ChatGPT, OpenAI's free content generator: fabulous tool or ruthless replacement?
ChatGPT has become the main topic at the start of 2023. Whether you're a digital addict or not, this content creation tool has gained immense popularity in a very short space of time. A digital revolution, ChatGPT is shaking some and inspiring others. Although known to all, artificial intelligence remains abstract when integrated into tools such as connected objects. ChatGPT has put the spotlight on AI by isolating one of its roles and demonstrating its concrete application via a single chatbot. What is the story behind ChatGPT? In what context and for what purposes was it designed? What are the capabilities and limitations of this tool?
WHAT CAN CHATGPT DO FOR YOU?
The applications and possibilities are endless. Any subject can be addressed, even the most advanced.
Here's an anthology of queries for web users who haven't yet tried out the genius chatbot:
- ChatGPT, can you write an 800-word text on Impressionist painting?
- Can you suggest a vegetarian menu with associated recipes?
- Can you give me a summary of my thesis?
- Can you solve this complex calculation?
- Can you write a fantasy story with elves?
- Can you translate Beyoncé's "love on top"?
- Can you identify the code bugs in this program?...
Here is the link to discover and test the prodigy chatbot: https://openai.com/blog/chatgpt/
The history of ChatGPT
ChatGPT is a free tool designed by San Francisco-based American AI research company OpenAI. The company was founded in 2016 by Sam Altman and Elon Musk. The latter withdrew a year later while remaining a donor. Open AI has developed a unique language model: GPT "Generative Pre-trained Transformer". The technology selects, retrieves and transforms information from texts published on the Internet into new content.
This powerful chatbot is designed to generate text to answer users' questions (in several languages), regardless of the field of knowledge or activity, in a fluid and relevant way. ChatGPT has been designed to deal with a huge variety of subjects, providing sharp answers and expertise.
OpenAI has released multiple versions of its chatbot, each more powerful than the last. The best-known versions of GPT are :
| Version | Details |
|---|---|
| GPT-1 | Released in 2018, this was the first version of GPT with one million parameters. |
| GPT-2 | Released in 2019, this version was considerably larger than GPT-1, with over 1.5 billion parameters. |
| GPT-3 | Released in 2020, this is the largest version of GPT to date, with over 175 billion parameters. |
OpenAI is working on more advanced and higher performance versions to achieve better language understanding and even finer text generation capability.
Here are some of OpenAI's other tools:
- OpenAI RoboSumo: this program teaches robots to move and adapt in real time to changing conditions.
- Debate Game: a debating game, its aim is to help analyze AI decisions and thereby develop explainable technology.
- MuseNet: deep neural network, the tool enables the creation of musical compositions with 10 instruments in 15 different musical styles (jazz, pop, rock...).
- Dall-E: creates images from text data, producing graphics in just a few clicks.
Does ChatGPT produce unique, original and unduplicated text?
Trained on a corpus of existing online texts, ChatGPT produces copy that is not strictly unique and original, since it draws content according to the query. Strictly speaking, the chatbot doesn't invent anything; it retrieves and transforms information to respond precisely to a request. That said, the answers generated vary according to the wording of the question.
Since the tool uses existing content, the answers may result in duplicated text, a serious mistake for Google, which penalizes this practice by lowering the ranking of websites.
Are ChatGPT's texts SEO-friendly?
The content generated by the exceptional chatbot can be useful for SEO purposes, on condition that it contains keywords, good SEO practices (such as the creation of tags) and relevant information. So it's up to you to make the request, check and judge the relevance. It's as subjective as ChatGPT's answer when asked about it.
Google's search algorithms are becoming increasingly sophisticated. This means they can spot automatically generated text and decide to penalize it (which is not yet the case). So it's important not to rely solely on automatic content generators when writing SEO text.
At this stage of development, ChatGPT remains a tool that requires supervision, additional copywriting and the addition of SEO techniques.
What are ChatGPT's rivals?
In the field of natural language processing, some tools use similar technologies:
- OGoogle's Dialogflow
- Microsoft's LUIS (Language Understanding)
- IBM's Watson Assistant
- Amazon's Alexa Skills Kit
Choosing the right tool depends on the purpose of the project:
- Chatsonic (very similar to the ChatGPT application)
- YouChat (writing emails, messages for social media networks, texts, etc.).
- Jasper (text creation with SEO imperatives taken into account)
- Deepl (free translation tool)
- Deepl Write (for grammar and syntax correction)
- Copilot (for code generation)
ChatGPT's negative aspects
Despite its many benefits, ChatGPT also has a few shortcomings that are quickly forgiven, given its vast potential.
- Tool saturation in the face of massive demand
- Obsolescence: the database draws on data from 2021 and previous years, which can make answers outdated.
- The risk of bias or discrimination: the chatbot can pick up texts from anywhere on the web, and therefore be inspired by tendentious content. Even if OpenAI uses the Moderation API to help identify elements that run against content policy, you need to be vigilant and not take the results obtained at face value.
- Truthfulness of information: everything can be found on the Internet, from relevant to incorrect information. Since ChatGPT uses online texts without any visibility of the accuracy of the information, proofreading and verification are essential.
- The 99% answer: the vegetarian menu and associated recipes arrived without the quantities for the ingredients, the 800-word text on Impressionist painting was cut off at the 800th word without completing the sentence... The precision of the query is therefore crucial to avoid frustration, missing dinner and cutting the essay short!
- The unclear question: if the query is imprecise or does not correspond to the desired search, the answer will be just as imprecise. Going off-topic is therefore a potential risk.
- Plagiarism: as mentioned above, content can be duplicated. Google and authors don't like this. It's all a question of dosage and verification.
- The quality of the text: even if the written expression is correct on the whole, there are still a few mistakes and the writing lacks lightness.
- Detection of texts generated by chatbots: Google and others can detect websites using texts generated by virtual assistants. However, robots are not yet ultra-efficient in this area, and some texts may still slip through the net, but the technology is making progress. Officially, Google is not imposing any penalties on websites by downgrading them.
A powerful content creation tool, ChatGPT has introduced the general public to the extraordinary potential of artificial intelligence. Although revolutionary, the chatbot still needs to be supervised and verified. Let's not forget that AI is a human creation, and that only humans can bring value to technology. The reverse does not yet exist!