Context

• Recently, ChatGPT, the artificial intelligence (AI)-powered chatbot crossed one million users in less than a week since it was officially made available to the public.
• The article explains the meaning, significance and limitations of this new development.

About ChatGPT

• ChatGPT is language-generation software that’s been designed to carry conversations with people.
• The tool has been developed by OpenAI, a research institute founded in 2015, by a group of entrepreneurs and researchers, including Elon Musk, Sam Altman, and Greg Brockman.
  • The company is best known for Dall-E — the AI-based text-to-image generator
• It is based on the company’s GPT 3.5 series of language learning models (LLM).
  • GPT stands for Generative Pre-trained Transformer 3 and this is a kind of computer language model that relies on deep learning techniques to produce human-like text based on inputs.
• Some of its features include the following:
  • Answering follow-up questions
  • Challenging incorrect premises
  • Rejecting inappropriate queries and even admitting its mistakes, etc.
• It is trained on an enormous amount of text data (from archived books, Wikipedia, etc.) and learned to recognize patterns that enable it to produce its own text mimicking various writing styles.
• It is a part of the larger generative AI, which refers to the ability of computers to automatically create text, videos, photos and other media using cutting-edge machine learning technologies.
• This chatbot powered by AI, makes use of Reinforcement Learning from Human Feedback (RLHF) technology.
  • This technology produces different answers for the same question in the future since it improves over time and understands queries better through machine learning.

Language-generation software

• It is a software that generates a sequence of words as output that are conceptually connected to the words given as input.
• In practical terms, it means that it can perform tasks like answering questions and carrying on a conversation with humans.
• It is often used in natural language processing (NLP) applications, such as speech recognition, automatic translation, and text generation.
• There are a few other language models like BERT (Bidirectional Encoder Representations from Transformers), LaMDA (Language Model for Dialogue Applications) from Google.

Natural language processing (NLP)

• A component of AI, NLP is the ability of a computer program to understand human language as it is spoken and written, referred to as natural language.
• There are two main phases to natural language processing as follows:
  • Data preprocessing: It involves preparing and "cleaning" text data for machines to be able to analyze it.
  • Algorithm development: Once the data has been preprocessed, an algorithm is developed using linguistic rules and statistical methods through repeated processing and learning.

Significance of ChatGPT

• ChatGPT’s ability to learn and adapt quickly to new information means that it can be trained to handle new topics and tasks without the need for extensive retraining.
• Many experts believe that ChatGPT’s advanced capabilities will be a valuable asset for companies in fields such as customer service, online education, and market research.
• It can respond to a large range of questions while imitating human speaking styles, e.g., answering customer service queries, help debug a code, etc.
• It is being seen as a replacement for the basic emails, party planning lists, CVs, and even college essays and homework.
• It can also do creative tasks such as writing a story and can explain scientific concepts and answer any question that needs factual answers.
• ChatGPT is much more than a chat bot. For example, it can be asked to write a program or even a simple software application.
• It is also capable of reviewing and writing codes in seconds, making the future of coders grim.
• ChatGPT has also been trained to decline ‘inappropriate’ requests, presumably those which are ‘illegal’ in nature.

Limitations of ChatGPT

• The ChatGPT displayed racial and sexist biases, which remains a problem with almost all AI models.
• Though it gives grammatically correct and read well answers but few users have pointed out that these lack context and substance and are more generalized.
• It also overuses certain phrases due to biases in the training data.
• It also occasionally produces inaccurate information and that its knowledge is restricted to global events that occurred before 2021.
• It is also unable to provide answers to country-specific questions.

Conclusion

• So far, the response to ChatGPT has been overwhelmingly positive, with many praising its advanced capabilities and ease of use.
• It remains to be seen how ChatGPT will be used in the coming years, but it’s clear that it has the potential to be a major player in the world of natural language processing.