ChatGPT: An Extensive Guide on Usage, Benefits and Limitations

ChatGPT is more or less the latest text-based AI invention that has taken everyone by surprise. Developed by OpenAI, ChatGPT is here to disrupt the creation of content as it is today. And not just that, but it will ultimately become a part of our everyday lives. 

More than a handful of content creators are asking: is ChatGPT a threat to their profession? How effective is this AI chatbot in solving problems experienced by human beings as regards finding answers to multiple questions? 

This article will, therefore, cover the features, benefits and limitations (if there are any) of this natural language processing (NLP) model.

First of all, what is ChatGPT?

What Really is ChatGPT?

ChatGPT is more sophisticated than the chatbots released in times past. It is short for chat-based Generative Pre-trained Transformer. It was created and developed by OpenAI, an AI research and development company co-founded by Sam Altman, Elon Musk, and a few others in 2015. Released in November 2022 and having hit 1 million users within five days of release, ChatGPT is a machine-learning model designed to receive and interpret human language in order to produce answers and responses when prompted in a conversational format.

ChatGPT is an adaptation of the GPT-3.5 language-generation software. ChatGPT’s first version was trained with supervised fine-tuning, a method in which a human AI trainer interacts with the user and the AI assistant to provide training dialogue. Instructors had access to sample answers to use as guides when drafting their own responses. 

Identical to InstructGPT in that it responds to prompts by following instructions and giving specific answers, ChatGPT’s conversational style lets you ask it questions in response, argue with its assumptions, point out where it went wrong, and tell it to back off if it makes a bad suggestion. 

As a matter of fact, the high scalability of this machine learning model makes it suitable for deployment in enterprise-level applications, where it can be used to aid in a variety of Natural Language Processing (NLP) tasks.

How do you use ChatGPT?

You can freely access ChatGPT via the web at chat.openai.com. To start, you have to create an account, sign in and start typing your prompt into the ChatGPT chat box.

To get the most out of ChatGPT, you need to learn how to prompt. In software programs, a prompt is a user’s request for information. For ChatGPT, prompts work to provide context and begin the conversation.

For your prompts to be effective, they have to be in the form of clear and unambiguous questions. Be specific. This will help the AI generate accurate responses for you. To refine the content of the responses, you should also use follow-up questions and additional context.

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For example, when you type a prompt such as “Write me a Facebook copy for a luxury hotel brand”, you can also ask a follow-up question such as “Thank you. Now write an email subject line for this brand.”

As a text generator tool, what can you do with ChatGPT?

ChatGPT can be used for a variety of purposes. As a beginner, you’ll find the AI search engine useful in generating quick responses to your queries. Say, you are looking for how to make an HTTP request in Javascript, you simply make a prompt with the question, “How do I make an HTTP request in Javascript?”

If you are a regular internet user, you’ll find that you can use ChatGPT to accomplish a number of things. Here are some fundamental things you can do with the new AI chatbot.

Learn new things outside your primary field of knowledge

For an entrepreneur who has never written a single code, ChatGPT can work for you if you want to start learning how to code. Or if you are a singer who wants to learn how to write theatre plays, you can also use ChatGPT as a guide. 

Complete your creative tasks faster

Creative professionals such as copywriters, novelists, playwrights and brand strategists can use the AI chatbot to generate a novel story or content ideas which will speed up their creative process. 

Get specific answers to questions

When you type in a question on Google, for instance, different results appear. While you are spoilt for choice, it can also be confusing for you to know which web page you’ll click that will provide you with the specific answer to your inquiry. You might be lucky sometimes such that the page you click on will have the specific answer you’re searching for, but other times you’ll have to keep scrolling down (sometimes until the third search results page) before you find exactly what you want to see. 

ChatGPT takes this burden off your shoulders. In just one prompt, you get a specific answer — as long as you provide a clear and unambiguous question as well.

What are the benefits of ChatGPT?

With this innovative tool, internet users are guaranteed a number of benefits that include:

Intelligent system for handling customer service inquiries

Efficient customer service is, without a doubt, integral to business growth and customer satisfaction. ChatGPT can improve your customer service by generating unique responses to multiple customer inquiries at a faster rate. It’s quite impressive considering that there are newly-launched Google Chrome extensions that now make it possible for brands and Twitter users to install ChatGPT bots that respond to all tweets.

A powerful tool to assist students in learning 

Students in tertiary institutions of learning can find ChatGPT not only useful but also beneficial. The capacity to understand contextual queries and quickly generate unique responses makes this AI tool a useful companion to students.

What are the — if there are any — limitations of ChatGPT?

While this powerful AI natural language processing (NLP) model has the potential to be used in large-scale applications, it is not without its limitations. Let’s look at a few of them.

Minimal knowledge of current events 

ChatGPT cannot browse the internet and only relies on its pre-trained data to generate responses. For this reason, it is unable to generate a result beyond the scope of its pre-trained data.

Understanding of only text-based commands

Another limitation of the AI chatbot tool is that it only understands text-based prompts. This renders it incapable of analysing video or still images as inputs.

Tendency to hallucinate

ChatGPT’s tendency to hallucinate — a situation where an AI produces a response with complete certainty despite there being no basis for it in its training data — is one of its major limitations. What this implies is that users who are not versed in the field they inquire about can get a response that seems true and error-free but is actually inaccurate.

Therefore, when you want to rely on ChatGPT to generate answers, do not take its responses at face value because it could be wrong. Always ensure that you fact-check and verify the answers using other trustworthy sources of information. This way, you can reduce the chances of inaccurate and misleading information spreading across the internet.

It is important to point out that these are the current limitations of ChatGPT, implying that the AI tool can become more up-to-the-minute over time.