OpsanBlog

5W – ChatGPT: Conversational AI

Thank you for reading! Please see “Why 5W?”  for context, methodology and disclaimers.

ChatGPT Overview

You’ve heard all about it! You’ve heard it is either the greatest thing ever or will usher in the age of The Terminator. It is either the ultimate Cliff’s Notes or the means for students to rescue homework their dog devoured at the last, life-saving moment. You might hear it is going to eliminate jobs or create a new class of workers. You might even believe it is an all-knowing oracle, preparing to unleash digital doom upon humanity.

It’s not. Or is it?

Some might say it is stunted, relying only on trained data, or data obtained prior to a specific date. They might cite a lack of accuracy or it is unable to apply common sense reasoning. They might say it takes too many prompt attempts to get an acceptable answer or the results are dry, or robot-like. You might hear cries of plagiarism .. a genuine concern, given how ChatGPT is populated and trained.

No argument from me on any of these points. I feel the time is ripe for a healthy discussion about these concerns, capabilities, restrictions, and more. This is the first of a larger document set that will address practices and use cases companies should consider when adopting and rolling the use of ChatGPT within their organization.

By way of overview, ChatGPT wrote the following paragraph with the initial prompt: “Write a paragraph for a blog post about ChatGPT with the following section heading: ChatGPT Overview.”

Introducing ChatGPT, an advanced language model powered by OpenAI’s cutting-edge GPT-3.5 architecture. ChatGPT has revolutionized the field of Conversational AI, enabling human-like interactions and opening up endless possibilities for businesses and individuals alike. In this blog post, we will delve into the various aspects of ChatGPT, exploring its business benefits, capabilities, use cases, providers, audiences, and ultimately, its impact on the world.

Dry, and accurate. It appears that ChatGPT has no lack of ego .. it is quite happy to be writing about itself. To further my statement, it titled the post-to-be: “Unleashing the Power of ChatGPT: Revolutionizing Conversational AI”. I softened it a wee bit.

Ways I think of ChatGPT:

• She is the smartest ‘friend’ that I have. A friend to whom I can pose any question at any hour of the day or night.
• This friend listens. Even if I’m not fond of the first response, I can simply clarify without having to retype my entire prompt. I just tell it what I don’t like about it, or to make it funny, or to lengthen or shorten, adding (or removing) the level of detail.
• She is a resource on which I can rely for step-by-step instructions from PC support, recipes, research tracks, and more.
• She can replace using a search engine (YMMV, based on the age of the content) .. rather than a list of links, it can provide an article that addresses my request criteria.
• With an appropriate prompt, she can deliver excellent first-draft content .. this puts me more into editing, rather than writing mode.
• She has a wicked sense of humor .. something of which I pride myself.

ChatGPT is early stage, but eminently functional. There is a growing ecosystem of companies working with it to extend the functionality to yield real business results, provide guardrails and integrate the capabilities into applications.

Caveat: Be aware of the results. OpenAI does not guarantee the content is fresh or positively accurate. This will improve over time, or when you start to work with released versions.

ChatGPT Business Benefits

Even at an early stage, and without integration, ChatGPT adoption brings numerous potential benefits to businesses by offering a scalable, automated and cost-effective solution across a wide variety of use cases. For the average user, ChatGPT is ‘free’, at least at the moment. An end user need only sign up with OpenAI, confirm their email address and they’re ready to write prompts. Bear in mind, they’ll be working with the ‘default’ version of ChatGPT, as offered at that moment. The good news: you can simply prompt “What version of ChatGPT are you?”, to which I received the response:

I am an AI language model based on the GPT-3.5 architecture developed by OpenAI. My responses and capabilities are derived from the training data and knowledge available up until September 2021. It’s worth noting that I don’t have access to information or updates beyond that point. If there have been any newer versions or updates to ChatGPT released by OpenAI since then, I may not be aware of them or have knowledge about their specific features or improvements.

Once a company starts to integrate ChatGPT into its product offering or into its infrastructure, it’ll need a more formal (read: paying) relationship with OpenAI. This will get the company access to more current language models, enable the ability to train the model, provide API access, and more.

I view ChatGPT as a platform, an enabling technology and a means to extend existing offerings in ways we’ve yet to imagine .. hence I’m pressing ‘pause’ on Business Benefits here, as I’ll go more deeply into Use Cases (below) to spark a discussion on how companies can reduce their bottom line, improve their top line and enhance their offerings using ChatGPT.

ChatGPT Capabilities

From ChatGPT with the prompt “Please provide a paragraph describing the capabilities of ChatGPT”:

ChatGPT’s capabilities are truly remarkable. It possesses a vast knowledge base, drawing upon a wide range of topics and domains. It can answer questions, provide explanations, and even generate creative content such as blog posts, articles, and product descriptions. ChatGPT can understand context, maintain conversational coherence, and adapt to different conversational styles, making interactions feel more natural and dynamic.

.. I could barely have described it better myself. The proof is in the Prompt. Here are a few things I’ve asked ChatGPT prior to, and when researching this article .. links (provided by ChatGPT) for each prompt (try these at home!) :

• Prompt: “please write the lyrics of ‘jellicle cats’ from the musical ‘cats’” .. you will get a nicely-formatted lyric.
• Prompt: “explain the use of ice and spice for weight loss” .. as expected, largely debunked.
• Prompt: “write a recipe for baked chicken and dill” .. as expected, a step-by-step recipe.
• Prompt: “write five paragraphs about corporate carbon neutrality adoption” .. yes.
• Prompt: “Please provide a ‘talk like a pirate vocabulary’ in a table with the term in the left column and the definition in the right column.“
• Prompt: “write a HIIT workout for me” .. a nicely-formatted High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT) workout, describing warm-up, timings and eight exercises. Now, as I didn’t recognize most of the exercises on the list, I followed on with Prompt: “update this request with a link to each exercise” .. ChatGPT provided the same output, but with a link to a video for each exercise. 
• Last: Analyze Blog Post Request, where I first ask for instructions on how to request the analysis and them make the actual request .. this was the most fun: ChatGPT was very kind about my writing.

And last: “Write a blog post about ChatGPT with the following section headings: ChatGPT Overview, ChatGPT Business Benefits, ChatGPT Capabilities, ChatGPT Use Cases, ChatGPT Providers, ChatGPT Audiences, Conclusion. Use the context of each section for section content and write at least two paragraphs underneath each section heading.“. This prompt provided the basis for this article. Very, very fun stuff .. again, advancing me into an editor role, versus a writer.

Note the value of specificity, including number of paragraphs, output formatting (tables or step-by-step) and so on.

Nothing formal herein .. just hoping to give you a taste. I’ll release a number of specific use-case articles as we go.

ChatGPT Use Cases

The public version of ChatGPT can satisfy a wide variety of use cases across various industries. Please see my examples, above for general usage. 

For specific company use, i.e., tailored technical support or company-specific processes, ChatGPT will need to be trained on the company background data. Once trained, ChatGPT enables application across numerous use cases.

• Customer support: answer frequently asked questions, troubleshoot common issues and guide users through self-service processes.
• Virtual assistant: common tasks like scheduling appointments, making reservations or offering personalized recommendations.
• Language translation and content creation across internal and external domains.
• E-Commerce: Act as a virtual sales assistant, guiding customers through their purchasing journey, answering product-related queries, and offering personalized recommendations. With training and connections to E-Commerce systems, the model can understand customer preferences and historical data, enhancing the shopping experience and driving sales.
• Healthcare: Assist medical professionals with information on symptoms, suggesting potential diagnoses and offering treatment guidelines. Depending on training, It can act as a reliable source of medical knowledge, supporting doctors and nurses in their decision-making processes.
• Mental health: Engage in empathetic conversations, providing a sense of companionship and offering resources for self-care.

This automation can help companies to handle a larger volume of inquiries efficiently. The instant responses will reduce customer wait times and enhance overall satisfaction.

ChatGPT Providers

Several providers have already integrated ChatGPT into their platforms, making the technology readily accessible to businesses and developers. OpenAI offers an API that allows developers to build their applications and leverage the power of ChatGPT. The API provides easy-to-use integration options that enable businesses to integrate conversational capabilities quickly and seamlessly.

I typically provide a list of partners in this section, but the market is moving so rapidly, I will defer this to a later post. In the interim, I found a very useful article on CRN: 8 Partners Weigh In On The ChatGPT, GPT Generative AI Hype. Published in February 2023, it provides a pragmatic view of various partner use cases.

ChatGPT Audiences

In a word: diverse. Businesses of all sizes and domains can leverage ChatGPT to streamline operations, enhance customer experiences and gain a competitive edge. Individuals can benefit using it as a personal productivity tool, creative writing assistant or, a companion for learning and exploration.

Developers and researchers can utilize the ChatGPT API to build new applications, conduct experiments, and advance the field of Conversational AI.

I will cover specific audiences in future use-case articles.

Conclusion

ChatGPT represents a significant leap forward in Conversational AI, unlocking new possibilities for businesses, individuals and developers. Advanced capabilities, diverse use cases and availability through various providers make it a game-changer in the world of natural language processing. As ChatGPT continues to evolve and improve, we can expect even more exciting applications and opportunities to arise, shaping the future of communication and human-AI interaction.

By harnessing the power of ChatGPT, we embark on a journey of innovation, pushing the boundaries of what is possible and redefining the way we engage with technology.

Shout out to ChatGPT for this section.