ChatGPT, the AI-powered chatbot, has taken the world by storm, becoming the world’s fastest-growing consumer application. With its ability to generate articles, essays, jokes, and even poetry in response to prompts, ChatGPT has become the most downloaded technology among all age groups. In just two months after its launch in November 2022, ChatGPT has already reached 100 million users worldwide.
Comparing ChatGPT’s Growth to Other Applications
ChatGPT’s impressive growth rate is reflected in comparison to other technology applications. Mobile phones took 16 years to reach 100 million users worldwide, while the telephone took 75 years. WhatsApp, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and World Wide Web each took several years to reach 100 million users. The Apple App Store and iTunes took 2 years and 6.5 years, respectively. In comparison, the Chinese video-making app TikTok took nine months to reach 100 million users after its global launch.
The Chatbot’s Capabilities
ChatGPT is an AI-powered chatbot that is designed to mimic human-like conversations based on user prompts. OpenAI, a private company backed by Microsoft Corp, created ChatGPT and made it available to the public for free in late November. The chatbot can generate a range of outputs, from writing an email to authentic-seeming exam answers, in response to prompts.
Subscription-Based Service
OpenAI announced a $20 monthly subscription for ChatGPT, initially for users in the United States only. This subscription service allows users to enjoy the premium features of the chatbot, including more personalized responses, more creative writing, and better language comprehension.
OpenAI’s Research and Development
OpenAI, a research and development company, was created as a charity in 2015 by Silicon Valley investor Sam Altman and billionaire Elon Musk and has since received money from a number of additional investors, including venture capitalist Peter Thiel. In 2019, the group established a for-profit subsidiary to attract outside investment.
ChatGPT’s Ability to Mimic Human Conversation
According to OpenAI, ChatGPT’s model, which was trained using the Reinforcement Learning from Human Feedback (RLHF) machine learning approach, can mimic discussion, answer follow-up inquiries, confess mistakes, and reject unsuitable requests. ChatGPT, like many AI-driven advancements, is not without flaws. OpenAI claims that ChatGPT’s model, trained using a machine learning approach called Reinforcement Learning from Human Feedback (RLHF), can react with “plausible-sounding yet wrong or nonsensical replies,” a problem it finds hard to resolve. AI technology has the potential to perpetuate societal prejudices based on race, gender, and culture.
The Future of AI Development
Despite these concerns, AI research remains attractive, and venture capital investment in AI development and operations companies rose to nearly $13 billion in 2021. ChatGPT’s capabilities and impressive growth rate have put it in the spotlight as the next big tech revolution after the internet. While the chatbot’s ability to respond sometimes contains errors, some experts have suggested its ability to summarize publicly available data can make it a credible alternative to Google search and a list of search-generated links.
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