What is ChatGPT? Key Facts about OpenAI’s Chatbot.

ChatGPT is a generative AI-driven chat service developed by OpenAI, a prominent artificial intelligence lab based in the U.S. Launched in November 2022, the service rapidly gained over 100 million users, drawing global attention due to its highly accurate responses.

ChatGPT interacts with users in a natural, conversational manner, akin to speaking with a human. It leverages vast amounts of internet-sourced information, enabling it to address a broad spectrum of topics. This includes providing recipes, hotel recommendations, assisting with creative writing such as novels and proposals, offering programming guidance, and much more.

With the introduction of ‘ChatGPT Plus,’ the service has addressed a key limitation – the absence of a web browsing capability. This enhancement is anticipated to significantly broaden the service’s application and usefulness.”

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ChatGPT and the Beginning of the Fourth AI Boom

Artificial Intelligence (AI), as the term implies, refers to technology that simulates human-like intelligence. To date, AI has experienced three major booms. The first boom (1950s-1960s) focused on replicating human intelligence through techniques like “reasoning” and “search.” These early AI systems could play simple maze-solving games but struggled with complex real-world problems, leading to a period known as an AI winter.

During the second boom (1980s), research on “expert systems,” which involved encoding expert knowledge as rules for problem-solving, progressed. However, the challenge of compiling extensive information into a computer-readable format led to another AI winter.

The third boom, starting in the 2000s, was driven by methods like “deep learning,” which enables AI to self-learn using large datasets. Deep learning uses neural networks mimicking the human brain. A notable event during this era was AlphaGo’s victory over world-class Go player Lee Sedol, showcasing AI’s potential to surpass human capabilities.

Now, the fourth AI boom is on the horizon, centered around “generative AI.” This technology can create new data such as images, text, and voice from existing data.

ChatGPT: A Conversational AI Service

Developed by the American AI research institute OpenAI, ChatGPT is a user-friendly conversational AI service. Users input questions on the ChatGPT website, receiving responses in seconds. The service supports multiple languages, including English, French, German, Chinese, and Japanese.

ChatGPT differs from search services like Google and Yahoo. Instead of using keywords to find related websites, ChatGPT directly answers queries in natural language. For instance, asking “Which are the top three watermelon-producing prefectures?” will yield specific answers, bypassing the need to search through websites.

ChatGPT’s knowledge base extends to specialized areas like law and medicine, in multiple languages. It has impressively performed near the pass line of the United States Medical Licensing Examination (USMLE) and scored in the top 10% of a practice test for the US bar exam.

Rapid User Growth

Announced in November 2022, ChatGPT reached over 1 million users in five days, growing to over 100 million monthly active users in two months. By April 2023, the ChatGPT site had approximately 210 million visits. The largest user bases were in the United States, India, and Japan.

Industry Recognition

ChatGPT has caught the attention of IT industry leaders. Bill Gates, in his March 2023 blog post, highlighted GPT as one of the two most revolutionary technologies he’s encountered, alongside the graphical user interface (GUI). He predicts AI will fundamentally change communication and industry dynamics.

About OpenAI

Founded in December 2015 by notable investors including Elon Musk and Sam Altman, OpenAI originally started as a non-profit. In 2019, it formed a “profit-capped” for-profit entity, Open AI LP, to manage the high costs of AI development and talent acquisition. Microsoft has made significant investments in Open AI, gaining exclusive access to various research outcomes, including integrating ChatGPT into its cloud service Azure and search engine Bing.