What is ChatGPT? The world’s most popular AI chatbot explained

A lot has changed since then, with Microsoft investing a staggering $10 billion in ChatGPT’s creator OpenAI and competitors like Google’s Gemini threatening to take the top spot. Given the latter then, the entire tech industry is waiting for OpenAI to announce GPT-5, its next-generation language model. We’ve rounded up all of the rumors, leaks, and speculation leading up to ChatGPT’s next major update. The last three letters in ChatGPT’s namesake stand for Generative Pre-trained Transformer (GPT), a family of large language models created by OpenAI that uses deep learning to generate human-like, conversational text. ChatGPT is powered by a large language model made up of neural networks trained on a massive amount of information from the internet, including Wikipedia articles and research papers. The process happens iteratively, building from words to sentences, to paragraphs, to pages of text.

OpenAI launched a paid subscription version called ChatGPT Plus in February 2023, which guarantees users access to the company’s latest models, exclusive features, and updates. OpenAI’s current flagship model, ChatGPT-4o (the o is for “omni”), can work across any combination of text, audio and images meaning many more applications for AI are now possible. ChatGPT-4o is also much faster at processing than previous versions, especially with audio, meaning that responses to your questions can feel like you are chatting to a person in real time. Like its predecessor, GPT-5 (or whatever it will be called) is expected to be a multimodal large language model (LLM) that can accept text or encoded visual input (called a “prompt”).

If you look beyond the browser-based chat function to the API, ChatGPT’s capabilities become even more exciting. We’ve learned how to use ChatGPT with Siri and overhaul Apple’s voice assistant, which could well stand to threaten the tech giant’s once market-leading assistive software. Other language-based tasks that ChatGPT enjoys are translations, helping you learn new languages (watch out, Duolingo), generating job descriptions, and creating meal plans. Just tell it the ingredients you have and the number of people you need to serve, and it’ll rustle up some impressive ideas.

Yes, OpenAI and its CEO have confirmed that GPT-5 is in active development. The steady march of AI innovation means that OpenAI hasn’t stopped with GPT-4. That’s especially true now that Google has announced its Gemini language model, the larger variants of which can match GPT-4. In response, OpenAI released a revised GPT-4o model that offers multimodal capabilities and an impressive voice conversation mode. While it’s good news that the model is also rolling out to free ChatGPT users, it’s not the big upgrade we’ve been waiting for.

After growing rumors of a ChatGPT Professional tier, OpenAI said in February that it was introducing a “pilot subscription plan” called ChatGPT Plus in the US. A week later, it made the subscription tier available to the rest of the world. Google was only too keen to point out its role in developing the technology during its announcement of Google Bard.

For a while, ChatGPT was only available through its web interface, but there are now official apps for Android and iOS that are free to download, as well as an app for macOS. The layout and features are similar to what you’ll see on the web, but there are a few differences that you need to know about too. ChatGPT has been trained on a vast amount of text covering a huge range of subjects, so its possibilities are nearly endless. But in its early days, users have discovered several particularly useful ways to use the AI helper.

But ChatGPT was the AI chatbot that took the concept mainstream, earning it another multi-billion investment from Microsoft, which said that it was as important as the invention of the PC and the internet. The AI bot, developed by OpenAI and based on a Large Language Model (or LLM), continues to grow in terms of its scope and its intelligence. Here we’re going to cover everything you need to know about ChatGPT, from how it works, to whether or not it’s worth you paying for the premium version.

We could also see OpenAI launch more third-party integrations with ChatGPT-5. With the announcement of Apple Intelligence in June 2024 (more on that below), major collaborations between tech brands and AI developers could become more popular in the year ahead. OpenAI may design ChatGPT-5 to be easier to integrate into third-party apps, devices, and services, which would also make it a more useful tool for businesses. According to the report, OpenAI is still training GPT-5, and after that is complete, the model will undergo internal safety testing and further “red teaming” to identify and address any issues before its public release. The release date could be delayed depending on the duration of the safety testing process.

Coursera’s editorial team is comprised of highly experienced professional editors, writers, and fact… Neither company disclosed the investment value, but unnamed sources told Bloomberg that it could total $10 billion over multiple years. In return, OpenAI’s exclusive cloud-computing provider is Microsoft Azure, powering all OpenAI workloads across research, products, and API services.

tips for using ChatGPT responsibly

GPT-4 is also a better multi-tasker than its predecessor, thanks to an increased capacity to perform several tasks simultaneously. LLMs like those developed by OpenAI are trained on massive datasets scraped from the Internet and licensed from media companies, enabling them to respond to user prompts in a human-like manner. However, the quality of the information provided by the model can vary depending on the training data used, and also based on the model’s tendency to confabulate information.

In contrast, free tier users have no choice over which model they can use. OpenAI say it will default to using ChatGPT-4o with a limit on the number of messages it can send. If ChatGPT-4o is unavailable then free users default to using ChatGPT-4o mini. ChatGPT is still available to use for free, but now also has a paid tier.

If OpenAI only agreed to give Apple access to GPT-4o, the two companies may need to strike a new deal to get ChatGPT-5 on Apple Intelligence. OpenAI has not yet announced the official release date for ChatGPT-5, but there are a few hints about when it could arrive. Yes, GPT-5 is coming at some point in the future although a firm release date hasn’t been disclosed yet.

Does ChatGPT give wrong answers?

For instance, GPT-4 managed to score well enough to be within the top 10 percent of test takers in a simulated bar exam, while GPT-3.5’s score was at the bottom 10 percent. OpenAI also claims that GPT-4 is generally more trustworthy than GPT-3.5 — returning more factual answers that stay within the guardrails that prevent biased outputs and other issues. ChatGPT’s impressive writing abilities have not gone without some controversy. Teachers are concerned that students will use it to cheat, prompting some schools to completely block access to it. Instead of asking for clarification on an ambiguous question, or saying that it doesn’t know the answer, ChatGPT will just take a guess at what the question means and what the answer should be. And, because the model is able to produce incorrect information in such an eloquent way, the fallacies are hard to spot and control.

OpenAI launched GPT-4 in March 2023 as an upgrade to its most major predecessor, GPT-3, which emerged in 2020 (with GPT-3.5 arriving in late 2022). GPT-4’s impressive skillset and ability to mimic humans sparked fear in the tech community, prompting many to question the ethics and legality of it all. Some notable personalities, including Elon Musk and Steve Wozniak, have warned about the dangers of AI and called for a unilateral pause on training models “more advanced than GPT-4”. With the latest update, all users, including those on the free plan, can access the GPT Store and find 3 million customized ChatGPT chatbots. Unfortunately, there is also a lot of spam in the GPT store, so be careful which ones you use.

The fact that it can also generate essays, articles, and poetry has only added to its appeal (and controversy, in areas like education). ChatGPT is an AI chatbot that was initially built on a family of Large Language Models (or LLMs), collectively known as GPT-3. OpenAI has now announced that its next-gen GPT-4 models are available, models that can understand and generate human-like answers to text prompts, because they’ve been trained on huge amounts of data. Based on the demos of ChatGPT-4o, improved voice capabilities are clearly a priority for OpenAI. ChatGPT-4o already has superior natural language processing and natural language reproduction than GPT-3 was capable of. So, it’s a safe bet that voice capabilities will become more nuanced and consistent in ChatGPT-5 (and hopefully this time OpenAI will dodge the Scarlett Johanson controversy that overshadowed GPT-4o’s launch).

Generative Pre-trained Transformer 3.5 (GPT-3.5) is a sub class of GPT-3 Models created by OpenAI in 2022. The construct of “learning styles” is problematic because it fails to account for the processes through which learning styles are shaped. Some students might develop a particular learning style because they have had particular experiences.

If your application has any written supplements, you can use ChatGPT to help you write those essays or personal statements. You can also use ChatGPT to prep for your interviews by asking ChatGPT to provide you mock interview questions, background on the company, or questions that you can ask. If your main concern is privacy, OpenAI has implemented several options to give users peace of mind that their data will not be used to train models. If you are concerned about the moral and ethical problems, those are still being hotly debated. There are also privacy concerns regarding generative AI companies using your data to fine-tune their models further, which has become a common practice.

Some people have even used ChatGPT for advice on relationships and finances. ChatGPT can be used for other writing tasks beyond just content creation. It can translate a piece of text into different languages, summarize several pages of text into a paragraph, finish a partially complete sentence, generate dialogue and more. It can also be fine-tuned for specific use cases such as legal documents or medical records, where the model is trained on domain-specific data. We’re also particularly looking forward to seeing it integrated with some of our favorite cloud software and the best productivity tools.

OpenAI was co-founded in 2015 by billionaire business mogul Elon Musk and former Y Combinator President Sam Altman, along with a handful of other entrepreneurs. Notable investors include Microsoft and Thrive Capital, as well as Reid Hoffman, Peter Thiel and Jessica Livingston, founding partner of Y Combinator. It does sometimes go a little bit crazy, and OpenAI has been honest about the ‘hallucinations’ that ChatGPT can have, and the problems inherent in these LLMs. ChatGPT stands for “Chat Generative Pre-trained Transformer”, which is a bit of a mouthful. It is worth noting, though, that this also depends on the terms of Apple’s arrangement with OpenAI.

Finally there is also a Team option which costs $25 per person/month (around £19 / AU$38) which enables you to create and share GPTs with your workspace as well as giving you higher limits. Still, the world is currently having a ball exploring ChatGPT and, despite the arrival of a paid ChatGPT Plus Chat GPT version for $20 (about £16 / AU$30) a month, you can still use it for free too, on desktop and mobile devices. According to a press release Apple published following the June 10 presentation, Apple Intelligence will use ChatGPT-4o, which is currently the latest public version of OpenAI’s algorithm.

You can also access ChatGPT via an app on your iPhone or Android device. According to OpenAI, GPT-4 is capable of handling “much more nuanced instructions” than its predecessor, and can also accept image inputs. OpenAI also highlighted that GPT-4 scored “around the top 10 percent of test takers” in a simulated bar exam, whereas its predecessor landed https://chat.openai.com/ in the bottom 10 percent. GPT-4 performs much better than GPT-3.5, which was previously the foundation of ChatGPT. Most people know that, just because something is on the internet, that doesn’t make it true. Racism, sexism and all manner of prejudices run rampant online, and it is up to the individual to decide how much weight to give it.

• This, however, is currently limited to research preview and will be available in the model’s sequential upgrades.
• Undertaking a job search can be tedious and difficult, and ChatGPT can help you lighten the load.
• The dating app OKCupid has also started dabbling with in-app questions that have been created by OpenAI’s chatbot.
• And it is still possible to get the model to spit out biased or inappropriate language.
• Now, not only have many of those schools decided to unblock the technology, but some higher education institutions have been catering their academic offerings to AI-related coursework.
• Not only can ChatGPT generate working computer code of its own (in many different languages), but it can also translate code from one language to another, and debug existing code.

ZDNET’s recommendations are based on many hours of testing, research, and comparison shopping. We gather data from the best available sources, including vendor and retailer listings as well as other relevant and independent reviews sites. And we pore over customer reviews to find out what matters to real people who already own and use the products and services we’re assessing. In the wake of ChatGPT’s success, Microsoft rolled out a new version of its search engine, Bing, accompanied by an AI chatbot (powered by GPT-4) in February 2023.

ChatGPT is (obviously) the most popular AI app – but the runners up may surprise you

People have expressed concerns about AI chatbots replacing or atrophying human intelligence. There is a subscription option, ChatGPT Plus, that costs $20 per month. You can foun additiona information about ai customer service and artificial intelligence and NLP. The paid subscription model gives you extra perks, such as priority access to GPT-4o, DALL-E 3, and the latest upgrades.

A transformer is a type of neural network trained to analyse the context of input data and weigh the significance of each part of the data accordingly. Since this model learns context, it’s commonly used in natural language processing (NLP) to generate text similar to human writing. In AI, a model is a set of mathematical equations and algorithms a computer uses to analyse data and make decisions. ChatGPT is an artificial intelligence chatbot from OpenAI that enables users to “converse” with it in a way that mimics natural conversation.

Auto-GPT is an open-source tool initially released on GPT-3.5 and later updated to GPT-4, capable of performing tasks automatically with minimal human input. In addition to web search, GPT-4 also can use images as inputs for better context. This, however, is currently limited to research preview and will be available in the model’s sequential upgrades.

For instance, OpenAI is among 16 leading AI companies that signed onto a set of AI safety guidelines proposed in late 2023. OpenAI has also been adamant about maintaining privacy for Apple users through the ChatGPT integration in Apple Intelligence. The only potential exception is users who access ChatGPT with an upcoming feature on Apple devices called Apple Intelligence. This new AI platform will allow Apple users to tap into ChatGPT for no extra cost. However, it’s still unclear how soon Apple Intelligence will get GPT-5 or how limited its free access might be. Given recent accusations that OpenAI hasn’t been taking safety seriously, the company may step up its safety checks for ChatGPT-5, which could delay the model’s release further into 2025, perhaps to June.

The second and third words show that this model was created using ‘generative pre-training’, which means it’s been trained on huge amounts of text data to predict the next word in a given sequence. Even though OpenAI released GPT-4 mere months after ChatGPT, we know that it took over two years to train, develop, and test. If GPT-5 follows a similar schedule, we may have to wait until late 2024 or early 2025. OpenAI has reportedly demoed early versions of GPT-5 to select enterprise users, indicating a mid-2024 release date for the new language model. The testers reportedly found that ChatGPT-5 delivered higher-quality responses than its predecessor. However, the model is still in its training stage and will have to undergo safety testing before it can reach end-users.

This update allows users to interact with ChatGPT via speech, and to upload images that the model can analyze and use to generate outputs. It also added voice-to-text capabilities, effectively making ChatGPT a full-fledged voice assistant. ChatGPT Team lets companies create shared workspaces with settings that apply for all users, as well as the ability to share proprietary data sets. A marketing team, for example, might coach the model on its brand voice guidelines and upload campaign analytics so members of the team can use ChatGPT to spot trends. Some developers were so excited by ChatGPT’s capabilities that they used it to actually create their own apps, including a spreadsheet assistant capable of performing complex calculations in response to a simple request. The big change from GPT-3.5 is that OpenAI’s 4th generation language model is multimodal, which means it can process both text, images and audio.

While Apple Intelligence will launch with ChatGPT-4o, that’s not a guarantee it will immediately get every update to the algorithm. However, if the ChatGPT integration in Apple Intelligence is popular among users, OpenAI likely won’t wait long to offer ChatGPT-5 to Apple users. In comparison, GPT-4 has been trained with a broader set of data, which still dates back to September 2021. OpenAI noted subtle differences between GPT-4 and GPT-3.5 in casual conversations.

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On February 6, 2023, Google introduced its experimental AI chat service, which was then called Google Bard. Microsoft was an early investor in OpenAI, the AI startup behind ChatGPT, long before ChatGPT was released to the public. Microsoft’s first involvement with OpenAI was in 2019 when the company invested $1 billion. In January 2023, Microsoft extended its partnership with OpenAI through a multiyear, multi-billion dollar investment.

OpenAI has recently shown off its Sora video creation tool as well, which is capable of producing some rather mind-blowing video clips based on text prompts. Sora is still in a limited preview however, and it remains to be seen whether or not it will be rolled into part of the ChatGPT interface. While GPT-4 isn’t a revolutionary leap from GPT-3.5, it is another important step towards chatbots and AI-powered apps that stick closer to the facts and don’t go haywire in the ways that we’ve seen in the recent past.

SearchGPT is an experimental offering from OpenAI that functions as an AI-powered search engine that is aware of current events and uses real-time information from the Internet. The experience is a prototype, and OpenAI plans to integrate the best features directly into ChatGPT in the future. Microsoft is a major investor in OpenAI thanks to multiyear, multi-billion dollar investments. Elon Musk was an investor when OpenAI was first founded in 2015 but has since completely severed ties with the startup and created his own AI chatbot, Grok. With a subscription to ChatGPT Plus, you can access GPT-4, GPT-4o mini or GPT-4o. Plus, users also have priority access to GPT-4o, even at capacity, while free users get booted down to GPT-4o mini.

In May 2024, OpenAI threw open access to its latest model for free – no monthly subscription necessary. Keep exploring generative AI tools and ChatGPT with Prompt Engineering for ChatGPT from Vanderbilt University. Learn more about how these tools work and incorporate them into your daily chat gpt-5 life to boost productivity. At Apple’s Worldwide Developer’s Conference in June 2024, the company announced a partnership with OpenAI that will integrate ChatGPT with Siri. With the user’s permission, Siri can request ChatGPT for help if Siri deems a task is better suited for ChatGPT.

However, you will be bound to Microsoft’s Edge browser, where the AI chatbot will follow you everywhere in your journey on the web as a “co-pilot.” One CEO who recently saw a version of GPT-5 described it as “really good” and “materially better,” with OpenAI demonstrating the new model using use cases and data unique to his company. The CEO also hinted at other unreleased capabilities of the model, such as the ability to launch AI agents being developed by OpenAI to perform tasks automatically. Therefore, the technology’s knowledge is influenced by other people’s work. Since there is no guarantee that ChatGPT’s outputs are entirely original, the chatbot may regurgitate someone else’s work in your answer, which is considered plagiarism.

It can generate related terms based on context and associations, compared to the more linear approach of more traditional keyword research tools. You can also input a list of keywords and classify them based on search intent. Similar to a phone’s auto-complete feature, ChatGPT uses a prediction model to guess the most likely next word based on the context it has been provided. The model has been trained through a combination of automated learning and human feedback to generate text that closely matches what you’d expect to see in text written by a human.

For example, you could create one bot to give you cooking advice, and another to generate ideas for your next screenplay, and another to explain complicated scientific concepts to you. One of the big features you get on mobile that you don’t get on the web is the ability to hold a voice conversation with ChatGPT, just as you might with Google Assistant, Siri, or Alexa. Both free and paying users can use this feature in the mobile apps – just tap on the headphones icon next to the text input box. For example, ChatGPT’s most original GPT-3.5 model was trained on 570GB of text data from the internet, which OpenAI says included books, articles, websites, and even social media. Because it’s been trained on hundreds of billions of words, ChatGPT can create responses that make it seem like, in its own words, “a friendly and intelligent robot”.

Microsoft has also used its OpenAI partnership to revamp its Bing search engine and improve its browser. On February 7, 2023, Microsoft unveiled a new Bing tool, now known as Copilot, that runs on OpenAI’s GPT-4, customized specifically for search. Microsoft’s Copilot offers free image generation, also powered by DALL-E 3, in its chatbot. This is a great alternative if you don’t want to pay for ChatGPT Plus but want high-quality image outputs. Yes, an official ChatGPT app is available for iPhone and Android users. Make sure to download OpenAI’s app, as many copycat fake apps are listed on Apple’s App Store and the Google Play Store that are not affiliated with OpenAI.

There are several ways that ChatGPT could transform Microsoft Office, and someone has already made a nifty ChatGPT plug-in for Google Slides. Microsoft has also announced that the AI tech will be baked into Skype, where it’ll be able to produce meeting summaries or make suggestions based on questions that pop up in your group chat. OpenAI released a larger and more capable model, called GPT-3, in June 2020, but it was the full arrival of ChatGPT 3.5 in November 2022 that saw the technology burst into the mainstream. Throughout the course of 2023, it got several significant updates too, which made it easier to use.

However, that changed by the end of 2023 following a long-drawn battle between CEO Sam Altman and the board over differences in opinion. Altman reportedly pushed for aggressive language model development, while the board had reservations about AI safety. The former eventually prevailed and the majority of the board opted to step down. Since then, Altman has spoken more candidly about OpenAI’s plans for ChatGPT-5 and the next generation language model. ChatGPT is an AI chatbot that can generate human-like text in response to a prompt or question.

We asked OpenAI representatives about GPT-5’s release date and the Business Insider report. They responded that they had no particular comment, but they included a snippet of a transcript from Altman’s recent appearance on the Lex Fridman podcast. This website is using a security service to protect itself from online attacks. There are several actions that could trigger this block including submitting a certain word or phrase, a SQL command or malformed data. Learners are advised to conduct additional research to ensure that courses and other credentials pursued meet their personal, professional, and financial goals.

Undertaking a job search can be tedious and difficult, and ChatGPT can help you lighten the load. A great way to get started is by asking a question, similar to what you would do with Google. Although the subscription price may seem steep, it is the same amount as Microsoft Copilot Pro and Google One AI Premium, which are Microsoft’s and Google’s paid AI offerings.

ChatGPT’s reliance on data found online makes it vulnerable to false information, which in turn can impact the veracity of its statements. This often leads to what experts call “hallucinations,” where the output generated is stylistically correct, but factually wrong. ChatGPT can also be accessed as a mobile app on iOS and Android devices. To do so, download the ChatGPT app from the App Store for iPhone and iPad devices, or from Google Play for Android devices. And it has affected how everyday people experience the internet in “profound ways,” according to Raghu Ravinutala, the co-founder and CEO of customer experience startup Yellow.ai.