Enter: ChatGPT

ChatGPT (GPT being short for “Generative Pre-trained Transformer”) has largely become a sensation in the tech circuit in the way it mimics human-like responses to questions.

Developed by the San Francisco, USA-based startup OpenAI, it’s a type of contextual chatbot that was “trained” to “study” virtually millions of written documents, which is the reason why it gives life-like responses.

It was rolled out as a prototype on November 30, 2022, and within five days, there were more than one million people using it. Compared to how fast now-de facto services made their first one million, this is quite impressive.

It took Spotify around five months before it raked-in one million users, while it took around ten months for Facebook to hit the one million users mark after its launch.

Last month, OpenAI had the launch of a subscription-based model for the chatbot called “ChatGPT Plus”, wherein it was described as a “conversational AI that can chat with you, answer follow-up questions and challenge incorrect assumptions”.

When asked to “explain what ChatGPT is to my mom”, it says: “ChatGPT is a computer program that uses artificial intelligence (AI) to understand and respond to natural language text, just like a human would. It can answer questions, write sentences, and even have a conversation with you. It’s like having your own personal robot that can understand and talk to you!”

Since its launch, ChatGPT has raised a lot of questions pertaining to how its development will largely affect the internet-of-things – how it will be integrated to current tech-driven work and leisure standards.

As it “learns” as it interacts with people more, the question as to how “smart” it could get has been brought up, leaving many to wonder if it reaches to a point where it’ll have a “ghost in the machine”.