ChatGPT took the world by storm a few months ago and it’s easy to see why. OpenAI’s revolutionary chatbot can perform a surprising amount of tasks, from holding a plausible conversation to writing a properly punctuated document.
At present, many of you are trying to understand how to use this new technology and know what its limits are. If you want to know how to use the famous chatbothere is our complete guide to ChatGPT and how to use it.
? What is ChatGPT?
ChatGPT is a prototype chatbot using artificial intelligence specialized in dialogue. The chatbot was developed by Open AIa company co-founded by Elon Musk in 2015 and valued at nearly US$29 billion by 2023. ChatGPT stands for Generative Pre-trained Transformer in English, or “Pre-trained Generic Transformer” in French.
Available in multiple languages such as French since November 2022, the conversational robot is able to understand user questions and answer them in a language close to that of a human.
Read: ChatGPT: an even more powerful version of artificial intelligence coming soon
It is refined on the basis OpenAI’s GPT-3 language modelwith supervised learning and reinforcement learning, both approaches using human trainers to improve software performance.
Concretely, ChatGPT responds to your queries entered in a dedicated text box. The chatbot then processes your request and responds to it based on the information it has. Note that at this point, ChatGPT will not pull its information from the Internet in real time: its database only contains information prior to 2021which can be a problem when searching for recent events.
To show you an example, here is ChatGPT’s answer (copy-pasted) to our question ” Could you explain to me what ChatGPT is in 150 words? » :
ChatGPT is an automatic language processing model developed by OpenAI. It uses machine learning to generate text based on provided input data. It is based on transformer technology, a type of neural network that has revolutionized the language processing capabilities of automatic models. ChatGPT is particularly effective for generating answers to questions, generating descriptions and writing texts. It can also be used for other tasks related to automatic language processing such as machine translation, natural language understanding and text classification. It is available as a service through an API, making it easy for developers and businesses to use.
? How to use ChatGPT?
- Meeting on chat.openai.com. You will need an OpenAI account to use ChatGPT. Registration is free.
- Once your OpenAI account is created and the ChatGPT chat box is open, type a question in the chat box at the bottom to get started, type your text and hit enter.
- Select New chat at the top left at any time to start a new conversation.
- If you don’t like an answer, you can put a thumbs down. The opposite is valid with the thumbs up if an answer seems correct to you. In any case, you can put a comment to improve the chatbot.
? Is ChatGPT free?
Yes, ChatGPT is currently always free. The chatbot, based on the GPT-3 language model, is still at the prototype stage. Creating an OpenAI account is also free, so you don’t have to spend anything to try it out.
On the other hand, OpenAI also offers ChatGPT Professional, a paid subscription. This version provides access when servers are overloaded and provides faster responses than the free version. Indeed, if the average cost of each response is relatively low – of the order of a few cents – the maintenance of the servers is currently very expensive for OpenAI, which is looking for ways to monetize its platform to make operational costs profitable.
? What can you do with ChatGPT?
Businesses and individuals can use ChatGPT for many tasks, from writing content to developing code, from solving mathematical equations to writing a story. Its capabilities are vast and the chatbot can come in handy for automating or facilitating certain redundant processes.
Some use cases for ChatGPT include:
- Text generation for news articles, fiction, poetry, etc.
- Summary of longer documents or articles.
- Answering questions as a potential substitute for Google.
- Generate story ideas, titles, etc.
- Generate product descriptions, blog posts or other types of content.
- Solve math problems, homework, etc.
- Develop or debug code.
Unlike most chatbots, ChatGPT remembers previous messages given to him during the same conversation. It is this asset that will have made him known throughout the world. ChatGPT also allows the user to provide corrections and they are further trained to refuse inappropriate requests.
Note that Microsoft plans to integrate ChatGPT into Office, its office suite. Eventually and for example, Word will be able to write certain paragraphs, as ChatGPT already knows how to do. We also imagine him capable of perfecting an incomplete text or one with errors. same for me Outlook in the image of gmail which already offers options to anticipate what the user writes.
? Can we know if I used ChatGPT?
This is the million dollar question that many students are probably asking themselves these days. We think back, for example, to those students from Lyon who used ChatGPT to do their homework and who were fooled.
Yes, it is possible to detect the use of ChatGPT. On the one hand, similar AI models are currently being developed to detect ChatGPT, such as GPTZero, created by Edward Tian, a student at Princeton University. On the other hand, text generated by ChatGPT is generally less complex than content thought out and written by a human. By getting into the habit of reading answers produced by the chatbot, it is quite easy to see certain redundancies in its writing style, punctuation, etc.
? Is ChatGPT open source?
No, ChatGPT is not open source. While the company was originally founded in 2015 as a non-profit organization, it has since become a for-profit company. As of 2020, Microsoft is the only external party to have access to the GPT-3 source code powering ChatGPT. Given that Microsoft has just committed to a new multi-billion dollar multi-year investment with OpenAI, it seems unlikely that this position will change anytime soon.
Read: Character.AI: this alternative to ChatGPT lets you talk to anyone, dead or alive
? What are the limitations of ChatGPT?
Not only ChatGPT can make mistakesbut it can also plagiarize. The accuracy of some ChatGPT answers has also been questioned many times over the past few weeks. Some answers are plausible, others are spectacular, but some remain incorrect, even absurd. Do not hesitate to check for yourself if his statements are correct and do not take anything for granted.
ChatGPT also poses deeper ethical and moral concerns. Even though it is trained not to respond to inappropriate requests and will always remain “smooth” in its responses, ChatGPT can be unknowingly offensive. He can also be sexist, racist, etc. Because the AI model draws information from the internet — a pre-2021 database, as a reminder — to train its knowledge, it can potentially share harmful things, without even knowing that they are. So be aware of this lack of safeguards when using the app.
Moreover, ChatGPT is already being used by cybercriminals to design malware, according to Check Point Research. The group reveals that software capable of stealing certain types of files from a Windows machine, as well as software capable of generating fake content (e-books, training, etc.) have already been designed by the chatbot. Also, Russian hackers are already using ChatGPT to carry out some of their cyberattacks.
There is also the problem of the overall quality of the content present on the Internet in the long term, as we have already explained to you. Indeed, if it seems difficult to believe that all journalists will be replaced by robots, the massive publication of information, created from sources cross-checked by artificial intelligence itself and not verified, could flood the internet with misinformation : by artificially creating articles thanks to content already created, the AI is content to put end to end information already published. However, the more fake content there is, the more likely the AI will be to write new articles from this fake content.
?? Is it risky to use ChatGPT for my data protection?
If you log into your OpenAI account and use ChatGPT, the chatbot will not install anything malicious on your device. Your only concern would be that OpenAI suffers a data breach and exposes your personal data, which is a risk with any online account.
However, avoid injecting personal information within ChatGPT. According to FAQs OpenAI’s ChatGPT, the chatbot records your conversations which are reviewed by OpenAI for development purposes. Do not enter any sensitive data about yourself.
❌ How do I delete my ChatGPT account?
If you wish to delete your data, you can always delete your entire OpenAI account, which is irreversible. Their website, on the other hand, does not make it easy. We tried to do this through their help section, to no avail.
However, here is the only process that worked for deleting a ChatGPT and OpenAI account and associated data:
- Email [email protected] from the email whose information you want to delete.
- In the subject line, put “Account deletion request”.
- In the body of the email, put “Please delete my OpenAI account”.
The process should take several days depending on how fast they are.
Read: ChatGPT: Kenyan employees paid $2 an hour denounce psychological “torture”
? ChatGPT not working, what to do?
Can’t access ChatGPT? This is normal: if the ChatGPT servers are at their maximum capacity, it will not be possible to connect to them. One of the main selling points of the mentioned professional subscription is precisely the fact that you will get priority access, preventing this problem from happening. Other than that, ChatGPT can still suffer from technical errors just like any other site or application. Just wait a few minutes before trying to reconnect.
