ChatGPT For Dummies by TheDTE

ChatGPT

™

ChatGPT

by Pam Baker

™

ChatGPT™ For Dummies® Published by: John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 111 River Street, Hoboken, NJ 07030-5774, www.wiley.com Copyright © 2023 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, New Jersey Published simultaneously in Canada No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning or otherwise, except as permitted under Sections 107 or 108 of the 1976 United States Copyright Act, without the prior written permission of the Publisher. Requests to the Publisher for permission should be addressed to the Permissions Department, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 111 River Street, Hoboken, NJ 07030, (201) 748-6011, fax (201) 748-6008, or online at http://www.wiley.com/go/ permissions. Trademarks: Wiley, For Dummies, the Dummies Man logo, Dummies.com, Making Everything Easier, and related trade dress are trademarks or registered trademarks of John Wiley & Sons, Inc. and may not be used without written permission. ChatGPT is a trademark of OPENAI OPCO, LLC. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. John Wiley & Sons, Inc. is not associated with any product or vendor mentioned in this book.

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Table of Contents INTRODUCTION................................................................................................ 1 About This Book.................................................................................... 1 Foolish Assumptions............................................................................. 2 Icons Used in This Book........................................................................ 3 Beyond the Book................................................................................... 3 Where to Go from Here........................................................................ 3 CHAPTER 1:

Introducing ChatGPT................................................................. 5 Setting Up an Account.......................................................................... 6 Comparing ChatGPT, Search Engines, and Analytics........................ 7 Understanding What ChatGPT Is and Isn’t......................................... 9 Unwrapping ChatGPT fears.......................................................... 10 Competing with ChatGPT for your job........................................ 12 Redefining the Chatbot with ChatGPT and ChatGPT Plus.............. 14 Comparing the two versions........................................................ 16 Sampling its many uses................................................................. 16 Discovering other forms of GPT................................................... 18 Grabbing Headlines and Disrupting Businesses............................. 20 Grokking that ChatGPT is a harbinger of exponential change....................................................................... 20 Weighing the initial effect on existing businesses and industries................................................................................ 21 Bracing for future upheaval......................................................... 22 Breaking the spell of heartless machine overlords................... 23 Opening the Door for Bigger AI Products........................................ 24 Categorizing types of Generative AI............................................ 24 Understanding ChatGPT’s creator, OpenAI................................ 25

CHAPTER 2:

Discovering How ChatGPT Works.................................. 27 What’s Different About ChatGPT....................................................... 27 Peeking at the ChatGPT Architecture................................................ 29 Discovering the supercomputer and GPUs underneath.......... 29 Considering the importance of transformers............................ 31 Setting the stage: training the model.......................................... 32 Grasping the importance of the dialogue format...................... 34 Pondering ChatGPT’s limitations................................................. 34

Table of Contents

Increasing the Number of Versions and Integrations.................... 37 Glimpsing ChatGPT in Microsoft add-ins.................................... 40 Mainstreaming ChatGPT via the power of an API...................... 41 Checking out early ChatGPT API adopters.................................. 42 Expanding the field of extensions............................................... 43 Building New Businesses Based on ChatGPT.................................. 44 CHAPTER 3:

Writing Prompts for ChatGPT........................................... 47 Prompting Basics................................................................................. 48 Starting a chat................................................................................ 50 Reviewing your chat history and more....................................... 52 Understanding Prompt Engineering................................................. 54 Circumventing Token Limits and User History Storage Issues...... 55 Thinking in Threads............................................................................. 57 Chaining Prompts and Other Tips and Strategies........................... 58

CHAPTER 4:

Understanding GPT Models in ChatGPT................... 61 Summarizing Model Progress............................................................ 61 Comparing GPT-4 to Earlier ChatGPT Models................................. 62 Choosing ChatGPT Models................................................................. 64 Learning about GPT-4 Advancements.............................................. 67 Adjusting to GPT-4’s Limitations........................................................ 68

CHAPTER 5:

Warnings, Ethics, and Responsible AI........................ 71 Making Responsible AI........................................................................ 71 Troubling developments............................................................... 72 Protecting humans from humans using AI................................. 74 Understanding the good, the bad, and the ugly........................ 75 Heeding OpenAI Warnings................................................................. 75 Considering Copyright and IP Protections....................................... 77 Searching for Predictability................................................................ 78 Reaching for reliability................................................................... 78 Hallucinating versus accuracy...................................................... 79 Humanizing the machine.............................................................. 81 Mitigating Risks and Liability.............................................................. 83

CHAPTER 6:

Probing Professional and Other Uses for ChatGPT.............................................................................................. 87 Finding ChatGPT Embedded in Software......................................... 88 Locating ChatGPT in business software...................................... 88 Integrating with everything, everywhere, all at once................ 93

ChatGPT For Dummies

Zooming in on ChatGPT in virtual meetings............................... 95 Letting ChatGPT summarize and translate................................. 96 Searching for ChatGPT in other applications............................. 97 Seeing ChatGPT in AR, VR, and the Metaverse........................... 99 Discovering ChatGPT in search engines....................................101 Coding with ChatGPT and Copilot X................................................103 Learning Where to Use ChatGPT for Marketing............................105 Retrieving Smart Answers for HR....................................................106 Harnessing ChatGPT in Legal...........................................................106 Storytelling in Journalism.................................................................108 Consulting ChatGPT in Healthcare..................................................109 Cashing In on ChatGPT in Finance..................................................110 CHAPTER 7:

Working with ChatGPT in Education.........................111 Flipping Critical Thinking to a New Learning Model......................112 Leveraging ChatGPT to Aid Overworked Educators......................115 Changing How Subjects Are Taught................................................117 Banning ChatGPT Stifles Education.................................................120

CHAPTER 8:

Using ChatGPT in Daily Life..............................................121 Dying Keywords.................................................................................121 Moving from Information Search to Knowledge Assistants........123 Living with Misinformation and Manipulation...............................126 Narrowing Options............................................................................127

CHAPTER 9:

Recognizing the Ways ChatGPT and Generative AI Will Change the World.......................129 Understanding What Is and Isn’t of Real Concern........................130 Measuring the Good and Bad in ChatGPT.....................................130 Weighing Job Threats and Other ChatGPT Liabilities....................131 Sampling the Disruptions Ahead.....................................................132

CHAPTER 10:

Ten Other Generative AI Tools to Try.......................135 DALL-E and DALL-E 2.........................................................................136 DeepL Write and DeepL Translator.................................................138 Cedille.................................................................................................139 Notion AI.............................................................................................141 YouChat..............................................................................................142

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ChatSonic...........................................................................................143 Poe......................................................................................................144 Jasper..................................................................................................146 Durable...............................................................................................146 God Mode...........................................................................................148

INDEX....................................................................................................................151

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ChatGPT For Dummies

Introduction

t’s easy to think of ChatGPT as a one-off phenomenon or a hot new trend given its abrupt and sensational emergence on the public scene. But this technology is a harbinger of immense and permanent change. Whether it ultimately succeeds or fails, ChatGPT is changing how we work, play, live, and interact with the world around us. It’s also paving the way for the advancement of AI as a permanent fixture and influencer in the human experience.

ChatGPT is evolving fast, making it difficult for anyone to understand and follow its rapid progression. This book is intended to help bring you up to speed on how it works and how to use it. Yes, ChatGPT will continue to advance after this book is published, but you’ll still have a working knowledge of the technology that you can build upon while continuing to learn as changes occur. Further, you’ll have skills that will help you adapt to and use other AI models, some inevitably far more advanced as time marches on. If you feel some unease about AI in general and ChatGPT in particular, know that your gut reaction is common and not entirely unwarranted. This technology will most certainly change the nature of work and how your job is done. But also know that AI is not going to take jobs away from most people. Someone good at using AI will. Be that someone! You can learn this. It’s not as hard as you think!

About This Book Although you can find lots of content about ChatGPT on YouTube and in blogs, articles, social media, and elsewhere, this book is one of the first, if not the first, comprehensive text on the topic, especially at the beginner or introductory level. And make no mistake. Outside of a select group of AI scientists, everyone is a beginner when it comes to ChatGPT. Take comfort in knowing that you’re learning alongside millions of other people worldwide.

Introduction

If you’re already experimenting or working with ChatGPT, you’ll find several ways in this book to leverage what you already know and new things to incorporate in your efforts to get even more out of ChatGPT. Note that the discussion of ChatGPT includes explanations and mentions of GPT models that undergird ChatGPT but are also used as the AI models for applications other than this chatbot. References to ChatGPT-like models may or may not mean that they are technically similar to ChatGPT. For example, competing models may or may not have large language models (LLMs) as their foundation, as ChatGPT does, but they are still referred to as “similar” here because their user interface and function closely resemble those of ChatGPT. In this way, you can more easily compare and understand the various generative AI chatbots on the market without getting dragged through the technical weeds. Some web addresses break across two lines of text. If you’re reading this book in print and want to visit one of these web pages, simply type the address exactly as it’s noted in the text, pretending the line break doesn’t exist. If you’re reading this as an e-book, you have it easy; just click the web address to be taken directly to the web page.

Foolish Assumptions This book is written for anyone seeking to understand and use ChatGPT in their work and daily life as well as to prepare for inevitable changes that ChatGPT will introduce. I make certain assumptions about the book’s audience as a practical matter. For instance, I assume that you possess no understanding or a limited understanding of ChatGPT. I assume also that you have at least a basic level of comfort and skill in working with computing devices, browsers, and web applications. Finally, I also assume, as it is with every Dummies book, that you are smart and pressed for time and therefore want all meat and no fluff in a fast and easy read. I hope I’ve hit that mark for you.

ChatGPT For Dummies

Icons Used in This Book Occasionally you’ll come across symbols in the margins of this book. Their purpose is to point you to important information along the way. Here are what these symbols indicate: This icon points to tips and tricks you may want to use to make your work with ChatGPT easier, faster, more efficient, or simply more fun. This icon highlights information of particular importance in successfully understanding or using ChatGPT.

This icon warns you of a stumbling block or danger that may not be obvious to you until it’s too late. Please make careful note of warnings.

Beyond the Book In addition to the material in the print or e-book you’re reading right now, this product also comes with an access-anywhere cheat sheet. To get to the cheat sheet, go to www.dummies.com and type ChatGPT For Dummies cheat sheet in the Search box. You’ll find helpful user tips, info on where to access ChatGPT in its many forms, pointers on prompt writing, and a few words of advice on how to make it deliver the output you need precisely the way you need it.

Where to Go from Here This is a reference book, so you don’t have to read it cover to cover unless you want to know ChatGPT in more detail. Also feel free to read the chapters in any order. Each chapter is designed to stand alone, meaning you don’t have to know the material in previous chapters to understand the chapter you’re reading. Start anywhere and finish when you feel you have all the information you need for whatever task is at hand.

Introduction

However, if your aim is to get up and running with ChatGPT quickly, you should read Chapter 3, which is on writing prompts, to guide you through the process. Be sure to also read Chapter 5, where you are warned of several issues you absolutely need to know before you start using ChatGPT. Chapter 2 shows you how ChatGPT works, which gives you more insight into what it’s doing after you enter a prompt. And, if you’re worried that AI will take your job or how it will affect your private life, there’s good news for most of us in Chapters 6 and 8. Feel free to open ChatGPT and experiment with each new thing you learn in this book as you go. Many find it easy to follow along this way. But however you choose to learn and experiment with ChatGPT, you’ll likely find yourself catching on quickly. That’s the beauty of this class of AI — it’s very easy to use. The hardest part is stretching your own imagination to allow yourself to reach further with each new project.

ChatGPT For Dummies

IN THIS CHAPTER

» Trying out ChatGPT » Comparing ChatGPT and search engines » Understanding ChatGPT » Choosing between ChatGPT and ChatGPT Plus » Grasping how ChatGPT is a harbinger of profound change » Conquering the fears that ChatGPT conjures

Chapter

Introducing ChatGPT

hatGPT is a huge phenomenon and a major paradigm shift in the accelerating march of technological progression. It’s a large language model (LLM) that belongs to a category of AI (artificial intelligence) called generative AI, which can generate new content rather than simply analyze existing data. Additionally, anyone can interact with ChatGPT in their own words. A natural, humanlike dialog ensues. In this chapter, you learn where and how to access ChatGPT, why you should bother, the pros and cons of using it, and whether common fears are justified or wildly off base.

ChatGPT is often directly accessed online by users at https:// chat.openai.com/, but it is also being integrated with several existing applications, such as Microsoft Office apps (Word, Excel, and PowerPoint) and the Bing search engine. The number of app integrations seems to grow every day as existing software providers hurry to capitalize on ChatGPT’s popularity.

CHAPTER 1 Introducing ChatGPT

Setting Up an Account One way to set up an account and enter your first prompt is to simply do the following:

1. 2.

Go to https://openai.com/blog/chatgpt. Returning users can go straight to https://chat.openai. com/ and skip the rest of the steps. Click the Try ChatGPT button, as shown in Figure 1-1.

FIGURE 1-1: Go here to check out ChatGPT.

4. 5.

Follow the prompts to create your OpenAI account. After you have registered for an OpenAI account, you can choose the free ChatGPT account or select the premium ChatGPT Plus subscription for a $20 monthly fee. Having an OpenAI account gives you access to other OpenAI models too, such as DALL-E and DALL-E 2. When ChatGPT opens, enter your prompt (question or command) in the prompt bar. ChatGPT generates a response. If you want to continue the dialog, enter another prompt.

ChatGPT For Dummies

6. 7.

When you’re finished, rate the response by clicking the thumbs up or thumbs down icon. Doing so helps fine-tune the AI model. Log out or simply close the window in your browser.

OpenAI’s team can see any information you enter in the prompt and the entire conversation that ensues. This data may be used in training other AI models. See the disclosure in Figure 1-2. When using ChatGPT, don’t disclose anything you want to keep private or confidential.

FIGURE 1-2: The ChatGPT data collection disclosure on the OpenAI website.

Comparing ChatGPT, Search Engines, and Analytics ChatGPT is just one example, albeit the most publicly wellknown, of a generative AI model. It represents a huge jump in AI capabilities. Previously, ranking systems with more limited AI enablement would sort and rank information they found buried in massive datasets. You’ll recognize examples of these ranking systems: search engines such as Google and Bing, recommendation engines

CHAPTER 1 Introducing ChatGPT