Finding ChatGPT

By Charles Miller

A column I wrote here a few weeks back on the subject of ChatGPT prompted quite a few responses from readers.  I always enjoy hearing from Atención readers and try to respond to each email.  This time rather than doing that I am taking the liberty of lumping a number of emails together as all of those messages asked one of two questions.  The first was “How can I get ChatGPT?” and the other was essentially “Can you tell us everything ChatGPT can do, in one 500-word column please?”

ChatGPT is, to use a definition all internet users can understand, being used as an Internet search engine similar to Google.  The big difference is that ChatGPT is trained to understand your intentions in order to provide a more focused and relevant response.  Today’s search engines do provide relevant responses, but they are often buried among hundreds of irrelevant responses that might be important, but more often than not are not of any interest.  This is but one of the many things ChatGPT seeks to improve.

The free research preview of ChatGPT went online last November at chat.openai.com and was immediately maxed out.  Unfortunately, most visitors to this test site are still being greeted with the message “Signup is currently unavailable, please try again later.”  This is because OpenAI Incorporated seems to have greatly underestimated the public interest in their technology and has been forced to limit the number of new accounts.

This does not mean there is no way for you to test drive ChatGPT if you are interested.  Do a Google search for the keywords “try chatgpt without account” (without the quotes) and you can find sites for other companies that are licensing the technology and are thus able to offer a way for you to test-drive ChatGPT.  Among these are Microsoft that has its Bing App available for Android and iOS devices; and Google is now offering its own version named Bard AI.  If you are a Twitter user, ask ChatGPT to respond to an existing tweet, simply tag @replyGPT in the reply to that tweet.

As to the second question, “Can you explain in a 500-word column everything ChatGPT can do?”  Sorry, but that is like asking a cook to list every recipe that can be cooked using a gas stove.  The possibilities are simply unlimited.  ChatGPT could create a dinner menu to be prepared on the aforementioned gas stove as well as suggest a wine to complement it.  Then it could compose dinner invitations in the form of a poem, email them to your guests, and also provide you a shopping list complete with the address of the closest grocery store with all the ingredients in stock.  Rest assured there are many more things it can do.

I should also issue the disclaimer that all of the Artificial Intelligence programs mentioned in this column are still in the developmental and testing phase.  The most recent version of ChatGPT was made available to the public on March 23, 2023, which was only days ago.  All this literally means that anything I write here today could need to be updated even before this goes to print.

Charles Miller is a freelance computer consultant, a frequent visitor to San Miguel since 1981 and now practically a full-time resident.  He may be contacted at 415 101 8528 or email FAQ8@SMAguru.com.