ChatGPT: Voice AI that is changing our world

At the end of 2022, the US company OpenAI released the chatbot ChatGPT. Since then, the system has been available to all Internet users free of charge. While some have already integrated the chatbot ChatGPT into their everyday lives, others are very concerned about the future of their data and intellectual property. New media reports on topics relating to possible applications and risks follow almost daily.

At the beginning of 2023, OpenAI even released the corresponding ChatGPT API, so that companies have since been able to implement chatbots “themselves” using the well-known GPT language model.

What is ChatGPT actually?

ChatGPT is a chatbot, a piece of software that simulates a human conversation. On the ChatGPT website you will find a simple input window, just like a search engine. Anyone who registers on the site can type in any question free of charge.

Who is behind ChatGPT?

ChatGPT comes from the US company OpenAI, which is involved in research into artificial intelligence. More precisely, ChatGPT originally comes from the non-profit parent company OpenAI Inc. The for-profit subsidiary that belongs to it is called OpenAI LP. The organization’s main financial backers were entrepreneur Elon Musk (known for Tesla and SpaceX) and Microsoft. As of 2015, OpenAI’s goal was to develop and commercialize open-source artificial intelligence in a way that benefits society rather than harms it. The organization wanted “free collaboration” with other institutions and researchers by making its patents and research results available to the public. It should be noted that Microsoft is one of the largest investors in ChatGPT and its parent company OpenAI. Microsoft only confirmed its support at the beginning of 2023 and announced further investments in OpenAI. According to the media, there is even talk of a takeover – but this is anything but confirmed. According to rumors, the current investment is said to be worth a full 10 billion dollars.

Background and development of ChatGPT

Chatbots are actually nothing new. And yet ChatGPT is causing such a stir among consumers, companies and the media. In contrast to the previously known chatbots, ChatGPT is widely applicable and not limited to a single use case or application. The knowledge and functions of ChatGPT are much broader than anything users are used to from previous chatbots.

ChatGPT’s system generates texts in just a few seconds that at first glance can hardly be distinguished from those written by real people. The bot writes poems, essays, news texts, song lines and even program code.
The language robot developed by the company OpenAI is based on the GPT-3 system, a very comprehensive artificial intelligence (AI) model that has been enriched with almost all Internet sources, such as Wikipedia articles, digitized book collections and many other text sources. With this content, the AI learns to recognize the patterns and structures of language. If you now give the chatbot a word, it can use statistical correlations to predict with a very high probability what the next word should be. The algorithm then starts again from the beginning based on the previous word series and continues to make additions. The result is a complete sentence, or even an entire text, poem or programming code. During development, OpenAI repeatedly had the chatbot evaluated and optimized by humans. The following graphic illustrates the “Human in the Loop” process. OpenAI itself also calls this process fine-tuning.

What can I use ChatGPT for?

ChatGPT can be used for a variety of private and professional applications. According to my survey in April 2023, the majority of Swiss and German users use ChatGPT both professionally and privately. More on the survey results here.

One of the most common applications for which ChatGPT is used is the generation of texts. According to the users surveyed, ChatGPT can usually do this even more efficiently, i.e. the users themselves. Another frequently used application is general information. Consumers ask ChatGPT for cooking recipes or other instructions, for example.

If ChatGPT is used to generate texts or even to create program codes, correct prompting is a decisive success factor for the quality of the texts. Prompts are the commands that users give the chatbot to complete their request. You can find out more about prompting correctly in these instructions.

How much does ChatGPT cost?

The use of ChatGPT is initially free of charge. Any interested consumer can call up the chatbot via the OpenAI website, give it commands and chat with it. All basic functions are available to users in the free version of ChatGPT. However, capacity bottlenecks can quickly occur. Especially in phases in which many users make requests to OpenAI at the same time, it can happen that the chatbot only responds slowly or even fails completely for a few minutes.

Furthermore, according to OpenAI, only Pro users have the chance to access new features such as plugins and APIs. So if you want to use ChatGPT for professional purposes and don’t want to take any risks with regard to failures, you should opt for the Pro version. The same applies to consumers who are interested in additional features such as plug-ins.

Is ChatGPT Pro worth it?

If you want to use the Pro version of ChatGPT, you currently pay $20 per month. These costs apply exclusively to the use of the chatbot ChatGPT and the associated announced services, such as plugins.

Please note: If you want to use GPT as an API and also apply for custom keys, you will have to pay a fee for each use anyway. This depends on the number and length of the queries. If you want to keep your API usage costs under control, you should set up a monthly cost ceiling in your OpenAI dashboard. For users who just want to experiment with the API, a cost cap of 30$ per month is sufficient.

Now the question, is ChatGPT Pro worthwhile? This is clearly dependent on usage behavior. If you are still using the free version and have only rarely reached the capacity limits, you can leave it at the free version for the time being. So far there are very few plugins and only a few Pro users have access to them at all. However, it can be assumed that the number of relevant plugins will increase, as will the number of approved users. As soon as this is the case, a pro subscription should be considered again.

How reliable is ChatGPT?

Anyone using ChatGPT should be aware that the system can also make mistakes. It is based on a large amount of data from the Internet, which may include fake news or outdated training data. The “dangerous” thing about using ChatGPT is that the answers are always written very plausibly. At first glance, it is not noticeable when ChatGPT makes a false statement. It is therefore advisable to check all statements made by ChatGPT again with “common sense”.

The technology behind ChatGPT simply explained

Anyone who thinks that ChatGPT is intelligent is unfortunately wrong. ChatGPT is simply brilliant at calculating probabilities. After each word or group of words, the system calculates how high the probability is for the respective word.

Simply explained, ChatGPT works in a similar way to “suggest words” on WhatsApp. Over time, WhatsApp gets to “know” its users better and gets better at calculating the probability of the next word. ChatGPT also uses this method, simplified and explained. However, it calculates the probability on the basis of all its knowledge from the Internet. You can read more about this in my report on SRF 10vor10.

Areas of application of ChatGPT in practice

The ChatGPT chatbot is versatile and the target groups are broad. Users can use ChatGPT to answer general knowledge questions, to generate texts or for translations. Companies can now even use ChatGPT to provide customer support. ago The media are constantly discussing how or whether students should be allowed to use ChatGPT. The same applies to teachers, of course. Here are some examples of applications:

1. text comprehension and creation

ChatGPT understands texts and can even write texts itself. For example, you can ask ChatGPT for a summary of a specific text. Or you can have ChatGPT formulate an SEO meta description for you. Simply follow these instructions for the prompts and commands for ChatGPT.

2. dialog systems and customer support

ChatGPT supports customer support in two ways. On the one hand, customer support employees can of course also ask ChatGPT for answers. They can also write down the answers in keywords and ask ChatGPT to compose an e-mail to a customer from these answers, keeping to the company’s tone of voice.

ChatGPT can also be used in companies’ chatbots. To be more precise, ChatGPT is not used here, but only the ChatGPT API or the Large Language Models (LLMs) GPT3, GPT3.5 or GPT4. These LLMs are, so to speak, the language models on which ChatGPT is built. Companies can also use these models for their own chatbots. The language models are combined with company-specific knowledge to create widely applicable but company-specific chatbots. Here is an example of how Helvetia is the first company in Switzerland to use its chat service with GPT.

3. creative writing and content production

ChatGPT can formulate entire texts almost by itself. For example, the chatbot can create invitation texts. In practice, it is advisable not to adopt these texts one-to-one, but to give them your own personal touch. You could even use ChatGPT to write blog posts. Here is a small example of GPT for blog posts. But again, please pay attention to the appropriate prompts!

4. translation and language processing

Like Deepl, ChatGPT can also be used for translations. The chatbot can translate texts. He can also chat with us in different languages or create texts for us. The start-up Quazel, for example, uses LLM technology for its language learning app.

5. create and correct program code

Anyone who has always wanted to develop a computer game but had no idea about program codes can now develop software thanks to ChatGPT. The chatbot can generate code. He can also adapt or even optimize existing code. Users who use these functions should be aware that ChatGPT can of course also make mistakes. So if you have no idea how to develop, you should take the code written by ChatGPT with a grain of salt.

6. education and research

ChatGPT could theoretically also create entire term papers. This is of course not desirable in practice and some educational institutions have even banned the use of ChatGPT altogether. However, students, researchers and teachers can make good use of ChatGPT for an initial collection of topics. For example, the chatbot can suggest possible content for a term paper on a specific topic. Students can then use these initial ideas to create their own outline and term paper.

What are the advantages & disadvantages of ChatGPT?

The advantages of ChatGPT

ChatGPT offers a wide range of possible applications and can therefore greatly simplify the everyday lives of its users. According to the consumers surveyed in April 2023, ChatGPT primarily helps to increase efficiency. Furthermore, ChatGPT is even better than its users in many disciplines. This applies, for example, to the generation of texts. However, this advantage only applies to users who have difficulty writing their own texts without ChatGPT. Anyone who has used ChatGPT for a longer period of time will notice that the texts mostly follow the same pattern and offer little variety.

The disadvantages of ChatGPT

In addition to the advantages, ChatGPT also has disadvantages. Not all statements made by ChatGPT are correct and users must be aware that errors may occur when using ChatGPT. If you use ChatGPT to generate texts, you should also think about copyright. Furthermore, it is not clear which knowledge database ChatGPT is really based on and which additional parameters were added during the fine-tuning process. Does ChatGPT therefore possibly have more right-wing or left-wing tendencies? These and similar questions remain unanswered to this day and must be taken into account when using them.

ChatGPT advice from Sophie Hundertmark

Did this article appeal to you? Or has the article raised further questions for you? Would you like to use ChatGPT yourself in your company or in your bot?

If you can answer “yes” to at least one of these questions, please get in touch with me. I offer all kinds of consulting formats around ChatGPT. I can give you a keynote speech. I can develop concepts with you on how you can use ChatGPT and GPT in your company in compliance with data protection regulations. I support the integration of GPT into your chatbot. And I can easily answer your questions about ChatGPT and GPT or connect you with other suitable experts. Just contact me via WhatsApp message or e-mail.

Conclusion: The potential of ChatGPT for the future

ChatGPT and other Large Language Models (LLMs) are probably here to stay. I suspect that we will be using these language models more and more in the future and that they will become an integral part of our everyday lives. In a few years, GPT and co. will probably have become something quite “normal”. I like to compare this with the Internet or websites. Today, nobody would ask “Do you use the Internet?” or “Do you already have a website?”. That is simply standard for us. For me, the open question remains as to how long it will take for ChatGPT to become the “standard”.

What is ChatGPT? – Frequently asked questions & answers

What is ChatGPT?

ChatGPT is an AI-supported language model based on the GPT-4 architecture that is able to generate and understand human-like texts.

How does ChatGPT work?

ChatGPT uses transformer architecture and machine learning to recognize patterns and structures from large amounts of text data and generate coherent responses on this basis.

What can ChatGPT be used for?

ChatGPT can be used for text comprehension, dialog systems, creative writing, translation, knowledge-based systems and educational purposes.

Is ChatGPT always correct and reliable?

Although ChatGPT is often useful and accurate, it can also make mistakes or provide inaccurate information as it is based on patterns from training data.

How is ChatGPT trained?

ChatGPT is trained by machine learning, whereby large amounts of text data are collected, prepared and processed in a pre-training and fine-tuning process.