A Beginner’s Guide to ChatGPT

Overview

What is ChatGPT?

ChatGPT, short for chat-based Generative Pre-trained Transformer, is an advanced language model designed to generate responses in a conversational manner. It has been trained on an incredibly large volume of text data, equipping it with the ability to comprehend and mimic human-like conversations.

How to Use ChatGPT?

On that note, how do we go about using this tool? To maximise the full value of ChatGPT, keep the following pointers in mind:

1. Give Clear and Specific Prompts – Be clear and concise with your questions and prompts, which will guide the conversation and elicit accurate, pertinent responses.
2. Experiment and Iterate – As you familiarise yourself with ChatGPT, explore a variety of prompts and modify the criterion provided. Trial-and-error will go a long way as you navigate the kinds of prompts that lead to desired responses.
3. Domain-specific Customisation – Fine-tune ChatGPT by providing additional training data or information to align it with personal, industry or case specific demands.

Impact of ChatGPT on Daily Life

Extending far beyond the tech industry, ChatGPT has a wide range of applications that impact different aspects of our everyday lives. For instance:

• Customer Support – ChatGPT is able to automate customer support services, enabling almost instantaneous responses and improving customer experience whilst simultaneously cutting costs for companies.
• Virtual Assistant – ChatGPT can act as a personal virtual assistant, helping users with mundane tasks like scheduling, reminders and general inquiries (similar to Siri, but more advanced).
• Content Creation – Stuck with a writer’s block? Fret not, ChatGPT can also assist with generating fresh ideas and content,  suggesting revisions, and enhancing the general creative process.
• Language Acquisition – ChatGPT can also converse with users in multiple languages, serving as a language practice partner while providing personalised feedback to support language learning.

Limitations and Considerations

While ChatGPT sounds like an incredibly impressive and exciting development (and it is!), it is still a relatively new technology. Naturally, there are caveats that should be kept in mind when using this conversational AI.

Firstly, ChatGPT may provide responses that seem plausible but fail to take into account contextual, real-word considerations. Next, as an AI model, ChatGPT reflects biases present in the training data. Hence, it is the onus of the user to ensure that it is used in a responsible and objective manner to mitigate any unintended biases. Lastly, ChatGPT may not always provide the most updated or factually accurate information. Thus, it is important to exercise caution when employing  the use of chatGPT for crucial or sensitive matters.

With that said, ChatGPT is still a versatile and powerful tool that can be used in diverse ways, and holds the potential to make our lives both easier and better. If you’ve been intrigued and want to learn how you can leverage ChatGPT, Heicoders Academy offers tailored training courses for specific learning needs, e.g., maximising the usage of ChatGPT for higher learning, to enable users to unlock the full potential of conversational AI. Or, if you would like to learn more about (i) the underlying mechanism of AI applications like ChatGPT, or (ii) learn to build AI applications like ChatGPT to support business decisions and functions, you can also check out Heicoders Academy’s Artificial Intelligence Nanodegree.