ChatGPT: The Language Model on Everyone’s Lips

Joshua Jacobs

In the age of viral trends, it seems that tracking what is currently trending at any point in time has gone from challenging to impossible. But some moments leave a big enough dent in the online landscape that they are hard to miss for anyone living anywhere other than under a rock. It seems that ChatGPT has captured the internet in exactly this way. It has the potential of going on to do what YouTube did in the mid to late-2000s – changing not only the current conversation but how conversations take place.

So what is ChatGPT? To answer this question, we should probably first have a go at understanding what Artificial Intelligence (AI) is, and, without getting into the weeds, have a look at why AI research is exciting for so many developers and companies in the tech space right now.

What is AI?

Since the time of Alan Turing, iconically played by Benedict Cumberbatch in the popular biopic The Imitation Game and a key individual in the effort to break the famous Enigma code used by Nazi Germany during World War II, the idea of a machine that shows something like human intelligence has fascinated many of the greatest minds. Such a machine was known in general terms as a “Turing Machine” at the time. And with such a machine in mind, the study of Computer Science was born and the ENIAC– the first general-purpose digital computer– was built in 1945, famously filling an entire room.

In the modern tech world, according to the popular journal article, Conceptions of Artificial Intelligence and Singularity, the term AI is usually used to refer to one of the following three main types of computer systems:

1. A computer system that behaves exactly like a human mind.

2. A computer system that solves certain problems previously solved only by the human mind.

3. A computer system with the same cognitive functions as the human mind.

Leaving the first definition aside for now, let us focus on the second and third definition. Looking at the second definition, perhaps the most famous computer system of this kind is Deep Blue, the first ever computer to beat chess world champions (like Gary Kasparov, and later Magnus Carlsen) at their own game. As for the third definition, computing systems like WolframAlpha are often thought of as fitting quite well into this category. There is of course a lot of overlap between the second and third definitions, but these examples are a sufficient start. So which is ChatGPT? ChatGPT is pretty much the perfect example of a combination of numbers two and three on this list, but even imitates number one a little bit. And this is where the excitement really begins.

What is ChatGPT?

ChatGPT, as phrased by the OpenAI team (led by Sam Altman), is an AI Language Model. This means that ChatGPT, unlike popular search engines such as Google, does not only provide search results but is also able to interact conversationally. Put simply, while Google can only show examples of essays that already exist, ChatGPT can write an essay. This is a simple example, but the power of something like ChatGPT is already very clear.

ChatGPT is one among many Language Models currently dominating the world of AI and computing, with the likes of Google and Meta also developing AI systems of this kind right now.

What is AGI?

Getting back to the first definition of AI mentioned earlier, this kind of computer system still has yet to be invented and is often not referred to as AI but rather as AGI (Artificial General Intelligence). The reason for this distinction is basically that AI will usually imitate human intelligence, while an AGI system would be the kind of computer system that would be basically impossible to tell apart from an actual human. Such a computer system has famously been shown in popular movies like Blade Runner, Ex Machina, and the Terminator trilogy. Such a computer system is said to be able to pass the famous “Turing Test” and the possible results of developing such a computer system are usually discussed in a tone of warning by the likes of Elon Musk (who, coincidentally, co-founded OpenAI).

Getting back to ChatGPT, all that is needed to use this AI system is to either download the app on any mobile app store or sign up via the OpenAI website. From here, a bit of digging on Reddit will give some interesting ideas on what kind of prompts can be used, but as with most things, a bit of trial and error will not hurt.

For now, where this can go is quite uncertain but there is no doubt that there is plenty of reason to be excited about AI and where it could lead.