made drastic changes to his class in an attempt to stop ChatGPT from getting involved again. His students now have to produce a first draft of every essay in class, then explain any revisions they make later on. He may ditch essays entirely in the future.

Other areas of the country are incorporating things like oral exams, group work, and handwritten essays in an attempt to stop students from using the new tech to cheat. It's currently unknown if any of this will work, or if the nature of examination will end up having to incorporate things like ChatGPT in some way — a bit like mathematics has done with the calculator.

Microsoft has revealed itself as ChatGPT's first major customer. The Ai is going to be used to make the company's struggling search engine, Bing, more useful. A handful of testers currently have their hands on the new and improved Bing, but it is likely that the feature will soon roll out to a wider number of people. Microsoft has stated that the AI implementation can offer "more relevant, timely and targeted results, with improved safety." The AI, which is based on ChatGPT but named "Prometheus" when Microsoft is using it, isn't going to be exclusive to Bing and Microsoft Edge either. The company has far larger plans for it. 

Apparently, ChatGPT has already been tested for the Office-365 suite of apps and is seen as more of a productivity tool than anything else at the moment. Users may soon be able to use AI to write out basic emails for them, make writing in Microsoft Word more efficient, and even take the pain out of turning your Excel spreadsheets into graphs and charts. Although that's where current plans end, who knows where things would eventually go. Microsoft is well known for having at least one attempt at every major tech trend that no one actually bothers with. Maybe ChatGPT will make its long-suffering voice assistant, Cortana, an actual contender in a world dominated by Siris, Alexas, and "Hey Googles."