ChatGPT: One year of ChatGPT: Not an ‘iPhone moment’ but still a game-changer

Someone, somewhere must have certainly pitched an idea to OTT platforms on the recent drama at OpenAI — the company behind ChatGPT. In three days, three CEOs were hired and fired, an employee mutiny followed, Microsoft swooped in, and ultimately it ended with the prodigal son — Sam Altman— returning as CEO after five days of non-stop drama. Drama sells and always guarantees eyeballs but perhaps there’s another reason to talk about ChatGPT.
Almost a year ago, a digital whirlwind (retrospectively speaking) swept through the tech landscape, introducing the world to ChatGPT. It hasn’t reached the generic legendary levels of Bisleri, Xerox or Band-Aid, but people immediately think of generative AI and ChatGPT. Such has been the impact of ChatGPT that there’s not a single tech company that isn’t talking about AI, doing something about AI, or hasn’t got AI on its radar.

Those early days

When it was introduced, there was oodles of scepticism around ChatGPT. Let’s face it, no one really likes talking to machines and in the early days, ChatGPT was a fledgling AI, its responses limited to simple text generation and translation. In the early days, ChatGPT was a novelty, a fun toy that you could chat with and ask questions. You marvelled at it, criticised it harshly for getting anything wrong but never really brushed it off.
Those days, however, are long gone. OpenAI has ensured that in the last 12 months, ChatGPT has evolved into a sophisticated language model, capable of generating human-quality text in various creative formats, translating languages with fluency, and answering questions with insightful and informative responses. ChatGPT has also delved into the world of coding, assisting programmers in debugging code and even generating entire programs from scratch. There are budding coders who swear by ChatGPT and its utility.

Money matters

One of the most significant advancements was the introduction of ChatGPT Plus, a premium subscription service that gave users access to the best version of ChatGPT. This was followed by the release of the GPT-4 model, which offered even better content and allowed for images to be uploaded. As ChatGPT evolved, it also began to address some of its limitations. Its understanding of complex topics improved, and its responses became more nuanced and insightful. Its ability to generate creative text formats became more sophisticated, and its outputs were more varied and engaging.

It is here to stay

Like it or not, generative AI like ChatGPT is here to stay. Microsoft, Google, Amazon, and Apple (even though it meticulously avoids mentioning AI) are all investing billions of dollars in generative or some sort of AI, and much of it is down to ChatGPT.
The possibility is there to be an absolute game changer but at the end of the day, it is a tool, which can be used for good or bad. Can it be a human ‘replacement’? There’s a reason why it is called artificial intelligence and human intervention will always be needed for it to succeed. Perhaps that’s why the debate around ethics and AI is an important and perhaps never-ending one — just like how it should be.
ChatGPT isn’t the “iPhone moment” of this decade currently but check in a few years later and November 30, 2022 might just go down as a historic day in the world of technology.