As humanity moves forward, we learn to use machines to make our daily lives easier; phones for communication; vehicles for transportation; internet for gaining information, etc. This has all been possible with the development and refinement of artificial intelligence over the decades. AI is in everything we use today. Our browsers, our virtual assistants (like Siri and Alexa) and even implemented into our OTT services so that it can cater to our specific tastes. ‘Intelligence’ as defined by the Oxford dictionary is ‘The ability to learn, understand and think in a logical way about things’ and artificial intelligence research aims towards this.
What is ChatGPT? It’s likely you’ve at least heard of the word floating about but, in case you haven’t, ChatGPT is an artificially intelligent chatbot designed to converse intelligently with human beings. GPT stands for generative pre-trained transformer. It is used to process language and generate human-like relevant content with regards to what it has processed.
OpenAI, the artificial intelligence research corporation behind the creation of ChatGPT, began their venture with the GPT series back in 2018. It released a series of application beginning from GPT-1 to GPT-4 and then Instruct GPT which was the last in the series before ChatGPT was finally released in November 2022. In addition to this, plugins have increased the efficiency at which it works, allowing individuals to access features that ChatGPT had never originally introduced, and increasing its potential among the public. The interactions between AI and users function more smoothly due to these.
“It got one million users within a month of its launch. I have mixed feelings about its capabilities,” says Mapusa-based Roshan Noronha, a research engineer with a masters in data science. “ChatGPt with plugins is increasing its importance. It’s breaking up of existing jobs, first with copywriting, next customer support, then assistants, slowly to sales before then moving to low level technical jobs,”
she says.
The release of ChatGPT was such a major success that, by January 2023, the chatbot had already garnered over 100 million users. By February 2023, Amazon saw a boom in AI written e-books and authors such as Tim Boucher have outright admitted to having used the generator to publish as many as 90+ works.
Despite this, however, OpenAI has made sure to list down the limitations of ChatGPT which is well-known for confidently giving wrong and inaccurate information often and stated on the ChatGPT page that, “ChatGPT sometimes writes plausible-sounding but incorrect or nonsensical answers” and that “Our current models usually guess what the user intended” instead of asking questions to clarify ambiguous queries. ChatGPT is also known for plainly copying the work of published authors and internet writers to create new ones requested by its users which can easily become a serious legal issue if used professionally.
“I came across a number of articles on LinkedIn and a few posts on Instagram back in December 2022. I personally didn’t use it at all until February 2023. It all started when I needed to make a short write up and that’s when a friend suggested that I use Chat GPT, so I did. I typed what I wanted and in how many words I wanted it explained, and voila! I had a paragraph in less than a minute,” says 26-year-old Tanya Rosaria based in Mapusa. She adds, “I thought it was too good to be true, so I proof read the information provided and cross referenced the facts by re-typing the title on Google. That’s when I realised that most of the facts were correct but
Chat GPT had got a few dates wrong.”
“I started using ChatGPT out of curiosity initially to see how it worked. The use of AI is fascinating but also worrisome. ChatGPT can generate answers in seconds, what does that mean for the writers who write for a living? AI is intriguing but it could be the end to artists, imagination and creativity,” says Tisha Gonsalves from Dona Paula. She was completing her undergraduate course when the chatbot suddenly received worldwide attention.
For creators, ChatGPT and similar AI pose a real threat. The results they produce are directly obtained through searching the web for things created by others and then constructing a piece according to what the user had requested. The popularity of ChatGPT in Goa was most prominent from March onwards when everyone seemed to know what it was and how to access it. The word continued to spread until it wasn’t only those in the field of IT or the young that were aware of its presence.
Among Goans, ChatGPT is rarely used for task other than trivial pastime and harmless inquiries. It can be used to insert complex text and request a simpler summary or explanation that can be easily understood. However, due to its habit of providing false information mixed in with facts, every sentence must be carefully read and fact checked for any divergences or errors—
a venture that may often be more trouble than it is worth.
