Why did the turkey join a band? 
He had drumsticks!

    Bad joke, right? Don’t blame us. ChatGPT wrote it.

    Have you heard of ChatGPT? It’s a computer chatbot. It was released a year ago. It’s been wowing the world. ChatGPT can write songs and computer code in seconds. It creates games. It knows more than 90 languages. 

    ChatGPT is free online. Type in any command. You’ll get a human-like text response. The possibilities are endless. And that worries some people. Here’s what you need to know about this powerful technology.

What Is ChatGPT?

    ChatGPT is a chatbot. It uses artificial intelligence, or AI. That’s a type of technology. It teaches computers to do things that normally require a human’s ability to think or learn.

    Do you use AI tools like Siri and Alexa? They respond to your voice. But ChatGPT responds to typed questions or commands. It can carry on text-based conversations and provide information.  

How Did It Get So Smart?

    Imagine you knew everything on the internet. That’s not quite the case with ChatGPT—but almost. People at a company called OpenAI trained the bot. They used online texts. Billions of words from books, articles, and social media posts were “fed” into ChatGPT. After analyzing them, the bot learned to see patterns. This helps ChatGPT figure out what a user is asking. 

    Then it finds the best response in its huge data library. 

Why did the turkey join a band? 
He had drumsticks!

    Did that joke make you cringe? Don’t blame us. ChatGPT wrote it.

    Maybe you’ve heard of ChatGPT, a computer chatbot that was released a year ago. Since then, ChatGPT has been wowing the world because it can write everything from songs to computer code in seconds. This chatbot also creates games, knows more than 90 foreign languages, and much more. 

    ChatGPT is free online. Type in any command, and you’ll get a weirdly human-like text response. The possibilities are endless—and that has some people worried. Here’s what you need to know about this powerful technology.  

What Is ChatGPT?

    ChatGPT is a chatbot that uses artificial intelligence (AI), a type of technology that teaches computers to do things that normally require a human’s ability to think or learn.

    You probably already use AI tools like Siri and Alexa—which respond to your voice—but ChatGPT responds to typed questions or commands. It can carry on text-based conversations and provide information. 

How Did It Get So Smart?

    Imagine if your brain held the entire internet inside it. That’s not quite the case with ChatGPT—but almost. People at a company called OpenAI trained the bot by using enormous amounts of online text. They fed billions of words from books, articles, and social media posts into ChatGPT. After analyzing them, the bot learned to see patterns—and this training has helped ChatGPT figure out what a user is asking. 

    Then it fetches the best response from its huge data library.

Why Are People Excited About It? 

    ChatGPT is the most advanced chatbot ever released. It remembers conversations. You can ask follow-up questions days later. It also responds to feedback. Tell it to give you a simpler answer, and it will. The latest version is called GPT-4. It has more abilities. For example, it can describe objects for people with vision loss. 

    Experts hope AI tools might solve problems humans haven’t been able to solve. Could AI help cure cancer? Could it come up with new ways to fight climate change?

So Why Not Have a Chatbot Write This Article? 

    Here’s why: You can’t believe everything you read on the internet. And ChatGPT learned from that content. So the bot can give wrong responses. Also, its responses sometimes contain hurtful stereotypes. Why? Again, ChatGPT was trained on internet content. And that content contains a lot of stereotypes. 

    ChatGPT’s creators are trying to fix these issues. But a study suggests that ChatGPT is getting more things wrong over time. Plus, the bot’s training ended in September 2021. So ChatGPT knows little about current events. (We asked it which team won the 2023 Super Bowl. It told us . . . to look it up.) 

What Else Could Go Wrong?

    Right now, the biggest fear is that ChatGPT may spread fake news. The bot could be used to help create videos, images, and articles that look like the real thing. 

    This past summer, Google, Amazon, and other major U.S. tech companies came together. They agreed to some AI safety rules. One of them is that AI-created content must be labeled, such as with a stamp. That way, people will know where it came from. 

    U.S. lawmakers are also expected to pass rules about the use of AI. In July, President Joe Biden said AI held exciting possibilities. But he added, “This is a serious responsibility. We have to get it right.” 

Why Are People Excited About It? 

    ChatGPT, the most advanced chatbot ever released, remembers conversations so you can ask follow-up questions days later—and it responds to feedback. Tell it to give you a simpler answer, and it will. The latest version, called GPT-4, has even more abilities, such as analyzing photographs and describing objects for people with vision loss. 

    In the future, experts hope AI tools might solve problems humans haven’t been able to solve. They wonder: Could AI help cure cancer, or could it come up with new ways to fight climate change?

So Why Not Have a Chatbot Write This Article? 

    We’re pretty sure that’s not a good idea—for the same reasons you wouldn’t want it to do your homework! You can’t believe everything you read on the internet, right? ChatGPT learned from that content, so the bot can be flat-out wrong. Its responses sometimes contain hurtful stereotypes too. Why? Again, ChatGPT was trained on internet content, and that content contains a lot of stereotypes.

    ChatGPT’s creators are trying to fix these issues, but a recent study suggests that ChatGPT is getting more things wrong over time. Plus, the bot’s training ended in September 2021, which means that ChatGPT is often clueless about current events. (We asked it which team won the 2023 Super Bowl, and it told us . . . to look it up.) 

What Else Could Go Wrong?

    Right now, the biggest fear is that ChatGPT may spread fake news. The bot could be used to help create videos, images, and articles that look like the real thing. 

    This past summer, Google, Amazon, and other major U.S. tech companies came together and agreed to some AI safety rules. One of them is that AI-created content must be labeled, such as with a stamp, so that people will know where it came from. 

    U.S. lawmakers are also expected to pass rules about the use of AI. In July, President Joe Biden said AI held exciting possibilities, but he added, “This is a serious responsibility. We have to get it right.” 

_{Special thanks to Safinah Arshad Ali of the MIT Media Lab for her help with this article.}

_{Special thanks to Safinah Arshad Ali of the MIT Media Lab for her help with this article.}

_{Special thanks to Safinah Arshad Ali of the MIT Media Lab for her help with this article.}