ChatGPT — The Beginning of a New Era

Raymond Ng, AI Strategist, MSc (KM)
DataSeries
Published in
8 min readMar 1, 2023

--

ChatGPT represents a groundbreaking approach for humans to communicate with computers

Photo by Om siva Prakash on Unsplash

Star Trek Voice First Computer

Half a century ago, Star Trek predicted that humans could interact with computers using natural language. Now, this dream has become a reality, thanks to GPT-3 and voice recognition technologies. We can now have conversations with computers just as we would with other people. A great example of this can be seen in the YouTube video below, which features a clip from Star Trek.

Star Trek, interacting with Computer, Youtube

ChatGPT is making Star Trek predictions come true

ChatGPT is a unique artificial intelligence (AI) technology that is making Star Trek predictions come true. Developed by OpenAI, ChatGPT is a natural language processing (NLP) model that can generate human-like conversations. With ChatGPT, users can ask questions about Star Trek and get detailed, accurate answers — just like the ones you’d hear from a Starfleet commander.

What exactly is ChatGPT?

ChatGPT is an AI-driven natural language processing (NLP) model that uses big data and generative pre-training (GPT) to learn how to generate natural language responses to user input. By leveraging the vast amounts of data available in big data, ChatGPT is able to build an understanding of language and generate natural, human-like responses more accurately and detailed than traditional AI technologies.

ChatGPT use cases:

  • Customer Service Chatbot: ChatGPT can be used to create a customer service chatbot that can provide customers with personalized answers to their questions and route them to the right resources. The chatbot can be trained to understand customer needs and provide timely responses to their queries.
  • Online Shopping Assistant: ChatGPT can be used to create an online shopping assistant that can help customers find and purchase products from an online store. The chatbot can be trained to understand the customer’s preferences and recommend products accordingly.
  • Educational Chatbot: ChatGPT can be used to create an educational chatbot that can help students learn by providing personalized explanations to their queries. The chatbot can be trained to understand the student’s current level of knowledge and provide learning resources accordingly.
  • Event Management Chatbot: ChatGPT can be used to create an event management chatbot that can help event organizers manage their events. The chatbot can be trained to understand event details and provide necessary information to the event organizers.
  • Travel Planning Chatbot: ChatGPT can be used to create a travel planning chatbot that can help travelers plan their trips. The chatbot can be trained to understand the traveler’s preferences and provide necessary information about hotels, flights, and destinations.

End of the old era

As an AI language model, ChatGPT represents the end of the old era in several ways:

  • The end of traditional rule-based systems: ChatGPT is based on deep learning and neural networks, which are fundamentally different from the rule-based systems that were used in the past.
  • The end of limited language understanding: ChatGPT is capable of understanding and generating human-like language at a level that was not possible before. It can generate coherent and meaningful responses to a wide range of inputs.
  • The end of static language models: ChatGPT is a dynamic language model that can be continuously trained and updated, allowing it to adapt to new information and improve its performance over time.

Beginning of a new era

ChatGPT represents the beginning of a new era in AI and language processing. It opens up new possibilities for natural language interfaces, chatbots, virtual assistants, and other applications that can interact with humans in a more intuitive and natural way. ChatGPT’s technology allows for more natural and human-like conversations, making it easier for businesses to interact with customers. ChatGPT also allows for more accurate and efficient customer service, as the AI can quickly respond to customer queries and requests. Additionally, ChatGPT can automate customer service tasks, freeing up valuable time for businesses to focus on more important tasks. With ChatGPT, businesses can now provide better customer service, faster response times, and more accurate customer interactions.

Embrace the changes coming — resistance is futile!

No matter how overwhelming it may feel, we must remain positive and accept that change is inevitable. By embracing the changes ahead, we can use them as an opportunity to grow and create a better future for ourselves. We can take practical steps to make these changes easier, such as creating a plan of action, setting realistic goals, focusing on the positives, seeking advice and support, and staying connected to our peers and community. Taking these steps can help us to remain confident and optimistic about the future, and better prepare us for the changes ahead.

ChatGPT is our assistant, augmenting us, not replacing us!

Quick start guide

What is the relationship between GPT and ChatGPT?

GPT is a natural language processing model developed by OpenAI that is used to generate human-like text. ChatGPT is an extension of GPT that uses the same core technology to generate more conversational text. It is specifically designed to generate responses to questions or prompts in a conversational style.

Access to ChatGPT

You can start your journey using ChatGPT with the free plan if the demand and speed are not a concern for you. Otherwise, you may consider subscribing to ChatGPT Plus. To subscribe to ChatGPT, you need to sign up here.

In some counties, you need a VPN connection and a foreign telephone for verification before accessing to the ChatGPT platform.

ChatGPT subscription plans

Access to GPT tools in OpenAI

OpenAI is a platform for creating AI-powered products, research, tools, and services. It provides access to a variety of tools and services for developing AI-powered applications, including pre-trained models, data sets, algorithms, and more. It provides a range of pre-trained models, tools, and APIs to power conversational AI applications. Subscribing to OpenAI gives access to a variety of AI-related tools and services while subscribing to ChatGPT provides access to a specific set of tools and services related to building chatbots powered by GPT-3.

To subscribe to OpenAI, you need to sign up here.

OpenAPI Website

OpenAI GPT Playground

OpenAI GPT Playground is an interactive web-based tool for exploring and understanding the behavior of OpenAI’s GPT-3 language model. It lets users type in a prompt and see the output generated by GPT-3, and also interactively explore the internal state of the model as it generates text. This can be used to help users understand how GPT-3 works and to experiment with the model in different ways. OpenAI GPT Playground is free to use for three months. After that, you can upgrade to a paid plan.

OpenAI GPT Playground

By using the GPT Playground, you can learn more about GPT, compared to using ChatGPT.

GPT Comparison tool

You can further learn more about GPT by using the GPT Comparison tool. To get connect with it, you need to provide your OpenAI API key from here.

Customized applications with OpenAI API

If you have some programming skills, you may consider developing your own GPT applications by using Python and hosting your applications to the web by Streamlit. I have developed a simple application named “OpenAI GPT-3 Playground”. You can access my Python script in Github or access my shared web-based GPT application to start using it.

You do not need a VPN connection to access my web-based application. But you need an OpenAI API key.

Web-based GPT App being hosted by Streamlit and OpenAI

Online courses

Introduction to ChatGPT

The Introduction to ChatGPT course on edX provides a comprehensive introduction to the ChatGPT artificial intelligence platform. This course is designed to give learners a thorough understanding of the ChatGPT architecture, its capabilities, and how to use it effectively in real-world applications. The course is divided into five modules, each focusing on a different aspect of ChatGPT. The modules cover topics such as conversational AI, natural language processing, conversation design, and best practices for creating successful ChatGPT applications. Upon completion, learners will have a comprehensive understanding of how to use ChatGPT to create effective and engaging conversational AI experiences.

Online course: Introduction to ChatGPT by edX

Prompt engineering — a new skill you must learn

Prompt Engineering for communicating with ChatGPT is a method for creating natural language conversations with a chatbot. It involves creating a set of prompts (questions, statements, or commands) that can be used to initiate conversations and drive the conversation forward. The main points about Prompt Engineering for communicating with ChatGPT are:

  • It helps create natural language conversations with a chatbot.
  • It involves creating a set of prompts that can be used to initiate conversations.
  • Prompts should be crafted carefully to ensure the conversation flows naturally.
  • It helps focus the conversation and ensure that the chatbot is providing relevant responses.
  • It can be used to create a more engaging conversation with a chatbot.

Online course: Prompt Engineering with OpenAI’s GPT-3

Applications development with OpenAI API

Python for applications development

Python is a great language for application development with OpenAI API, thanks to its flexible and powerful features. Python allows developers to create applications quickly and easily that integrate with OpenAI API. The OpenAI API provides powerful libraries for a range of tasks, from natural language processing to image recognition and reinforcement learning. Python is a great choice for developers looking to develop applications with OpenAI API due to its easy-to-use syntax and robust libraries for data science and machine learning. With Python, developers can easily create applications that use OpenAI API to process data and build powerful AI-powered applications. Additionally, Python is a popular choice for cloud computing, making it easy to deploy applications that use the OpenAI API.

Steps:

  1. Install the OpenAI Python library by running the command ‘pip install openai’
  2. Import the OpenAI library into your Python application by using the command ‘import openai’
  3. Create an OpenAI API access token by logging into the OpenAI dashboard and generating one.
  4. Set the API access token in your application using the command ‘openai.api_key = API_TOKEN’
  5. Use the OpenAI API to access data, perform tasks, and develop applications by using the available API functions.

Streamlit for Python applications hosting on the web

Streamlit is an open-source Python library for creating interactive, web-based applications. Streamlit works with any Python code, so it is the perfect choice for hosting Python-based web applications. With Streamlit, developers can easily create, deploy, and share interactive web applications in a matter of minutes. Streamlit offers a wide range of features that make it easy to create and deploy high-quality applications quickly and efficiently.

I hope you’re enjoying my articles on Medium. If you find them helpful, informative, or just plain entertaining, please consider supporting me through Buy Me a Coffee.

Don’t forget to give me your 👏 !

Leave your email address here to receive article news!

--

--

Raymond Ng, AI Strategist, MSc (KM)
DataSeries

Knowledge Management, Digital Transformation (AI, System Integration). Inquiries: raymond.ng@sameworld.info