Understanding And Unlocking GPT, ChatGPT and GPTs

Artificial intelligence (AI) has become common in our daily lives, revolutionizing various aspects of our interaction with technology. One of the most remarkable applications of AI is its ability to understand and generate text that resembles human writing.

It's surprising that many people still need help to distinguish between models like GPT, and the products called ChatGPT and GPTs. This highlights the need for clarity in understanding the differences of these keywords.

What is GPT?

GPT, or Generative Pre-trained Transformer, stands at the forefront of language generation models developed by OpenAI. GPT processes and generates text based on vast amounts of pre-existing data using a sophisticated deep-learning technique called transformers. The "pre-trained" aspect means the model is initially trained on extensive text data before fine-tuning for specific tasks.

GPT's architecture incorporates multiple self-attention mechanisms, allowing it to capture intricate relationships between words in a text. This architecture empowers GPT to comprehend and produce coherent and contextually relevant text.

16 Billion Pieces Of Paper

For most of us reading this, what I have written above doesn't make much sense. I would like you to focus on the "pre-trained" keyword. Before GPT, if you wanted to do something similar, you would need vast data. How much data, you ask?

Well, OpenAI's GPT4 is said to use 13 trillion tokens of data to train (tokens are just a fancy name for units of words). A token is roughly equivalent to half a word, so 13 trillion tokens are about 6.5 trillion words. If you print all these words out, you'll need 16.25 billion pieces of paper.

Do you have 16 billion pages of text? Well, I don't.

GPT has democratized access to large language models to small businesses like yours and mine that don't have this vast amount of data. This is THE game-changer.

What is ChatGPT?

ChatGPT is a specialized version of GPT tailored specifically for conversational interactions. While GPT excels at generating coherent text, ChatGPT is optimized for understanding and responding to conversations in a human-like manner. It is ideal for applications such as chatbots, virtual assistants, and dialogue systems.

A Fresh Harvard Grad

An easy-to-understand analogy I heard when attending one of the many seminars on ChatGPT for small businesses is that "ChatGPT is like a fresh Harvard grad just out of school and is very good at writing".

Our fresh Harvard grad knows how to write well, knows how to do research and is eager to learn but needs more practical knowledge of our business or even the world. Like any fresh grad your company hires, you'll need to train them on how your business works and how you'd like them to help you.

Key Differences between GPT and ChatGPT

While GPT is a powerful language model designed for generating text based on context and input across various language tasks, ChatGPT is honed for conversational interactions. GPT's training data encompasses many sources, including books, articles, and websites, providing a broad understanding of language. In contrast, ChatGPT's training data is sourced from social media, forums, and messaging platforms, enabling it to capture the nuances of human conversation better.

Living Without ChatGPT

Let's face it, most of us can live without ChatGPT. It's there, it's helpful, and we can ask it questions, but speculation suggests that only 1% of the 100 million or so users of ChatGPT are paying the $20 per month subscription fee.

What Is GPTs?

That is what OpenAI is trying to solve: Making ChatGPT indispensable to you and your business. OpenAI has introduced a "GPT Store" platform called "GPTs".

In this store, you can create custom chatbots (or "GPTs") to suit your needs, whether for personal use, work, or sharing with others. These GPTs can be instructed with specific knowledge, preferences, and capabilities during creation. You don't need any coding skills; you only have to give instructions and choose what you want your GPTs to do. Whether helping you learn, assisting with work tasks, or just adding a fun twist to conversations, GPTs are easy and accessible for everyone.

The term "Generative Pre-trained Transformer" refers to the underlying architecture and training approach used by OpenAI for these AI agents, which enables them to generate human-like text outputs.

So, in essence, GPTs are customized variants of the core ChatGPT language model, allowing users to create specialized AI assistants for various purposes, such as creative writing, event planning, coding assistance, and more.

Integrating GPTs into Your Applications

GPTs make it simple to work with GPT models. You can send them input and get responses back in a way that your programs can understand. Plus, they help you write less code, which makes everything faster.

But it doesn't end there. You can also adjust GPTs to better suit your needs. Whether you want to train them with your data or tweak them for specific tasks, you can make GPTs work for your specific needs.

You can even enhance GPTs' intelligence by integrating them with other data sources, such as user inputs or databases. This allows GPTs to provide more relevant answers based on the context provided by the additional data. Integrating GPTs into your workflow can automate repetitive tasks, saving you time and making everything run smoother.

In short, using GPTs in your workflow is easy and saves you time and money while making your programs smarter.

It's straightforward to start using GPTs. Here are the steps to begin using GPTs on OpenAI's platform:

1. Sign up for a ChatGPT Plus or Enterprise subscription, as GPTs are only available to paid users.
2. Log in to your OpenAI account and go to the GPT Editor.
3. Click "Create a GPT" to start building your custom AI assistant.
4. In the "Create" tab, describe your desired GPT's purpose and capabilities to the GPT Builder.
5. Name your GPT and set a description in the "Configure" tab.
6. This is the important part: You can optionally provide additional instructions, example prompts, and context files in the "Configure" tab.
7. Another vital part: Enable any desired capabilities, such as web browsing, image generation, or data analysis.
8. For advanced users: Connect third-party apps and APIs as "Custom Actions" if needed.
9. When ready, click "Publish" to make your GPT available for use.
10. Share the GPT link with others or keep it private as your preference.

Steps 6 and 7 are what make your GPTs different. The data and prompt that you feed it give it customized capabilities that the generic ChatGPT will not have.

That's it! With these steps, you can create and start using your own customized AI assistant tailored to your specific needs and use cases.

Applications of GPTs

Well, GPTs do great things, but where can we use them, and what are their applications? The applications of GPTs are diverse and can be used in various domains and tasks. Here are some notable applications:

1. Content Creation: GPTs can generate diverse forms of written content, including blog posts, articles, social media content, and more. They facilitate brainstorming ideas, refining tone and style, and improving grammar.

2. Chatbots: GPTs are utilized to develop conversational agents or chatbots capable of interacting with users in natural language. These chatbots provide customer support, answer FAQs, and engage users in conversation.

3. Language Translation: GPTs aid in language translation by providing text translations from one language to another. They contribute to developing translation tools that bridge language barriers.

4. Text Summarization: GPTs summarize long texts into shorter, concise summaries, facilitating the extraction of critical information from articles, documents, or research papers.

5. Code Generation: GPTs generate code snippets based on a given task or description, aiding developers in automating repetitive tasks or generating boilerplate code.

6. Email Generation: GPTs compose emails based on user input, facilitating the drafting of professional and coherent messages. This is particularly useful for customer support teams or professionals handling a large volume of emails.

7. Educational Tools: GPTs can power educational tools like language learning apps, tutoring systems, or virtual teaching assistants, providing personalized feedback and assistance to learners.

Wrapping up

The technology of AI is still in the early days, and many companies come up with new words that promise new things nearly daily. I hope this post has cleared some confusion about the similar but distinctly different "GPT," "ChatGPT," and "GPTs" as being used by OpenAI.

All of them are based on the GPT model, and ChatGPT and GPTs are different ways of using that model.

In this post I have introduced some simple examples of the applications for GPTs. Next time, I will introduce actual GPTs usable for marketing that we can already find in the store.