ChatGPT is a global hit! What’s so special about it?

In the past two months, the most popular software in the field of AI in the world is GhatGPT. Whether you understand technology or not, netizens around the world are talking about it more or less. What exactly is Chat GPT? What is so special about it? What impact will it have on our lives? If you don't know it yet, you might as well take a look.

On February 7, Baidu officially announced the launch of a "ChatGPT-like" artificial intelligence product. The project was named "Wenxin Yiyan". The internal testing was completed in March and it was open to the public.

As soon as the news came out, Baidu's stock price rose by more than 18% that day. The reason for this was the global popularity of ChatGPT.

In the past two months, the most popular software in the global AI field is the chatbot service GhatGPT. Whether they understand technology or not, netizens around the world are talking about GhatGPT to some extent.

Just five days after its launch, ChatGPT had more than one million users. And less than three months after its launch, its monthly active users exceeded 100 million , making it the fastest software product in human history to reach 100 million users.

So what exactly is ChatGPT? What's so special about it? And what impact will it have on our lives? Today, let's take a look at "ChatGPT" together.

01 What is ChatGPT?

Interpretation from Baidu:

ChatGPT is a new chatbot model released by the artificial intelligence research laboratory OpenAI on November 30, 2022. It is a natural language processing tool driven by artificial intelligence technology.

It can communicate by learning and understanding human language, interact according to the context of the chat, truly chat and communicate like humans, and even complete tasks such as writing emails, video scripts, copywriting, translation, and code.

Simply put, ChatGPT is an AI intelligent chat robot , but its actual application scenarios are very wide.

For example, you can let ChatGPT write code and fix bugs:

Or let ChatGPT help you develop a business plan:

Or let ChatGPT do literary creation, writing love letters, songs, papers, etc. ChatGPT's language organization and logical abilities are so high that it doesn't look like a "robot" at all.

ChatGPT can even help the president write speeches.

On February 1, Israeli President Herzog delivered a speech partially written by ChatGPT, becoming the first leader in the world to publicly use ChatGPT.

In his speech, Herzog used the AI-written content as the beginning : "I am truly proud to be the president of a country with such a dynamic and innovative high-tech industry ."

He ended his speech with a "motivational quote" written by ChatGPT: "Let us not forget that it is our humanity that makes us truly unique."

Were you shocked?

Some people compare ChatGPT to a combination of "search engine + social software" , or a "high-end version of Siri" . But compared to traditional chatbots you have used, ChatGPT allows people to experience what real AI technology is, which is one of the reasons why ChatGPT has become so popular.

Musk also publicly commented: "We are not far from AI that is powerful enough to be dangerous."

02 What are the limitations of ChatGPT?

Recently, ChatGPT successfully passed the interview of Google and got an offer of L3 engineer with an annual salary of $180,000. This made many people start to worry that the emergence of ChatGPT would make many people lose their jobs.

On February 3, Business Insider compiled a list of 10 industry positions that may be threatened by AI applications such as ChatGPT, including programmers. The details are as follows:

1. Technology (Programmer, Software Engineer, Data Analyst)
2. Media (advertising, content creation, technology reporting)
3. Law (Paralegal)
4. Market Researcher
5. teacher
6. Finance (financial analysts, personal consultants)
7. Trader
8. Graphic Designer
9. Accountant
10. customer service

But from the current perspective, ChatGPT still has many limitations.

ChatGPT's advantage lies in logical reasoning, but it lacks real thinking ability . Its "cognition" is based on virtual training texts and is also more dependent on the content of the database, so it does not have the ability to understand complex and abstract systems.

In other words, the scope of knowledge that ChatGPT possesses is limited. It cannot predict things that have not happened, cannot distinguish between truth and fiction, cannot delve into the details of the problem, and execute standard computer algorithms. It also lacks the accuracy of knowledge in some areas.

Especially for some cultural common sense questions, ChatGPT's answers are often long and too lengthy. They seem to be logically self-consistent, but if you think about it carefully, you will find that there are certain loopholes. When faced with math calculation questions, they often give wrong answers.

If non-professionals are unable to distinguish the accuracy of ChatGPT answers, they are likely to be seriously misled. Many foreign universities have begun to ban ChatGPT.

What’s even more interesting is that when you ask ChatGPT whether it will make people in professions such as programmers unemployed, its answer seems very public and pertinent.

It should be noted that although ChatGPT cannot replace humans at present, it has reached such a level after only being launched for more than two months. Needless to say, AI's powerful self-learning ability is bound to have a profound impact on our lives in the future, referring to AlphaGo (the Go artificial intelligence program).

03 The man behind ChatGPT

As ChatGPT became popular, OpenAI, the artificial intelligence laboratory that developed it, and its CEO Sam Altman became famous all over the world. Today, Altman is called the father of ChatGPT by the media.

Altman was born into a well-off Jewish family in Missouri, USA. At the age of 8, he got his first computer and became addicted to programming.

After graduating from high school, Altman successfully entered Stanford University, majoring in computer science. Similar to many IT industry leaders, he did not complete his studies and chose to drop out in his sophomore year to start a business.

After dropping out of school, he raised $30 million in venture capital for the mobile location application "Loopt" he developed with two friends.

Later, the free online dating app "OK Cupid" developed by Altman became all the rage and was acquired by a Dallas online dating company for $50 million.

In 2014, Altman co-founded the artificial intelligence research company OpenAI with Tesla CEO Musk, LinkedIn founder Hoffman, YC partner Livingston and others, dedicated to the development of a new generation of artificial intelligence products.

In 2021, the image generation system DALL-E and the natural language processing tool ChatGPT were launched one after another. This new generation of artificial intelligence products with deep learning capabilities and strong interactivity quickly attracted global attention.

Although ChatGPT is popular all over the world, its current profit model is still in the exploratory stage. It is reported that OpenAI's revenue is expected to be less than 30 million US dollars, and its total net loss is 545 million US dollars. The release of ChatGPT may quickly increase the company's losses.

To date, OpenAI has raised more than $11 billion in funding from investors including Microsoft, Musk, Google Ventures, Tiger Fund, A16z, and Altman’s former employer YC . It is reported that OpenAI’s total revenue in 2024 may exceed $1 billion.

04 Conclusion

At present, the hurricane of "artificial intelligence" has undoubtedly reached China. Baidu has taken the lead, and in the future, there will definitely be more Chinese companies eyeing this market. Internet giants such as Alibaba, ByteDance, and Tencent have also made arrangements in related fields.

But what we need to think about is what commercial value ChatGPT can bring. We should not simply imitate or blindly follow the trend, but combine our own characteristics to create unique advantages.

With the advent of the "Chinese version" of ChatGPT, the domestic AI market will surely set off a new wave of enthusiasm, and we also look forward to creating greater value.

Author: Yan Tao Sanshou

Source: WeChat public account "Yan Tao Sanshou (ID: yantao-219)"