Explainer for kids and parents on ChatGPT, the new AI tool that is the talk of the town
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ChatGPT has the ability to understand natural human language and respond in an impressively detailed human-like manner.
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SINGAPORE – If you spend any time online, you have probably encountered a chatbot at some point. These are the automated programs that can help you with almost everything, from ordering a pizza to booking a hotel room.
But what if the chatbot you were talking to were so advanced that it could understand your every word and respond with human-like accuracy?
That is where ChatGPT comes in. This explainer is aimed at young readers aged 10 and up, and their parents. It is produced by the team behind Little Red Dot, The Straits Times’ publication for primary schools
What is ChatGPT?
Since its release last November,
The chatbot is a form of generative artificial intelligence (AI). Such tools allow users to enter prompts into a chat interface and receive results in the form of text or images created by AI.
ChatGPT has the ability to understand natural human language and respond in an impressively detailed human-like manner.
It can be used for a wide range of tasks, such as answering questions, generating code or composing essays.
Who is behind it?
ChatGPT was created by OpenAI, an artificial intelligence company based in San Francisco in the United States.
The company is known for creating Dall-E, a programme that generates AI images from text prompts.
How does ChatGPT work?
ChatGPT uses a technique called “natural language processing” to understand and respond to text-based conversations. It analyses the words and phrases that a user inputs, and then uses algorithms to generate a relevant and coherent response.
To allow it to understand and respond to a wide range of topics and questions, the program is trained using large amounts of text data, in a way that mimics how the human brain absorbs information. In this model, the network is trained with data drawn from sources such as books, articles and websites.
When a user enters a question or statement, ChatGPT will break it down into individual words and analyse the relationships among them. It then uses this information to generate a response that is as relevant and informative as possible.
Like other similar models, ChatGPT may sometimes produce responses that have errors or are inappropriate.
However, the program is designed to learn from its interactions with users. This means that it can understand and use the relationship between words to improve the quality and accuracy of its responses over time.
What sets it apart?
Because it was trained on an enormous amount of text data, ChatGPT’s size and complexity means that it can understand and respond to a wider variety of topics and contexts.
It is also able to generate responses that are more comprehensive and refined compared with many other models, and adapt to new contexts and topics over time as it continues to learn from new input.
ChatGPT is also capable of processing and generating text in multiple languages.
What have reactions been like?
Companies have quickly adapted the tool into their products to automate mundane tasks or enhance communications.
For example, Microsoft has integrated the chatbot’s technology into two of its products.
Its updated Edge web browser has two new capabilities – chat and compose – to ask follow-up questions and create content based on prompts.
Meanwhile, software company Salesforce has introduced ChatGPT into its office messaging software Slack. The company says the chatbot will be able to “deliver instant conversation summaries, research tools and writing assistance” directly within the Slack without users leaving the platform.
At the same time, other more wary parties are taking steps to mitigate their concerns.
Stack Overflow, a question-and-answer website for programmers, banned content generated by ChatGPT because it often produced incorrect answers to technical questions.
The academic world, too, is exploring how it could be used.
For example, the International Baccalaureate will allow students to quote content that is created by ChatGPT
However, there are also concerns that students could use the tool to produce their school assignments in their entirety.
In New York, concerns over the tool enabling plagiarism and generating falsehoods have led officials to block access to ChatGPT in the city’s 1,851 public schools.
Separately, in March, Italy became the first Western country to block ChatGPT
Garante, the Italian data-protection authority, has temporarily banned the chatbot and is investigating the programme’s suspected breach of privacy rules.
What is Singapore’s take on it?
In February, Education Minister Chan Chun Sing told Parliament that the Ministry of Education was guiding teachers in schools and institutes of higher learning on how to use AI tools such as ChatGPT to enhance learning.
Educators are also exploring the use of such tools.
Sources: BBC, The Guardian, Reuters, CNET, TechCrunch, Science Focus, Forbes, CNBC.
