ChatGPT - The most important in brief: |
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Are you currently reading an article written by an AI? Since Open AI released ChatGPT-4 on March 14 this year, this question can no longer be answered definitively. A new technology called “Neural Machine Translation” allows the chatbot to communicate more naturally and human-like. This opens up increasingly diverse possibilities for companies to use ChatGPT-4. But is the program really developed enough to be used without hesitation? And can it possibly even replace human employees?
ChatGPT stands for “Chatbot Generative Pre-trained Transformer.” It is a language model developed by the California-based AI research company Open AI. The computer program is designed to have natural and human-like conversations in chat situations. The user can communicate with the chatbot through text input, similiar to a normal chat. What sets ChatGPT apart is that it learns from the conversation. ChatGPT is capable of, among other things, explaining complicated concepts in a simple manner and writing poems, news, or longer texts. Built-in filters are designed to prevent the language model from being misused, for example, to create hate speech.
Open AI was founded in 2015 as a foundation in San Francisco. Prominent tech entrepreneurs such as Elon Musk, Peter Thiel, Reid Hoffmann, and Sam Altman invested one billion dollars with the goal of developing an artificial intelligence that “benefits humanity as a whole,” as stated in the bylaws. Elon Musk left Open AI in 2018 because he was developing an AI with Tesla. A year later, the foundation ran out of money. As a result, a for-profit subsidiary was created, led by Sam Altman. All foundation employees received shares, and venture capitalists such as LinkedIn founder Hoffman’s foundation came on board. Microsoft invested one billion dollars and now owns 49 percent of the company. Today, with a valuation of $29 billion, Open AI is one of the most valuable startups in the United States.
To use ChatGPT for free, you need to register with Open AI on their website at https://openai.com/blog/chatgpt. Among other things, registration is possible via a conventional mail address or via your Google account. After that, you need to provide a mobile number for verification, and a security code will be sent to it. Once you have entered the code, you can start using the program. However, only the old version 3.5 can be used this way. GPT-4 is currently only available to paying Plus customers.
However, there is another way you might be able to enjoy ChatGPT-4 for free. The search engine Bing has now integrated GPT-4. So if you have the new Bing, you can also test the current generation of AI there. To do this, simply sign in to Bing with your Microsoft account. However, you may be put on a waiting list before you can access the AI-powered Bing.
If you are signed up for ChatGPT at Open AI, you can easily switch to the paid model by clicking on the “Upgrade to Plus” link. For around €22.60 per month, you not only have the advantage of being able to use the current version GPT-4, but you also have guaranteed access to the chatbot, which is otherwise often overloaded. Also, in the future, new features will only be unlocked for Plus customers.
Primarily, ChatGPT can of course be used as it was designed, namely as a chatbot. The program can be used in this function both for customer contact and for internal employee communication. Common customer inquiries, such as about clothing sizes, return policies, or delivery status, can be answered by artificial intelligence instead of a human employee. In the meantime, this works so well that the acceptance of customers to communicate with a chatbot is growing. After all, it responds faster than a human employee and usually provides the same information. Only with complicated concerns do customers want a human communication partner.
In internal company communication, ChatGPT is of interest for the HR department, among others. Frequently asked questions, such as “How many days of annual leave am I entitled to” or “Where can I view my salary statements,” can be answered automatically by the language program, relieving the burden on HR department employees.
ChatGPT can write texts of various types and lengths. From a job ad to advertising and social media texts to entire blog articles and essays, everything is possible. Although the results should not be copied 1:1, they can be very helpful in structuring or collecting ideas for the corresponding texts. Also for this blog article it was interesting to see what ChatGPT writes, how the text is structured and what content is used. For this purpose, I chose two different approaches. Once I asked the program to list the ten most important things companies can do with ChatGPT. In another request, I had the chatbot write the entire blog article, with more detailed information about the desired content. Here are the results provided by ChatGPT-3.5:
On the left, the enumeration of the most important points, on the right a part of the elaborated article.
Even if your employees prefer to write texts themselves and conduct their own research, ChatGPT can still be helpful, for example, for checking punctuation or spelling.
ChatGPT can translate texts into various languages. This is useful for companies, for example, if they have international customers or want to operate their website in multiple languages. However, it’s important to not blindly adopt the translated texts. Often, the translations are poorly formulated or the language used does not match the company’s brand identity.
Unfortunately, I was not able to check these translations into Japanese and Turkish due to a lack of language skills, but it should definitely be done for official company pages.
The latest version ChatGPT-4 offers additional and extensive features that can be used for your business. Here are two examples:
According to its own statement, the program is not yet 100% error-free. Nevertheless, it is able to detect errors in codes and therefore revise the self-generated codes.
Can your company save on employees by replacing them with ChatGPT? In fact, it is already possible to reduce the number of employees in certain areas. Simply by using AI as a chatbot to answer customers’ most frequently asked questions, far fewer customer service employees are needed. Once the bot is able to deliver its messages in audio form as human-like as possible, employees are not even needed for phone calls with customers. Then, only as much human personnel as necessary is needed to respond to specific issues that ChatGPT cannot answer.
In other areas, it would also be theoretically possible to replace employees with AI. For example, the Chinese gaming company Netdragon Websoft, which has an annual turnover of two billion US dollars, has successfully used the AI “Tang YU” as a CEO.
Although ChatGPT is not yet suitable as a CEO, it can already compete with experienced copywriters, for example. Business Insider also sees the future potential for AI in programming, coding, data analysis, marketing and journalism, or even in the legal profession, for example for drafting legal briefs. Professions in market research, finance, and the stock market could also be fundamentally transformed by AI in the future.
However, the trend is towards companies not replacing their employees with AI, but rather providing them AI as a useful tool. Skillfully used, ChatGPT can significantly increase the efficiency of your employees, as they need less time for writing texts, translations or data collection, for example. Entirely new professions can also emerge through artificial intelligences such as ChatGPT. For example, there are already companies that specifically hire so-called “prompt writers“. These are supposed to ensure that the AI delivers optimal results.
Overall, everything sounds like a “brave new world” scenario in which machines relieve us by taking over a large part of our work. But does the use of ChatGPT also entail risks? After all, there must be a reason why Italy has blocked the chatbot and why over 1000 well-known people from the tech industry, including Elon Musk, who was once part of Open AI himself, are calling for a pause in the development of artificial intelligence.
“Should we allow machines to flood our information channels with propaganda and falsehoods? Should we automate all jobs, even the fulfilling ones? Should we develop non-human intelligences that could someday outnumber, outsmart, render us obsolete, and replace us? Should we risk losing control of our civilization?” ask the experts. They are calling for a shared strategy on how AI development should proceed.
Apart from the future-oriented concerns of the experts, the use of ChatGPT already poses risks for your company today. Unreflected adoption of the content provided by the AI could lead to your company being sued. It cannot be precisely traced where the chatbot obtains the information it provides, and no specific sources are given. The information could therefore be simply false or infringe someone else’s copyright.
Your company must also be extremely cautious with its own data when using ChatGPT. Never enter company internal data into the program, for example, to summarize it. The chatbot could reuse this data, allowing other companies or even hackers to access trade secrets.
You also need to consider what happens if another company makes a similar request to the chatbot as you, for example, by creating a blog article on the same topic. The texts could be too similar, causing the SEO department of your company to sweat, as Google then sees the blog post as plagiarism, which was published later, and downgrades the corresponding page.
In summary, ChatGPT and other AIs can already be used sensibly in your company if you use them with caution and foresight. Be sure to check everything the AI produces for you in terms of content and rewrite any type of text to match your company’s corporate identity. This not only avoids copyright infringement but also prevents you from losing profile for your customers. Don’t see new technologies as cheap new employees, but as what they are: new, useful tools to give your employees. Don’t leave your employees alone in handling ChatGPT and other AIs. If you want to use them for your company, it is recommended to train your employees not only in how to use them, but also in terms of legal consequences, SEO optimization, and the like. Also, keep an eye on the further development of AIs in order to be able to use the tools optimally in the future.
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