What is ChatGPT?

In recent weeks Social Media channels have been awash with talk of the new Artificial Intelligence (AI) that will make all marketing professionals redundant – ChatGPT. So what exactly is it and what does it do?

ChatGPT is a large language model developed by OpenAI, a research laboratory consisting of the for-profit OpenAI LP and its parent company, the non-profit OpenAI Inc. It was developed by a team of researchers and engineers at OpenAI with the goal of creating a state-of-the-art language model that can generate human-like text.

It’s like having a personal robot writer that can write anything from emails to articles to even jokes. But how does it work?

ChatGPT is based on a type of neural network called a transformer. A neural network is like a computer brain that can learn to recognise patterns in data, like images or text. A transformer is a type of neural network that is particularly good at understanding the relationships between words in a sentence.

When ChatGPT is trained, it is fed a huge amount of text, like books, articles, and websites. It then learns to understand the patterns and relationships between the words in that text. This allows it to generate new text that is similar to the text it was trained on.

Uses for ChatGPT

One of the most obvious uses for ChatGPT is for writing. Imagine you’re a busy copywriter and you need to write an article quickly but you’re not feeling inspired. ChatGPT can help you generate a draft of the article for you, and you can then edit it to make it sound more like your own writing.

It can also be used for customer service. It can help answer frequently asked questions, and even generate personalised responses. ChatGPT can also be used to generate chatbot responses, making it easy to have a conversation with a computer.

Another use for ChatGPT is in creative writing. It can generate new ideas for stories, or even write entire stories on its own. This could be a helpful tool for writers who are struggling with writer’s block.

One of the most exciting uses for ChatGPT is in the field of language translation. It can translate text from one language to another, making communication between people who speak different languages much easier.

Limitations

But, as with any technology, ChatGPT also has its limitations. One limitation is that it is only as good as the data it was trained on. If it was trained on text that is biassed or not diverse, the text it generates will also be biassed or not diverse. Additionally, ChatGPT is not able to understand context or sarcasm very well, so it can generate text that is not appropriate or doesn’t make sense.

Another limitation is that ChatGPT is not able to generate text that is completely original. It can only generate text that is based on the patterns it learned from the data it was trained on. This means that if you’re looking for completely unique and original text, ChatGPT might not be the best option.

ChatGPT is an amazing tool but it is not quite ready to replace a human copywriter just yet. 

It can be used for a variety of tasks, from writing to customer service to language translation. It can save time and generate ideas, but it also has its limitations. 

At the moment it has little or no knowledge of events from 2021 onwards and it can produce copy that is overly repetitive. It lacks the ability to understand sarcasm and needs to be trained on diverse data.

With continued development and updates, the capabilities of ChatGPT will increase and be able to tackle more complex tasks.

But let’s not forget, ChatGPT is still a machine and as we have seen in movies like the Terminator series, machines can become a threat to humanity if not controlled properly. So, while we can enjoy the convenience that ChatGPT brings, we should always be aware of its capabilities and limitations, and use it responsibly. Who knows, it might just write the next great sci-fi novel or script, but let’s hope it’s not about a robot uprising.

The majority of this article was created using ChatGPT. Can you tell?

I used the following prompt “Write a 750 word blog piece about ChatGPT, include, how it works, uses and limitations. Use plain language and some humour”.

Then refined it a bit “New conclusion that references Terminator movies”.