OpenAI's ChatGPT unleashed an artificial intelligence (AI) movement when it rolled out last fall. Since then, the AI chatbot has dominated headlinesandpreoccupied the minds of those running Twitter, Google, Amazon, Microsoft, and Meta, inspiring them to create their own generative AI projects.
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ChatGPT is certainly not overrated; users can come up with creative ideas for prompts, such as asking questions in search of funny answers, creating content, improving their writing or Excel skills, finding and correcting a bug in code, or summarizing a book.
Across all these areas, one thing is abundantly clear: what makes this AI tool remarkable isn't how innovative it is but how great it is at generating text and how accessible and easy it is to use. ChatGPT can hold conversational text interactions with users, which feel as natural as conversing with a well-informed person (who sometimes hallucinates).
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Though ChatGPT only launched in November, it gained 100 million users by January, quickly becoming the fastest-growing 'app' of all time, surpassing TikTok -- until Threads dethroned it in July. ChatGPT is so popular and high-performing that some wonder if the AI chatbot could replace programmers, writers, and even doctors and how it could revolutionize different industries.
Start by going to chat.openai.com and then use an email address or a Google or Microsoft account to sign up. You need to create an account on the OpenAI website to log in and access ChatGPT, but it is free.
If you've never created an account, click 'Sign up' and follow the prompts to enter your information. OpenAI does require a valid phone number for verification to create an account on its website.
If you haven't created an account, click on 'Sign up'. Otherwise, log in with your OpenAI credentials.
Screenshot by Maria Diaz/Next, you'll see a few disclaimers before you can chat with the AI chatbot. Read and accept them one by one to enter the chat.
The terms will come up in three stages, clickNexton the first two andDoneon the last one.
Screenshot by Maria Diaz/Once you've logged in to your OpenAI account on the ChatGPT side of the website, it's time to get to know the AI tool's window. Here's a breakdown of what you will see, with the image below as an example:
The numbered areas are explained above.
Screenshot by Maria Diaz/Now you know how to log in to and access ChatGPT, it's time to get started. You can ask the language model any burning questions you might have and see what answers you get -- the possibilities are, quite literally, endless. ChatGPT is a tool that can be applied in endless projects, from software development to writing to translations, and so much more.
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Type in any ChatGPT prompts in the text bar at the bottom of the page and pressenterto submit your questions. The AI chatbot will then generate text to provide helpful answers to your queries.
Start writing in the text box at the bottom of the page. Then, pressenterto submit your prompt.
Screenshot by Maria Diaz/ChatGPT can generate responses to prompts (a feature that could eventually challenge search engines) that are enough to become an essential tool for content generation, from writing essays to summarizing a book for you. Still, it can also write and fix code, make calculations, help you compile your resume, write Excel formulas, translate information, and more.
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The better the prompt, the better the response will be. Here are examples of prompts you could start with:
ChatGPT is a large language model that uses artificial intelligence to hold text conversations with users.
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These conversations can feel as natural as if you were asking someone questions.
The human-like responses are helpful when translating from one language to another, looking for instructions on how to do something, and generating written content.
OpenAI recently announced you can increase the degree of customization for ChatGPT within your account by using custom instructions. This feature will give the AI chatbot context for each conversation, so it can respond according to your preferences, making it perfectly tailored to respond to you.
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If you'd like a certain degree of literary proficiency or professionalism in all of ChatGPT's responses to your prompts, you can go to your account and change the custom instructions to reflect this. For example, if you have an 8-year-old at home that you're letting use ChatGPT, you can add custom instructions to make it always respond as if it's talking to an 8-year-old, which will ensure it uses plain kid-friendly language.
ChatGPT uses reinforcement learning with human feedback (RLHF) to intelligently process its environment, using human demonstrations to adapt to different situations with learned, desired behaviors.
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ChatGPT was trained on a substantial amount of data before its research preview and continues learning through the human knowledge users provide, making it able to give educated responses to a wide variety of topics.
You must register for an OpenAI account to use ChatGPT for the first time. Sign up for a free OpenAI account using your email address and a valid phone number, and get started with ChatGPT following the steps above.
You can access ChatGPT by going to chat.openai.com and logging in. If you're on OpenAI's website, you can log in to your account, then scroll down until you see ChatGTP on the bottom left corner of the page, and click on it to start chatting.
There's no way to use ChatGPT through OpenAI without logging in, and when you do create an account through the website, you must also provide an active phone number for confirmation.
If you'd rather access an AI chatbot without logging in to a website, you can use Bing Chat, which is not only free, but lets you use it without logging in, and it's built with GPT-4, a larger and newer model than the one used in ChatGPT, also from OpenAI. You can log in to Bing with a Microsoft account for extended conversations.
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HuggingChat is another AI chatbot that doesn't require users to log in to access it, but it's not as effective as ChatGPT and Bing Chat.
OpenAI launched an iOS app for ChatGPT, which you can find in the App Store if you have an iPhone.
The company also recently announced the launch of an Android app, and users can pre-register for it now.
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If you don't want to download an app, smartphone users can use the AI-based tool from their mobile browser on their device.
The steps to use OpenAI's ChatGPT from your Android phone are the same as above: go to chat.openai.com, log in, accept the terms, and start typing. The AI assistant will work just as it does when you access it from your computer.
Yes, you can use ChatGPT for free -- for now. Since the natural language processing model is still in its research and "learning" preview phase, people can use it for free; you only need to register for a free OpenAI account, though there is an option to upgrade to a paid membership.
The key differences between a free account and ChatGPT Plus.
Screenshot: Maria Diaz/OpenAI launched ChatGPT Plus for customers who want unlimited access without black-out windows during peak times, faster responses, and priority access to new features. The cost is$20/month.
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The paid subscription also gives users access to GPT-4, a larger and more advanced LLM than GPT-3.5, which is used in the free version of ChatGPT.
Your imagination is the limit. Have fun with different ChatGPT prompts. 's David Gewirtz asked the AI chatbot to write a WordPress plugin for him and used it to help him fix code faster, for example. He also asked ChatGPT to write a Star Trek script and started a business using it and other AI tools.
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Others have used it to write malware. One professor has promoted the use of ChatGPT in his classroom, and countless other teachers are using it even more than their students. Here are a few other ideas you could try:
The more details you write in your prompts, the more precise the answers will be.
ChatGPT could one day replace and, in the case of Bing Chat, enhance search engines. Although the text bar in ChatGPT isn't a search bar, Microsoft introduced an AI-powered Bing search engine connected to the internet months ago, providing answers to questions that ChatGPT can't handle.
ChatGPT was recently updated to support sharing conversations with others by creating a link for them. If you want to send a conversation to someone else, follow these steps:
If you're trying to figure out which is the best AI chatbot, you might wonder how OpenAI's ChatGPT compares to others, like Google Bard and Microsoft's AI-powered Bing. ChatGPT's rise is primarily attributed to the expert combination of wide accessibility, knowledge, and conversation fluidity.
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Compared to ChatGPT, Bing Chat is more based on its search-engine nature, as it combines GPT-4 and gathers information from the internet, even quoting the sources for the web pages where it got its response.
AI systems like ChatGPT aren't almighty; they can and do reject inappropriate requests. Aside from having limited knowledge, the AI assistant can identify inappropriate submissions to prevent the generation of unsafe content.
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These submissions include questions that violate someone's rights, are offensive, are discriminatory, or involve illegal activities. The ChatGPT model can also challenge incorrect premises, answer follow-up questions, and even admit mistakes when you point them out.
ChatGPT can generate essays, write code, and more from user queries.
Screenshot by Maria Diaz/Most of the time, when different people ask ChatGPT the same question, they will get the same answer. There might be a few variations in words, but the response will be almost identical.
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Someone who wanted to determine whether ChatGPT wrote an article or essay could ask ChatGPT the same question the article or essay was based on and see if the response is similar. ChatGPT also tends to generate more polite prose than human writers.
ChatGPT, like all language models, has limitations and can give nonsensical answers and incorrect information, so it's important to double-check the data it gives you. It's constantly learning from the text data provided by users and the results it finds online, which can make it prone to misinformation.
OpenAI recommends that users provide feedback on what ChatGPT tells them by using the thumbs-up and thumbs-down buttons to improve the model. Even better, you could become part of the company's Bug Bounty program to earn up to$20,000 by reporting security bugs and safety issues.
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The AI chatbot is not connected to the internet and cannot determine the current date, so asking ChatGPT how many days until Easter won't get you an exact number of days. This restriction is one of the ways ChatGPT differs from search engines.
When familiarizing yourself with how to use ChatGPT, you might wonder if your specific conversations will be used for training and, if so, who can view your chats. Your conversations can be viewed by OpenAI and used as training data to refine its systems unless you have a Plus membership, so I wouldn't enter any personal or private information into the chat window.
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The prompts you enter when you use ChatGPT are also permanently saved to your account unless you delete them. If you turn off your chat history, OpenAI will retain all conversations for 30 days before permanently deleting them to monitor for abuse.
Turning off chat history on ChatGPT is pretty simple. Just follow these steps:
New conversations won't be used for training and they won't appear on the sidebar after turning off chat history.
If you'd like to delete the account you use for ChatGPT, you'll have to delete your OpenAI account. Follow these steps:
If you're having issues logging in to ChatGPT after using it, there are a few things you can try. Access to ChatGPT can be affected by various issues -- mine gets denied while using a VPN, for example.
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OpenAI recommends refreshing your browser's cache and cookies and using the correct authentication method and login information. If you've done these things and still can't log in, you can find more troubleshooting help at OpenAI's website.