Chat GPT-4! The Latest Tech Talk
by Jan Gernale, B2C Marketing Executive
Open AI’s latest makeover on what is now known as ‘Chat GPT-4’, the new and improved natural language processes which has taken the whole tech industry by storm. If you haven’t been acquainted yet – here is your chance to learn what it is and why it’s brilliant in many ways!
So if you haven’t already heard about ‘Chat GPT’, it’s about time you get acquainted! Not only has it generated quite a buzz within the tech community, it is being flagged as the biggest technology breakthrough since Google! Hot on the heels of the launch of OpenAI going live with its newest version ‘Chat GPT-4’, we’re here to tell you all about it and even bring you our latest (and perhaps proudest) output…. a Code First Girls song in the style of Queen B herself.
Before we get to our big song hit, what is Chat-GPT?
Chat GPT-4 (short for ‘Generative Pre-training Transformer’) is part of a larger group of artificial intelligence known as ‘natural language processing’ (NLP). Which is a language model developed by OpenAI designed to respond to text-based queries. It also has the ability to generate natural responses by using artificial intelligence to teach computers how to understand and interpret human language.
Almost as if a thinking-feeling person was sending a response back to you and not an AI.
So, think of it as having the ability to ask a chatbot questions like “is it wrong to wear Converse with a dress?’’ which is a subjective question and ideally you would expect an empathetic response. However, Chat GPT-4 will literally respond to you with an original body of text with ‘human-like’ accuracy and fluency, like a conversation with a friend. If you asked Google or Siri the same question, they will simply pull up responses from websites and articles made by other people, whereas Chat GPT-4 will create a unique response.
The cool part is, Chat GPT-4 is not connected to the internet and does not actually access external information. Instead, it uses a vast collection of texts from an existing array of sources such as websites, books, and articles. If you’re a curious soul that seeks to know more, Chat GPT-4 can whip up a response to your most serious and wackiest questions.
Chat GPT-4’s technology can also make everyday things more effective and efficient. Such as summarising your to-do list, writing that email you’ve been putting off, or, updating you on the latest episode of your fave show! From the most technical of tasks to the mundane, it has the power to generate up to 25k words in response and even interpret images in a logical and sophisticated way.
The nitty gritty bits – let’s get into it
So how does it all work? The basics of Chat-GPT is that it is an Artificial Intelligence (AI) model that uses machine learning to deliver results. Getting a bit more technical, to power Chat GPT-4, OpenAI uses “transformer blocks” which is a deep learning architecture that the AI is built on, which processes the input text and generates a prediction for the output. This is done by pre-training a deep neural network on a massive dataset of text and then fine-tuning it on specific tasks. Chat GPT-4 can identify and contextualise a conversation and generate appropriate responses.
To make this all happen, Chat GPT was originally fed a huge amount of data – over 300 billion words and 570 GB of data (obtained from books, web texts Wikipedia, articles, and other bits of writing on the internet) to be exact! The machine or deep learning model kicked in, allowing the first version of Chat GPT (released to the public) to predict the next word in a text, based on patterns it has learned from these large data sets during its training process. Dialling it up a notch, Chat GPT-4 has been ‘fed’ images and longer text pieces, helping the newest version of the model to be creative, coherent, and accurate.
It’s another AI. Big deal?
Yes! It’s kind of a big deal because of its breakthrough in the field of natural language processing. Before Chat GPT-4, traditional language models were limited by the amount of data they could use for training, whereas Chat CPT-4 can handle larger amounts of data altogether. Precisely around eight times the amount the original GPT could. It’s bigger and it’s getting better!
We run MOOCs on this sort of thing too!
If this technology piques your interest (it is amazingly cool in our opinion!) or if you want to just understand a bit more about how it all works, check out our MOOCs and classes here. We do run sessions on Machine Learning and AI, so keep your eyes peeled!
SPOTLIGHT ON: OUR SONG REQUEST TO CHAT-GPT
We asked Chat GPT-4 to write ‘A song about Code First Girls in the style of Beyonce’ and this is what we got!
Our four favourite uses for Chat GPT-4 so far
As you can see, we are LOVING Chat GPT and for us, there are loads and loads of amazing uses! We’ve spent some time exploring and found our fave uses (so far!) below.
Use 1: Solving a creative block
Chat GPT comes in handy whenever you hit a creative block and need a guide to kickstart your writing process. Here’s an example:
Say… You’ve been asked to present a speech at your Best Friend’s 25th birthday party tomorrow, but don’t know what to say or where to start! Here’s a cheeky little technique where you can ask Chat GPT-4 ‘What can I say at my Best Friends 25th birthday speech?’. The program will produce a body of text for you – which you can use as a guide to developing a beautiful and heartfelt speech. Of course, to avoid plagiarism it’s always good to check the content and write it in your own words.
This can be used for helping to solve other creative blocks such as writing the introduction to a life hacks blog (like our own one which you can read here) or even a short bio for your LinkedIn profile. Chat GPT-4 can be used as a starting point to create some great content, which leads us swiftly into our next use.
Use 2: Content generation (content marketing)
Whether you’re a freelancer, a small business owner, or a medium enterprise, we know sometimes the workload for content can be big and demanding. Chat GPT-4 can help with that by generating relevant and engaging content based on your audience’s specific interests. This can give businesses the ability to tighten up their engagement more efficiently and boost traffic to their channels.
We haven’t even mentioned the coolest part about this use yet! Chat GPT-4 can automatically generate captions based on images for social media posts, cutting out the time it takes to draft up several captions and decide which one is best to take. However, it is still the best practice of the Marketing Team to proof-read all work generated and ensure that the wording is still relevant to the brands voice and messaging.
Use 3: Write code and work with data
Imagine being able to turn your video game idea into an actual thing within minutes! According to TIME several users reported that they had managed to make computer games within minutes by asking the program to generate code that was “near-perfect” replicas of popular games like Tetris and Connect Four. Chat GPT-4 has the ability to explain, comment, and document code, which can help individuals within engineering teams to understand code written by other programmers – in a way that is easier and can make sense to them. This can be super useful for engineering teams who often work remotely to share their coding more efficiently.
For those in our community who are starting out on their coding journey, Chat GPT-4 can also help you understand your areas of weakness in coding by retracing your steps, explain where the errors are coming from, as well as provide some solutions to improve the code. It can be a useful tool during the learning process of code, as well as being a helping hand for even advanced developers in the process of working with large sets of code.
On a wider scale, it can also be used by stakeholders and analysts to generate and refine data models to help create solutions for tackling global issues, such as by developing proposals for improving climate change impact on local communities or outlining plans for approaching global inequality and health disparities. It can truly make a difference by tailoring responses to the most specific of needs and niche contexts.
Use 4: Make your work exciting and productive again
In 2020 alone, 300 billion emails were sent and received daily, which is reflective of the modes of working many firms took since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic with switching to a remote or hybrid working model. A survey conducted by Wakefield Research found that 89% of office workers said sorting through inboxes is one of the most unpleasant parts of working remotely, and 38% have said ‘email fatigue’ is likely the cause of their decision to leave their jobs.
Businesses and individuals alike can implement Chat GPT-4 within their productivity stream to help improve productivity with tasks such as drafting up one-pagers, summarising meetings, and assisting with internal communications. Individuals can also personally use the program to assist with the writing process of drafting important emails, such as pitching a big project idea to your managers in a simpler but more effective manner, to forming an approach to propose a salary raise that addresses your work history.
Tackle information overload by utilising the program to summarise long documents such as job contracts, terms, and conditions, handbooks, or educational papers – all of which can often be difficult to digest in one sitting.
From the most technical of tasks to the mundane, it has the power to generate up to 25k words in response and even interpret images in a logical and sophisticated way.
Tell me how it changes the world?
A question fit for Miss Universe here, but yes – how does it change things for us? Well, aside from all the fun stuff we can do with Chat GPT-4 – there’s a lot of social good it can also bring. Here are a few pointers:
Improve customer service
Advanced chatbots can help to answer customer enquiries with accurate and immediate responses. Reducing the wait time required to instant responses when it comes to finding the right information for you. For example, on e-commerce sites, chatbots can easily summarise policies based on your specific queries such as product returns, terms, and conditions, etc. This can help to reduce the need to call up businesses for specific inquiries during limited opening hours – which often results in long wait times in phone call queues. This has often caused more customers to reject certain products or services for their lack of accessibility to customer service.
Elevate education experiences
By providing instant feedback to students, such as those doing online study or distance learning, the student learning journey and outcomes can be elevated. It can also help to create new learning tools and adapt to different learning styles, such as for neurodivergent users that may need more support or time, and in general adapt approaches to our individual learning styles. AI education can also be made available in areas with disadvantaged children by providing virtual mentors to assist with skill development, which can help to supplement them with basic needs to succeed in life. But apart from the aforementioned, Chat GPT-4 can teach a huge range of subjects from literature to philosophy. Being able to explain or elaborate on the most complex of information.
Help the healthcare industry
Using improved language tools can help the healthcare industry in many ways. Chat GPT-4’s technology can allow healthcare staff to access specific information to help with symptom identification for every patient; stay updated with the latest medical research; and provide accurate treatment recommendations for their patients according to their own individual needs. Alternatively, improved Chatbots can also allow users access to medical information instantly, and also help them to make informed decisions for themselves such as with preventive care delivery or post-recover care.
So how do I use it?
You can head on over to the Chat GPT website and sign up for an account, although you will have to wait until your account is accepted for you to use the program. As a software, it currently is free to use – however a pro version was announced and can be paid for per use at around £16 ($20) per month + extra benefits.
Yes, it’s not flawless and it has it’s limitations too
Unlike in Disney Marvel movies with AI like Jarvis in Iron Man, AI is not sleek and flawless (yet?) and Chat GPT-4 has its quirks too. OpenAI has acknowledged and explained on their website that “ChatGPT sometimes writes plausible-sounding but incorrect or nonsensical answers.” You may end up with some funny responses, so if you’re generating an academic paper, cover letter or romantic proposal speech – make sure to proofread it yourself or adjust it in your own words, to make sure it’s usable! To get the best or most accurate response you may have to rephrase the way you ask your questions which can help the program understand what exactly you need.
SPOTLIGHT ON: The Woman behind the code, Mira Murati:
Did you know that one of the brains behind Chat GPT-4 is Mira Murati, Chief Technology Officer at Open AI? As we are still celebrating International Women’s Month this march, we have to give a shoutout to this amazing woman in tech.
Here’s a few fun facts about OpenAI’s CTO:
- Born and raised in San Francisco – where OpenAI is also based, Mira Murati graduated from Dartmouth College with a degree in Mechanical Engineering. She began as an intern at Goldman and Sachs as a summer analyst, and although private about her personal life – Murati is of Albanian descent.
- Mira Murati previously worked as a Senior Product Manager at Tesla, where she led the innovation behind the technology of the Model X vehicle. This is where her interest in AI began, through the earlier versions of Tesla’s Autopilot feature, which uses AI-enabled driver assistance software.
- Murati is very outspoken about the regulation and uses of AI, in an interview with TIME she said “The technology shapes us and we shape it. . . . There are also a ton of questions around societal impact, and there are a lot of ethical and philosophical questions that we need to consider.” Programs under OpenAI that included Chat GPT-4 and Dall-E, are widely available to the general public as a way to involve users in the conversation of AI. This not only helps to improve the product but also maintains the technological process of AI within society. Murati points out is like oiling the joints of the conversation so that new innovations such as Chat GPT-4 don’t come as a shock when they’re released. It’s also a great way to get people excited and involved with the development of innovations.