Silicon Valley entrepreneurs created OpenAI in 2015 to push the frontiers of artificial intelligence. OpenAI’s latest chatbot, ChatGPT, uses artificial intelligence to respond to user prompts in groundbreaking, somewhat startling ways. As a large language model, ChatGPT is an AI-powered tool that generates text in response to inputs from users.
Since its release in November 2022, millions of users around the world have used ChatGPT to write everything from TV scripts to fully functional source code.
How does ChatGPT work?
Large language models like ChatGPT represent a new chapter in artificial intelligence.
“For example, search engines like Google don’t create content. They pull content from the internet and list it. ChatGPT ingests content, analyzes it, and tries to come up with an answer like a human would,” said Lokesh Ramamoorthi, lecturer in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering.
“ChatGPT is based on natural language processing (NLP) algorithms,” Ramamoorthi added. “The system learns language the same ways as humans do, often trained on a massive set of text data and many references.”
Users around the world have been shocked by how human-like ChatGPT’s responses seem. Ramamoorthi explained how NLP enables this human-like quality.
“This helps ChatGPT respond to questions and situations depending on context, on a variety of topics,” he said. “For example, an expert knows when to use a technical jargon when talking to others in the field and when to simplify the terms when talking to non-expert audience. In this way, ChatGPT learns and trains itself in various topics and generates responses in an adaptive way.”
And it will keep becoming more and more sophisticated. “It keeps training and retraining itself,” Ramamoorthi said. “It’s like leaving someone in the Library of Congress and they read it in 10 hours. It’s reading every single day. It now works off 175 billion parameters, or inputs. And it’s not cheap. OpenAI spends around $1 million a day to keep ChatGPT running.”
Ramamoorthi has used ChatGPT to make up bedtime stories for his daughter.
“I asked it to create a story including my daughter and her favorite ‘Paw Patrol’ characters,” said Ramamoorthi. “When I want a new story, I just ask it to regenerate an answer.”
The impact of ChatGPT
“As the case with any new technology, it represents opportunities to increase productivity and automate different tasks that are normally performed by humans,” said Mohamed Abdel-Mottaleb, professor and chair of the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering. ”Although ChatGPT is a significant advancement in AI, it still comes at a cost. Such technologies can put an increasing number of jobs at risk, which requires people to adjust and adapt.”
Tools such as ChatGPT make AI-based tools more available to the general public, said Pratim Biswas, dean of the College of Engineering.
“Faculty at the College of Engineering are engaged in AI and machine learning-based research with applications in medicine, autonomous transportation, and other areas,” he added.
Some College of Engineering students have already used ChatGPT.
“I tried asking it a bunch of technical questions and I thought its answers were pretty impressive,” said Munir Hafeel, a computer engineering student. “I think it’ll impact my career in a positive way. Based on its current capabilities, ChatGPT can’t replace engineers, but it can help engineers simplify research and come up with more efficient solutions.”
Andres Palacios Alvarado, also a computer engineering student, agrees.
“Rather than taking away our future jobs, ChatGPT can just let us get our work done faster,” he said.
Learn more about teaching in the AI era
“I think this offers us a healthy opportunity, not to avoid ChatGPT,” said Jeffrey Duerk, executive vice president for academic affairs and provost, “but rather to explore how we can comprehensively support our students to master a topic with the available tools.”
“Faculty will be monitoring the use of ChatGPT,” added Biswas, “and working with students to see how it can enhance the educational experience.”
Faculty members interested in learning more about the impact AI-powered tools like ChatGPT have on education–and how to adapt effectively–can join the University’s Platform for Excellence in Teaching and Learning (PETAL) for a live discussion on “Teaching in the Age of Artificial Intelligence” on Tuesday, Jan. 31, from 12:30-1:30 p.m. Register here.
