What is ChatGPT?
ChatGPT is an Artificial Intelligence (AI) chatbot owned and developed by OpenAI.
It was released on November 20, 2022, and currently has over 100 million users. This chatbot has been trained by an incredible dataset that can generate and understand most text. The ChatGPT language model can answer questions and even help you with tasks—all you need to do is ask.[1]
ChatGPT is free to use, though you can purchase ChatGPT Plus for extra perks, such as priority access during peak hours.
How does ChatGPT work?
ChatGPT has been trained to take questions or prompts from users and generate responses.
Training is the process of teaching an artificial language model how to make predictions. Instead of searching the web for answers when you ask it a question, ChatGPT knows the answer based on its training data. This two-step training process consisted of pretraining—where the AI was exposed to extensive datasets from the web—and fine-tuning—where the model was further improved based on user feedback.
When you ask ChatGPT a question, it evaluates your prompt or question, compares it to its training data, and delivers an appropriate response. However, unlike a human, ChatGPT doesn't know right from wrong. It only knows what it was trained to do, and the statistical patterns of language. As ChatGPT types its responses to you, it does so by predicting the next word in each sentence based on the previous words.
What can ChatGPT be used for?
ChatGPT can be used to answer questions, explain difficult concepts, solve problems, and more.
Most notably, ChatGPT can be used to write essays, though recent tools make it fairly easy to detect AI in written works. As long as users generate the best prompt for their request, ChatGPT will provide a great response.
More common uses include:
Writing resumes and cover letters
Creating code and code fixes
Solving math problems
Crafting jokes
Generating job interview questions
Breaking down complex topics into simpler terms
Receiving relationship advice
Writing song lyrics or poems
Casual chatting
ChatGPT is constantly learning and developing, so it may occasionally provide incorrect information. Always fact-check the responses if you're using ChatGPT as a source.
How do I use ChatGPT?
1
Sign up for an account. To use ChatGPT, you must have an OpenAI account. You can sign up on the OpenAI website. You'll just need a valid email address and phone number to get started.
Once you're logged in, you'll see an open chat on the homepage.
2
Give ChatGPT a prompt and wait for a detailed response.
The AI relies on well-written prompts to answer appropriately and correctly. Be as clear and informative as possible; broad prompts usually lead to irrelevant answers.
Here are some popular examples to get you started:
"Write an outline for an essay about positive uses of AI chatbots in schools."
"Write a 4-page personal high school essay about the Israel-Palestine conflict, showing that I feel conflicted and want a peaceful solution."
"Write a Python function that reverses a string using a slice."
"Write me a cover letter that includes [your job experience]."
Always follow ChatGPT's usage policies; if you don't, your account may be suspended or terminated.
If you have a request that generates a long response from ChatGPT, you may hit the character limit. ChatGPT may stop responding suddenly. If this is the case, you'll need to break up your request into smaller parts or provide a more specific request.
3
Provide additional details if necessary.
Once you receive your first response, you can ask ChatGPT to elaborate or add more information. Continue to prompt ChatGPT until you're satisfied with the responses.