- Annika Santhanam
The Future of AI - How ChatGPT Could Revolutionize Search Engines
The time has come: artificial intelligence has taken over the world!
Ok, maybe not quite ‘taken over,’ but it’s sure becoming more popular than it’s ever been!
In November 2022, an artificial intelligence chatbot named Chat-GPT was released by a company called Open AI. Open AI was initially founded by Elon Musk, Sam Altman (President of tech startup Y Combinator), and a few other Silicon Valley technology investors. The company aimed to develop research on artificial intelligence as well as create new article intelligence frameworks and platforms. Now, only a few months later, the latest update to Chat-GPT, GPT-4, has been released.
This artificial intelligence chatbot essentially takes questions and prompts through text from the user and draws on knowledge from the existing internet, past user prompts, and third party applications to develop answers. Chat-GPT has become so advanced in such a short time that you can use it to write entire code programs, essays, and more!
So how exactly does Chat-GPT work, and what could this mean for the future? Let’s dive into it!
The History of AI Chatbots
Artificial intelligence chatbots are not new technology - in fact, they’ve been around since the 1960s! The very first form of the chatbot was named ELIZA, a project aimed at simulating a conversation with a therapist. The program was developed by Joseph Weizenbaum, a computer scientist at MIT, and although it wasn’t nearly as advanced as today’s technology regarding the adaptability of conversation, it was a jumpstart for this type of technology to advance.
After the creation of ELIZA, chatbots expanded in ability and functionality. Chatbots have been implemented on different websites and apps to create AI customer service platforms, and have even been developed to become more human-like and conversational with users. Now, Chat-GPT has become one of the most advanced versions of chatbots that we’ve ever seen, and it’s current interactions with users are nothing less than astounding.
How Does Chat-GPT Work?
Chat-GPT stands for Chat-Generative Pre-trained Transformer, and the name hints at what the platform does. Chat-GPT has machine learning code in its mainframe that trains it to take in user prompts, remember the conversation it has been having with that user in order to hold an extended conversation, and reply in a natural, human-like way.
Every time users ask Chat-GPT a prompt, the information or questions inputted get added to the Chat-GPT database. This grows the knowledge base that the chatbot works off of, allowing it to answer different questions on similar topics or more advanced questions using the information it has stored.
When it comes to the actual technology behind the chatbot, Chat-GPT is coded to think somewhat along the lines of a human brain. According to Zapier, Chat-GPT’s responses to your prompts are essentially predictions to what it thinks would best answer your question based on the information it was initially trained with. The training consists of the chatbot being fed data and different situations in order to develop its own algorithm to process this data. The data comes from information in articles, books, and all over the internet. This creates a neural network, which is “a complex, many-layered, weighted algorithm modeled after the human brain.” Not only does Chat-GPT act and respond like a human brain, but with the amount of data and prompt response possibilities it holds, every answer it spits out is unique. You could ask the same or a similar prompt to the chatbot multiple times, and each time you will receive a unique but similar answer.
What does this mean for the future?
Chat-GPT still has a little ways to go in terms of ensuring all the information dispensed is factually accurate and unbiased, which are big problems that face current models of neural networks and machine learning. Without a fool-proof way to fact check information, it’s hard to filter through inaccurate and biased information mined from the internet or data sources taken from users or other information. GPT-4 seems to have improved its fact-checking capabilities, but this platform is only available as of now through a subscription model - however, GPT-3 is available free for use, though doesn’t hold all of the advanced capabilities that its successor does.
For the future, Chat-GPT has paved the way for various companies to develop their own neural networks and chatbots for their users, and some speculate that chatbots like these could surpass most search engine usage as prompts are directed to Chat-GPT instead. Though we’re a long time away from seeing complete internet domination by these chatbots, it’s still an extremely popular platform today, impacting the world and users at all stages of their lives.
Thanks for reading and stay tuned for more articles!
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