With the emergence of ChatGPT, OpenAI’s startling new invention, a flood of content has engulfed the internet. This chatbot garnered one million users in its first week and evoked a plethora of responses: shock, awe and even fear that this will replace “search” and overthrow Google. People went so far as to declare that “Google is done” and “OpenAI just killed Google”, giving rise to rumors that Sundar Pichai was panicking over it. To gain clarity on whether these reactions are justified, let us take a closer look at what ChatGPT is exactly.
Chatgpt is an AI-powered chatbot using the OpenAI GPT3 large language model (LLM). It has been trained with 175 billion neural network parameters, and its followup, GPT4 is expected to have a whopping 100 trillion! An LLM uses machine learning to predict the next word in a sentence based on previous entry or prompt. It’s fed sentences, facts and dialogue samples which it then uses to produce coherent responses that sound plausible but lack accuracy in terms of truth. An expert says the model aims to be plausible rather than truthful.”
Created by OpenAI, ChatGPT is an AI-powered conversational system that can answer questions and respond to comments. It was not designed to replace traditional search engines; rather its knowledge base only extends up to 2021 and it does not have the capability to search the web or provide sources for the answers it supplies. However, there are plans for an upgrade called WebGPT which may be available in the coming months which will enable it to do this.
Microsoft’s powerful GPT4 technology is being used to create a ChatGPT-like interface in the cloud, which could rival Google Brain’s LaMDA. LaMDA has demonstrated remarkable capabilities and even the ability to think or perceive its environment, which makes it suitable for integration with products like Gmail, Docs, Drive and Bing. With this technology, users would be able to ask questions and receive a response that can provide textual, visual or audio information. This project will bring about a conversational interface that has the potential to revolutionize how people use Google’s suite of products.
ChatGPT has the potential to revolutionize search engine technology. By providing a more user-driven experience, instead of one that is primarily advertiser-focused, it could improve the way we access the internet for research and information. It may not completely overtaker Google, but it will certainly help to fuel innovation in the search engine market and enhance our online experience.
