The start of the year 2023 has marked the arrival of an advance AI chatbot called ChatGPT. It has taken the world by surprise. Suddenly popular terms like Digital marketing, SEO, SEM, Social Media Marketing, Influencer Marketing, analytics, etc have taken a back seat. Such is the impact of ChatGPT that every other post on popular social media platforms is now related directly or indirectly to this new force. More people are getting exposed to the storm as it is far from fading away. Its capabilities are breaking boundaries every day and shocking users.Some are in fear, and some are excited.
What exactly is this new Internet Sensation?
An AI powered auto chat format, ChatGPT, has the ability to understand long forms of text inputs and produce near-human-like responses. If used properly, it has the breathtaking ability to transform the ways, we use the internet and fetch information. In simpler words, it is a natural language processing (NLP) tool, trained on complex algorithms and massive amounts of data, which generates responses in the form of text format, to a wide variety of inputs.
Before getting further, let’s first refresh with some commonly heard terms. It will help us understand this new Superhero of the internet.
Artificial Intelligence (AI)
It refers to replicating human intelligence in computers or chip-driven machines, to perform actions like thinking and making decisions, just like you do. It means that AI can enable a machine to perform tasks that were once thought possible only by humans. So, now you can consider an AI-enabled machine as a smart assistant. It can help you do your everyday tasks like ordering groceries and playing your favorite songs, without you having to do it yourself. You are already exposed to AI devices if you are using smart devices like Alexa, Smart TV, or Smartphone.
Machine Learning (ML)
New algorithms and statistical models are being developed to perform tasks that computers were previously programmed to do. They can enable a computer to analyze, identify patterns and perform tasks by itself. It’s like teaching a robot to do a certain task by giving it a lot of examples. They look at all those examples and figure out how to do the task on their own. ML aims to build a system that improves performance with past data analysis. Hence, ML is also called a sub-field of AI.
Large Language Models (LLMs)
LLMs are like computer programs that can read and learn from a large amount of text data, billions of words, to generate a human-like text. It can also help in tasks like language translation, text summarization, question-answers, and sentiment analysis. With more relevant inputs and fine tunes, LLMs can also generate text content for specific industries and products. ChatGPT is also a large language model chatbot.
OpenAI
OpenAI was founded in 2015, with the goal of developing and promoting AI for the benefit of humanity. It is an AI research and deployment company, founded by Elon Musk and Sam Altman. Sometime in 2018, Musk resigned from the company. He wanted to avoid any conflict with the work Tesla was doing, in the same domain. The organization has recently attracted top investors from across the world, including tech giant Microsoft.
The company focuses on conducting cutting-edge research in Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning to provide practical applications to the masses. People know OpenAI for its large language models such as DALL-E and ChatGPT.
ChatGPT
Here, GPT stands for ‘Generative Pre-Trained Transformers’. It is a subset of machine learning models. It imitates the way biological neurons signal to one another in the human brain. This network of neurons is known as Artificial Neurons Network (ANNs) or Simulated Neuron Network (SNN). They are the heart of deep learning algorithms of machine learning.
ChatGPT is a large language model artificial intelligence chatbot. It is a kind of advanced form of machine learning AI model. It can predict the next word in a series of words and produce a near-human response in text format. With more data and human feedback, it uses ‘Reinforcement Learning with Human Feedback (RLHF)’ as an additional layer to produce more satisfactory responses.
How does it work?
ChatGPT is using GPT3.5 which is a much more advanced version of its predecessor. Massive amount of data and free information from the internet has been used to train this chatbot to learn the patterns and intents of human when they ask a question. In other words, ChatGPT has been armed with trained LLM models which can predict the next word and sentence that humans want to see against their questions.
What set ChatGPT apart from normal chatbots? It is trained to understand the human intent in a question and provide helpful and truthful answers. Because of this training, ChatGPT may discard some of your requests or queries, to avoid illegal or censored content. To get the best results, provide detailed inputs and keep refining it, till you get the best response.
Limitations of this chatbot.
Be mindful of the fact that ChatGPT does have some limitations. Below mentioned are some of them.
- ChatGPT is designed to provide answers that feel right to humans. Sometimes its answers can trick you to believe that the responses are right, even though they are factually wrong.
- The quality of response in ChatGPT is linked to the quality of inputs, a significant shortcoming. Hence, it will provide generic or sometimes untruthful answers to a novice person, then to an expert.
- It is trained to discard or not respond to some requests which intend to generate toxic or harmful answers.
Is it free to use?
It is free to use for all users at present. OpenAI, want users to try out the chatbot and provide feedback to aid their ongoing work on this amazing tool. But, there are some speculations that in the future, all users will have to buy some credits to use it.
What in it for Non-Technical Internet users.
People believe that ChatGPT, is a tool designed and developed exclusively for geeks, software professionals, and digital marketers. This is a myth. ChatGPT can assist non-technical users in a variety of ways. Some of them are
- ChatGPT can translate text from one language to another.
- ChatGPT can help with online navigation to find any website and do research.
- ChatGPT can assist non-technical users with troubleshooting common problems like resolving Error messages or connecting Wi-Fi and many more
- ChatGPT can assist with the step-by-step process of setting up a new e-mail or social media profile.
- ChatGPT can help create social media posts, emails, reports, blogs, ideas for various creative projects, and much more.
Will it replace Search Engines?
Many experts have already expressed their fear that ChatGPT may replace search engines and put Google’s dominance in jeopardy. People are questioning the future of search engine marketing as a career. Its too early to say whether searches will move away from search engines. One must understand that all these language model-based chatbots produce output by calculating what humans intend to read or hear. This can be sometimes deceptive.
Conclusion
We will find it interesting to see how chatbots will be monetized. Whether users will have to buy credits or they will remain free? The issue of targeting potential customers, still unclear. We might see a hybrid model of search engines embedded with language model chatbots. For now, we should embrace and explore this new technology. Let’s hope it does not follow the same path as crypto and blockchain.
About the blog writer
I am Dipak Kumar. I am an entrepreneur and blogger. In my long professional journey, I have worked with various organizations at different levels as a marketer, retailer, and merchandiser. Throughout this journey, I have worked along the consumer funnel. I have witnessed customers’ ever-changing buying behaviors, from brick-and-mortar stores to organized retail to E-Commerce.
I am writing this blog to share my knowledge and understanding of trending news, events, and subjects from Marketing, Retail, E-Commerce, Edtech, Travel, and Start-Ups. It’s not a nine-to-five job for me. It is a whole day and night job requiring in-depth research and collaboration to put things together and bring a new perspective for your consideration. I love doing this and if you also like it, please share it with your contact and online communities.
