What Is ChatGPT and Why Does It Matter?



ChatGPT is a natural language processing tool driven by artificial intelligence. It allows you to have human-like conversations and much more with a chatbot. It can answer questions and assist you with tasks such as composing emails, essays and code. Usage is currently open to the public, free of charge, because the program is in its research and feedback phase. As of Feb. 1, 2023, there’s also a paid subscription version called ChatGPT Plus, which comes at a cost of $20 a month and provides priority access to new features and faster response times. You can access ChatGPT simply by visiting chat.openai.com and creating an OpenAI account. Once you sign in, you're able to start chatting away with ChatGPT. Get your conversation started by asking a question. Because it’s still in the testing phase, don’t be surprised if you’re told that the website is too busy. You’ll just have to keep trying. What’s the difference between ChatGPT and a search engine? A search engine indexes web pages on the Internet to help the user find information, while ChatGPT doesn’t have the ability to search for information. Instead, it uses the information learned from training data to generate a response, which leaves room for error. Not everybody is pleased with ChatGPT’s introduction because they fear it will replace human intelligence. While ChatGPT has the potential to make people's lives easier, there’s no denying that it poses a huge cybersecurity risk.