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 executives running Twitter, Google, Amazon, Microsoft, and Meta, inspiring them to create their own generative AI projects.
A new wave of AI tools has taken the world by storm and given us a vision for a new way of working and finding the information that can streamline our work and our lives. We show you the ways tools like ChatGPT and other generational AI software are making impacts on the world, how to harness their power, as well as potential risks.
Read nowThough ChatGPT only launched last November, it gained 100 million users by January 2023, quickly becoming the fastest-growing 'app' of all time, surpassing TikTok -- until Threads dethroned it in July.
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ChatGPT is so popular and high-performing that some wonder if the AI chatbot could replace programmers, writers, and even doctors. Others are thinking about 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.
Also:How does ChatGPT actually work?
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.
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:
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At this point, you can enter your prompts to kick off the conversation with ChatGPT.
Maria Diaz/Now that you know how to log in and access ChatGPT, it's time to start. You can ask the language model any burning questions you might have and see what answers you get -- the possibilities are literally endless. ChatGPT is a tool that can be applied in a huge range of projects, from software development to writing and onto 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.
When you send ChatGPT a message, it'll reply within a few seconds.
Maria Diaz/ChatGPT is certainly not overrated; users can come up with creative ideas for anything, from asking questions in search of funny answers to correcting a bug in code. 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.
Here are some of 's guides on different ways to use ChatGPT:
ChatGPT can generate responses to prompts (a feature that could eventually challenge search engines) that are good enough to become an essential tool for content generation, from writing essays to summarizing a book for you.
The better the prompt, the better the response will be. Here are examples of prompts you could start with:
Your imagination is the limit. Have fun with different ChatGPT prompts. For example, 's David Gewirtz asked the AI chatbot to write a WordPress plugin for him and used it to help him fix code faster. He also asked ChatGPT to write a Star Trek script, and started a business using the technology 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.
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.
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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.
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 and an Android app for ChatGPT.
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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 mobile browser 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.