How Does ChatGPT Work? Everything You Need to Know
What exactly is ChatGPT, how does it work, and how can it be used? Let’s dive in.
As a full service complete digital agency, Eyekiller has a unique interest in the latest technological advancements and industry trends. One thread that ties them all together is AI. Everyday there are new platforms popping up designed to help businesses and freelancers streamline processes and improve efficiency.
Tools like Jasper are engineered to write engaging and tailored copy for use in everything from emails, marketing campaigns, and long-form content like blog posts. Meanwhile, AI systems like Midjourney can create such hyper-realistic images and art it’s becoming near impossible to differentiate them from the real work of photographers and illustrators.
In the last few months, ChatGPT has emerged as the forerunner of these ultra-powerful new systems and the team here at Eyekiller have been impressed with how it can assist with some of our daily processes.
But what exactly is ChatGPT, how does it work, and how can it be used? Let’s dive in.
What Is ChatGPT?
ChatGPT is the latest generative artificial intelligence tool built by OpenAI, a research laboratory and AI development company in San Francisco that’s also behind DALL·E. You may have heard of one of OpenAI’s co-founders, his name is Elon Musk.
Powered by the GPT, or Generative Pre-Training Transformer, language model ChatGPT can answer questions, write code in various programming languages, draft emails, and explain complex topics in simple terms. It all starts with your prompt or input, and the better prompts you give, the handier ChatGPT becomes.
What’s most special about ChatGPT, and the reason it’s caused such a stir, is its human-like responses and ability to remember conversations which it then uses to inform future answers. You can even go back and ask for reworks or fixes if you don’t get quite the result you were looking for.
Aside from being helpful, it’s this capability that makes interacting with ChatGPT feel like a genuine back and forth conversation. You almost feel rude for not saying please or thank you when it’s your turn.
How Does ChatGPT Actually Work?
We’ll let ChatGPT explain that:
““ChatGPT is a type of large language model created by OpenAI that uses deep learning algorithms to understand and generate natural language responses to text-based inputs. Specifically, it is based on a deep neural network architecture known as a transformer.” ChatGPT”
ChatGPT uses a deep neural network trained on a massive library of human-written text called WebText 2, consisting of over 45 terabytes of data. This architecture allows ChatGPT to learn patterns and relationships between words and phrases, resulting in human-like responses.
Additionally, ChatGPT was fine-tuned on over 160,000 lines of dialogue between two human participants, allowing for personalised and contextually relevant responses. GPT-3, the language model that powers ChatGPT, is reported to contain 175 billion parameters, which it uses to generate responses and select the most relevant answer.
The number of parameters in GPT-4 has not been disclosed, but speculation that it is as high as 100 trillion has been denied by CEO Sam Altman.
What Can You Do With ChatGPT?
The internet, and Twitter in particular, is swarming with examples of how web developers, digital marketers and other business professionals are using ChatGPT to enhance everyday productivity.
Let’s take a look at just a few ways this powerful AI tool can be utilised:
1. Generate Ideas
Think of ChatGPT as an extra player in your next brainstorming session. Simply detail your service or product and prompt it to give you some ideas for your next blog or marketing campaign.
You can also use it outside of a business context for dinner party menu inspiration or ideas for birthday presents. If you’re stuck for ideas and want quick suggestions then powerful AI tools like ChatGPT can help.
2. Translate Text To 95 Different Languages
Google Translate will still be our preferred tool when travelling abroad, that’s for sure.
However, there is evidence that the additional context you can include in ChatGPT prompts allows for more accurate translations into English, particularly from commonly spoken languages like Spanish or German.
3. Coding Assistant
ChatGPT’s ability to troubleshoot or act as a personal coding assistant could be seen as an alternative to industry question and answer sites like Stack Overflow.
In the above example, we asked the AI tool for advice on how to implement a sticky header on a website. This is something Eyekiller developer’s can do with their eyes closed but utilising ChatGPT in situations like this allows them to focus on more complex solutions for clients.
The solutions provided aren’t always 100% reliable so it’s important to test for yourself, adjust for bespoke approaches, and refine for individual use cases.
4. Draft Social Media Captions
Know what you want to say but not quite sure how to say it? Simply give ChatGPT some guidelines and have it fire you some ideas.
5. Explain Complex Topics
Fans of the subreddit Explain Like I’m Five will like this one. Ask ChatGPT to explain a topic you’re not familiar with and you’ll be (slightly) more prepared for your next meeting. You could even follow-up with further questions if you want to know even more. It’s like a Wikipedia entry, only you find exactly what you’re looking for.
6. Write A Song
This one may not be super-helpful from a business productivity standpoint but is nevertheless an illustration of how the tool can be used in a creative context. Also, Taylor Swift x Google Ads = Song of The Year?
7. Generate Prompts For AI Art
Leverage the power of AI image generators with descriptive prompts from ChatGPT. As technology advances over the next few years, this could turn into a quick way to make personalised graphics for your venture.
8. Summarise Articles
Get the bare bones of any article with ChatGPT’s useful summarisation feature. You could even try summarising this one if you wanted to.
9. Keyword Research
A new SEO tool has entered the building. Find long-tail keywords from a seed keyword and discover ways to stand out from the competition with niche content.
Remember to use specialist SEO and keyword research software like Semrush to check for search volume, and cost-per-click data if you plan to run paid advertising for any keywords identified.
10. Google Search Alternative
ChatGPT is not designed or intended to replace Google Search, or any other search engine for that matter. However, users have been turning to the platform for quicker answers to queries, particularly for web development.
Considering the above example, ChatGPT’s answer is more detailed, provides an example of implementation, and means users don’t need to browse through Google listings to find what they’re looking for.
Is ChatGPT free?
The basic version of ChatGPT is completely free to use - for now. The powerful AI tool is still in its research preview phase where the main purpose is to collect feedback on its strengths and weaknesses. We’ll have to wait to see if it remains free after this stage.
OpenAI has released a premium version “ChatGPT Plus”, costing $20, subscribers of which have some exclusive benefits like peak time access, faster response times, and priority access to new features. GPT-4 is also only available to premium users at this time.
It’s currently estimated that it costs OpenAI $3 million per month to continue running ChatGPT. The new subscription model is intended to support the free version for as long as possible.
What’s Next?
The era of generative AI is scarily, still in its infancy and systems like ChatGPT are making changes at a rapid pace.
The most recent “milestone”, the introduction of GPT-4 means the tool can now understand image inputs - even going as far to assemble functioning website code from a sketch on a napkin.
However, the tool is still far from perfect with one major limitation being that it’s only trained on data up to 2021. It knows nothing about our world after that date - at least for now. It’s not hard to imagine a “live”, constantly up-to-date, system launching within the next few years.
Open AI and ChatGPT will also likely advance its technologies and strengthen its position by forming partnerships with companies (like it has done with Microsoft and Bing) to fend off competition from the likes of Google, who are working hard on their own AI chatbot titled “Bard”.
What do the Eyekiller team think of ChatGPT?
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"I’ve been experimenting with ChatGPT for keyword research and ad-copy ideas and have been impressed with its detail and ability to provide unique ideas for niche markets. I think it’s a great supplement to our existing methods."
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"I think that ChatGPT is an interesting new tool that is still in the development stage. It's definitely something new for everyone, and I think its use will prove to have both positives and negatives as time progresses."
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"ChatGPT offers a quick and easy solution to some problems but it’s not perfect. It often offers a solution with the wrong approach, especially for more complex problems."
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"I believe that ChatGPT and similar Natural Language Processing AI will become commonplace, just as calculators are used to perform simple maths operations. This will hopefully allow us to focus on the big picture rather than the details. Just like Cpt. Picard on the Starship Enterprise. 🖖"
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"It’s too early to really understand the effect ChatGPT will have on SEO and how we search. Google has updated their guidelines to suggest that AI content itself isn’t a problem for them - as long as it’s not used to generate content designed primarily to manipulate search rankings."
It’s impossible to know exactly where AI tools like ChatGPT will take us next but one thing is for certain, companies who start leveraging its capabilities now look set to unlock new opportunities and get ahead of the competition.
Getting ahead is important to us here at Eyekiller. See how we do this for our amazing clients and talk to us if you’re looking for ways to improve your website or digital marketing strategy.
