What is ChatGPT, an AI chatbot that has taken internet by storm? Can it replace humans?

New Delhi

ChatGPT is a dialogue-based AI chatbot, which can understand human language and can generate human-like written text in response. Since its announcement, it has taken the internet by storm as people are both fascinated and concerned at how intelligent the AI-powered bot sounds. Some people are even calling it a replacement for Google as it is capable of giving solutions to complex queries and problems directly, almost like humans. 

What is exactly ChatGPT?

ChatGPT is a prototype for a dialogue-based AI chatbot that will understand natural human language and generate natural human-like written text with impressive detailing. It is the latest evolution of the GPT or Generative Pre-Trained Transformer, which is a family of text-generating AIs. 

What makes it different from other chatbots?

Generally, chatbots are software that simulates human conversation or "chatter" through text or voice interactions. The conversation is either done via text or text-to-speech in order to provide direct contact with a live human agent. GPT on the other hand works the same way by just using the technology of AI. It will interact in a more conversational way, in which it will answer follow-up questions, admit its mistakes, challenge incorrect premises, and reject inappropriate requests.

How does it work?

The system is trained with AI and machine learning to provide information and responses through a conversational interface instead of already system-generated or "computerised" responses. The AI is trained on a huge sample of text taken from the internet. The new AI in this system is created with a focus on the user's ease of use. "The dialogue format makes it possible for ChatGPT to answer follow-up questions, admit its mistakes, challenge incorrect premises, and reject inappropriate requests", the research body said in a statement last week. The bot can even recall previous comments in a conversation and relay them to the user. 

How it can be helpful to users?

It can be used in real-world applications like generating content for websites, answering customer inquiries, providing recommendations as well as creating automated chatbots. It can even discover new knowledge for the user and can play the role of a virtual assistant.

Who made the ChatGPT?

The chatbot is made by an independent research body OpenAI foundation, it was founded by Elon Musk. He co-founded the startup with other Silicon Valley investors including technology venture capitalist Sam Altman in late 2015. Though later the Twitter CEO left the board and distanced himself from the company after he "learned" that OpenAI was accessing the platform's database for "training". 

How users are reacting to it after using ChatGPT?

People have been comparing it to Google because it can provide direct solutions to complex problems. Some people used the platform and were amazed by the response of the ChatGPT.

Software start-up founder Amjad Masad got ChatGPT to spot errors in his code and produce a detailed output on what’s wrong with it and how it can be fixed.

 Canadian Musician Grimes was all about the sentimental side of things. When she asked ChatGPT if it felt “trapped,” ChatGPT responded by saying it lacks the ability to feel so.

Could ChatGPT replace humans?

Looking at the level of sophistication of the application, some people have speculated that professions that are content-dependent could turn obsolete, including everything from playwrights and professors to even programmers and journalists. 

Though the company said that it has its own limitations and it cannot replace humans as it can give completely incorrect answers and present misinformation as fact, writing "plausible-sounding but incorrect or nonsensical answers" according to the company.

According to OpenAI, resolving this issue is difficult because the data used to train the model contains no source of truth, and supervised training can also be misleading "because the ideal answer depends on what the model knows, rather than what the human demonstrator knows."