Back in 2022, OpenAI wowed the world when it introduced ChatGPT and showed a chatbot with an entirely new level of power, breadth and usefulness.
ChatGPT and the generative AI technology behind it aren’t a surprise anymore, but keeping track of what it can do can be a challenge as new abilities arrive. Most notably, OpenAI now lets anyone write custom AI apps called GPTs and share them on its own app store. While OpenAI is leading the generative AI charge, it’s hotly pursued by Microsoft, Google and startups far and wide.
Generative AI still hasn’t shaken a core problem, that it makes up information that sounds plausible but isn’t necessarily correct. But there’s no denying AI has fired the imaginations of computer scientists, loosened the purse strings of venture capitalists and caught the attention of everyone from teachers to doctors to artists and more, all wondering how AI will change their work and their lives.
If you’re trying to get a handle on ChatGPT, this FAQ is for you. Here’s a look at what’s up.
What is ChatGPT?
ChatGPT is an online chatbot that responds to “prompts” — text requests that you type. ChatGPT has countless uses, You can request relationship advice, a summarized history of punk rock or an explanation of the ocean’s tides. It’s particularly good at writing software, and it can also handle some other technical tasks, like creating 3D models.
ChatGPT is called a generative AI because it generates these responses on its own. But it can also display more overtly creative output like screenplays, poetry, jokes and student essays. That’s one of the abilities that really caught people’s attention.
Much of AI has been focused on specific tasks, but ChatGPT is a general-purpose tool. This puts it more into a category like a search engine.
That breadth makes it powerful but also hard to fully control. OpenAI has many mechanisms in place to try to screen out abuse and other problems, but there’s an active cat-and-mouse game afoot by researchers and…
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