ChatGPT: This Elon Musk-founded AI chatbot is taking the internet by storm; here's all you need to know

OpenAI, an independent research body founded by the world's richest man Elon Musk along with Sam Altman, launched a chatbot, ChatGPT on Wednesday last week, and, in just a week, the service has peaked at over 1 million users.

The chatbot has taken the internet by storm. With human-like replies and prompt answers, this platform has made the internet curious.

What is ChatGPT?

ChatGPT is a conversational dialogue model, a chatting robot, trained by artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning. It understands and responds to natural human language and answers questions, and talks like you were to talk to humans. It gets its name from GPT or Generative Pre-Trained Transformer. It is a deep-learning language model that specializes in generating human-like written text. Deep Learning which is a machine learning method with three or more layers of a neural network attempts to simulate the behavior of a human brain, which then allows it to learn like humans.

But how is it different from Siri or an Alexa who can also talk and respond, tell a joke or recite a poem? How is ChatGPT different than any other AI models that are already available?

Well, it's different because ChatGPT will remember your earlier conversations for context, it will even admit its mistakes, challenge premises, and sometimes even decline to answer.

How does ChatGPT work?

A user can start by going to OpenAI's website, click on the Try ChatGPT button, and start using.

OpenAI has trained ChatGPT using a training method known as Reinforcement Learning from Human Feedback OR RLHF. It uses a reward AND punishment system to train AI. So, whenever it takes an action, it is classified into two categories - desirable or punishable. The desired action is rewarded whereas an undesired one is punished. With this trial-and-error method, AI then learns what works and what wouldn't.

OpenAI has also used humans as trainers of this AI.  It is through conversations that these trainers played both the roles of a user and of an AI assistant. But this training method can be a bit problematic, as it can often mislead the model.

An ideal answer would depend on what the model knows, rather than what the human demonstrator knows.. and this could be a limitation to this exciting new thing on the internet.

So, if a user asks a complex question or does not phrase the question well, then the bot can decline to answer. It will also decline to answer if it's not an appropriate question.

E-commerce company Meesho's cofounder Vidit Atrayee took to LinkedIn to sound off this warning that it was up until a few months ago everyone thought AI could only take repetitive jobs but with ChatGPT clearly, that's not the case. AI can come after creative jobs as well.

For now, ChatGPT is free to use for the research period only.

CEO Sam Altman has already hinted that the company will monetize the platform in the future. “We will have to monetize it somehow at some point; the compute costs are eye-watering", he said in a tweet when asked if the service will forever be free.

we will have to monetize it somehow at some point; the compute costs are eye-watering

— Sam Altman (@sama) December 5, 2022

average is probably single-digits cents per chat; trying to figure out more precisely and also how we can optimize it

— Sam Altman (@sama) December 5, 2022