ChatGPT chatbot

ChatGPT (or 'Chat Generative Pre-trained Transformer') is a so-called generative AI system that is capable of understanding natural human language and generating detailed human-like information and answers questions through a conversational (chatbot) interface. ChatGPT was released as a prototype for general public use in November 2022 . I nitially, it was built on a version of Open AI's GPT-3 large language model and was updated in March 2023 to use the GPT-4 large language model via its paid ChatGPT Plus service and Microsoft's Copilot chatbot. Voice chat and image generation (via DALLE-3 ) capabilities were incorporated into ChatGPT Plus in October 2023. ChatGPT has been criticised for a wide range of actual and potential harms, including: Anthropomorphism. ChatGPT's ability to generate plausible-looking, human-like information and advice runs the risk of convincing users that it is somehow human and/or 'sentient'. Bias and discrimination. Despite built-in safeguards, researchers and others have demonstrated that ChatGPT produces outputs that are explicitly and implicitly biased in multiple ways. A ccuracy and reliability. I ncluding ' hallucinations ', or plausible-sounding inaccurate information such as fake references or sources. Copyright. OpenAI has been widely accused of using copyright protected information without permission to train its language models and ChatGPT. Misinformation and disinformation. ChatGPT has been shown to produce large volumes of convincing misinformation and disinformation . Unsafe and o ffensive content. ChatGPT has safeguards to minimise it being tricked into making errors and to stop requests generating inappropriate, abusive, or offensive content, including hate speech. However, it appears some of these can be overridden relatively easily. Confidentiality. Unless they expressly opt-out, OpenAI uses user information and data inputted to ChatGPT to train its models, thereby potentially or actually violating their personal confidentality or the confidentiality of their employers. Privacy. C oncerns exist about ChatGPT's approach to and impact on personal privacy. Reputational damage. The use and misuse of ChatGPT can harm the reputation of individuals and organisations it generates information about, in some instances resulting in threats to sue OpenAI for defamation. Security. ChatGPT has been shown to be vulnerable to malfunction and manipulation and can easily be made to generate spam and malware . Environment. OpenAI has not revealed the environmental impacts of its products, including Ch atGPT . Education. ChatGPT has fueled concerns that students can easily generate high-quality essays and other material, thereby reducing their need to build critical-thinking and problem-solving skills. Politics. ChatGPT's ability to generate plausible-sounding misinformation, disinformation, and hate speech is seen to have potentially serious effects on the well-being of communities and democracy. Employment. ChatGPT is seen to pose a risk to jobs and job conditions across a swathe of industries, from law, finance, and marketing to academics, journalists, and software programmers . OpenAI's development of ChatGPT involves poorly paid workers in third-world countries with limited rights.

Organisation involved

OpenAI

Product, system or model

ChatGPT

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