The 411 on ChatGPT

ChatGPT has captured everyone’s attention on social media and online forums over the past few weeks. It is a chatbot application that generates human-quality responses to questions or commands. One of the reasons it has had such a huge success is that it provides straight answers instantly. Answers are provided without having to sift through dozens of pages in existing search engines. This article provides you with all the information you need to be a part of the conversation and understand this powerful tool better.

 

What is Artificial Intelligence?

Even an expert google engineer might sometimes struggle to find the words needed to explain what AI is. We will try our best. AI or Artificial Intelligence is a branch of computer science that aims to simulate human intelligence in machines by programming them to think and learn how we do. The broad objective would be to allow these computers to make decisions and solve problems.

By feeding AI with large amounts of data, scientists, machine learning engineers, and other experts train an AI system and adjust parameters until it can accurately perform its assigned task. This process is known as supervised training. Once the training is complete, they run follow-up evaluations using different techniques and parameters to assess if the machine performs as it should. That sounds like a fabulous day job to us!

However, not all AI training undergoes supervision. Models that use unsupervised learning do not receive any labeled data. Instead, they receive instructions to discover data and patterns on their own. AI Systems that use unsupervised training teach themselves. ChatGPT is an example of this.

Artificial Intelligence and Natural Language Processing have made significant advances in recent years. They continue to learn and improve at a pace that is so fast that humans need help visualizing it.

 

What is ChatGPT, and how does it work?

ChatGPT stands for “Conversational Generative Pretrained Transformer,” a variant of the GP-3, one of the Large Language Models developed by Open AI. Let’s break this down. A large language model is a neural-based machine learning model trained using copious amounts of data to generate human-like text. When you ask ChatGPT a simple question, it will provide a straight answer based on what it knows. 

Since ChatGPT provides straight answers. These answers offer a crucial advantage compared to a google search because you don’t need to sift through result pages to get the response you’re looking for.

Neural-based machine learning models:

Neural-based machine learning models aim to resemble human brains and how their neuron networks communicate. These neuron networks may remind you of Neuralink, a neuro-technology company owned by Elon Musk. The company focuses on developing implantable brain-machine interfaces (BMIs) that allow humans to communicate directly with machines.

Here is where things get interesting, Elon Musk is also the owner of OpenAI, the company that developed ChatGPT. This research organization aims to create friendly and advanced AI that will benefit humanity. ChatGPT is already playing a pivotal role in fulfilling that promise. This AI was trained using over 8 billion web pages and is one of the most potent large language models.

 

ChatGPT responses and Human Language:

ChatGPT uses machine learning to generate natural language responses. The user interface is simple enough to welcome even those who know little to nothing about tech. ChatGPT works with very basic prompts. Questions are typed into a search bar as text prompts, and ChatGPT answers almost instantly. It received training in “language modeling,” where it learns to predict the next word in a sequence based on the previous terms.

Without any supervision, it learns to understand and generate natural language text. By doing this, it becomes a handy tool. It can answer questions mimicking human conversation, translate text, develop texts for an API key, assist you with online JSON files or write a blog post. It can also follow commands provided by simple prompts.

The model lets you know that although most of the information provided will consist of correct answers, it is not exempt from giving wrong answers, and the accuracy of the content is not guaranteed. The lack of accurate content it sometimes provides is because ChatGPT is still being polished and in high demand. Another thing that plays a part in its potential mishaps is its limited knowledge of the world and events after 2021.

 

Maintaining conversation context:

Another fascinating feature is that ChatGPT can maintain context during a conversation by basing itself on previous questions. So, if you were to ask ChatGPT the recipe for making spaghetti carbonara as the first prompt and then followed up with “can I use gruyere cheese instead of parmesan?”, ChatGPT would be able to fully remember you were still referring to the spaghetti carbonara, and provide you an answer with that in mind.

The same thing would apply if you were to ask ChatGPT, “Is moving to New York City a smart career move for an artist?” and were to follow up with, “Are there any good burritos there?”, ChatGPT would be aware of the fact that you are explicitly asking if there are good burritos in New York City and provide you with a detailed response to your question.

This feature makes it especially useful for chatbot applications and customer service.

 

Unlocking the potential of Chat GPT for entrepreneurs:

Although these new technologies might seem intimidating initially, entrepreneurs and business owners need to understand that AI systems like the ChatGPT model can help them with many applications and functions.

 

Positive Impacts of ChatGPT :

• Customer Service: It can be used as a chatbot to answer customer questions regarding products and orders immediately.

• Personal Assistant Services: Similar to how Siri or Alexa works, ChatGPT could be trained to help with scheduling, appointment setting, making reservations and travel arrangements, and getting in touch with others on your behalf.

• Content Generation: ChatGPT can be provided with prompts requesting it to help find creative ideas for writing blog posts, articles, and reviews. It can also assist e-commerce owners in writing descriptions for the products and product pages. This can help you improve your branding.

• Social Media: ChatGPT can interact and engage with social media users. You could train it to use specific words and phrases that align with your brand and provide potential customers with tailored recommendations that could lead to a potential sale.

• Coding: ChatGPT can assist entrepreneurs with writing computer code without hiring a developer.

 

Potential Negative Impacts of ChatGPT:

• Quality of generated content: AI lacks the creativity and emotions human beings have. Due to this, the content they generate will not be as compelling as human content generated by humans.
• Bias Concerns: Since AI models like ChatGPT use unsupervised training, they are not exempt from learning from data that is biased in terms of race, gender, and ideologies.
• Privacy Concerns: Due to the large amounts of data exchanged through computers, tablets, and mobile devices, privacy has become a priority and a legitimate interest for many. As a result, customers realize the importance of digital privacy and understand that certain things are personal and should not be available to strangers. Check out our article on Privacy Policies to learn more.
• Legal Concerns: Depending on the context and the use given to ChatGPT, it could potentially present business owners with legal concerns.

 

Chat GPT and SEO:

 

SEO is a vital part of business marketing mixes today, especially regarding e-commerces (more on that here). One of the most exciting features of Chat GPT is that you can ask it to produce longer format text by generating a sequence of words based on a prompt.

It still needs to be determined the exact implications of posting content that is completely AI generated on websites in terms of ranking and SEO. Some tools can tell you if AI created a text or not. However, many of these tools still need more development to prevent them from making mistakes.

One of the possible scenarios is that Google and other search engines will flag AI-generated content as plagiarism and punish it for going against its primary goal, which is to provide its users with relevant, unique, high-quality content. An example is “spun content” generated with spinning software and how search engines penalize it.

 

SEO Penalties:

 

Spun Content is the text generated by modifying phrases or text from an original to create a copy of the original text that is “the same but different.” Spinning content makes multiple versions of the same original content. These versions are then published using other titles to avoid duplicate content penalties from search engines.

Although AI Tools like Chat GPT can significantly help the SEO industry by assisting writers with data, research, and ideas, there is still a long way to go when seeking to understand the impact that using them will have in terms of ethics and responsibility.

In January 2023, a Princeton University computer science major, Edward Tian (22), launched an app that detects if ChatGPT wrote a text. The app brings a sense of relief to those concerned about plagiarism and the potential unethical uses of ChatGPT generating content for academia. The app is called GPTZero, and although it is still not entirely accurate, it is being improved consistently.

 

Wrapping Up:

 

“Artificial intelligence is a tool that is neither the root cause nor the cure-all for societal problems. Ultimately, lasting change will only come as we address the ills of our society holistically and head-on.” — AI4ALL Special Interest Group on AI Agents & Human Agency.

New things tend to be feared, and AI technology, such as ChatGPT, is not an exception to the rule. However, experts are working toward the ethical use of these tools. OpenAI and its CEO Sam Altman, have announced their commitment to preventing plagiarism, illegal activities, and other nefarious applications by trying to devise a way to “watermark” content that ChatGPT has generated.

Artificial Intelligence is still in its infancy. Many implications and changes that will come hand in hand with it are still unknown. However, far from scaring you into thinking that AI will replace what you do, this article aims to inspire you to consider all the potential ways you can work alongside AI to grow and expand in whatever your industry might be. Whether you own an e-commerce, a restaurant or are a content creator, AI can help you succeed.

We firmly believe that there is always a way to adapt. Learning to use AI technology in your favor is not only possible, but it’s also necessary!

Reach out!

 

What are your thoughts on these new technologies, and what impact do you think they will have in the lives of humans? Please feel free to reach out to us and share a virtual cup of coffee. We would love to connect!