What the heck is a Chat Generative Pre-Trained Transformer, and why should I care?
Quick summary: After its record-smashing debut in November 2022, ChatGPT is offering businesses a chance to hop on the generative AI application bandwagon—with limitations.
?Disclaimer: In the spirit of this article, we got some help from ChatGPT in fine-tuning the title and meta description as well as proofreading the content.
On November 30, 2022,?OpenAI launched its first public prototype—conversational AI tool ChatGPT model 3.5 —and tech journalists are running out of adjectives to describe what happened next. Five days after the announcement,?the app topped the 1 million user mark , and?within two months, it had 100 million monthly active users —a feat that left other well-known digital "overnight sensations" in the dust:
Following this release,?on March 14, 2023, OpenAI released GPT-4 . Ever since then, my LinkedIn, Twitter, YouTube, and TikTok feeds have been littered with “early” adopters trying to leverage its uncharted power. It's a little scary and extremely exciting, and it feels like the start of a new era … like when I got my first computer, in Tanzania in 1996, that connected to the internet.
After discovering that ChatGPT can do fun things like make up a haiku about coffee or rewrite?Hamlet?as a country song ("To be or not to be, that's the question I face / Should I take up arms and win this deadly race?"), users are turning their attention to business use cases.?
In this article, I'm going to explore ChatGPT is, how it might create business value for those who try harness it, and what to keep in mind as you explore ChatGPT use cases in your own organization.
What is ChatGPT?
ChatGPT—short for?Chat Generative?Pre-Trained?Transformer—is a generative AI application developed by nonprofit R&D company OpenAI (whether it’s still truly a nonprofit is a topic for another time). Unlike traditional chatbots, which are trained on a small corpus of data to produce structured and predictable responses, ChatGPT can understand context in user queries (e.g. "explain quantum physics as if I were a 5-year-old") and create original content (as in our twangy?Hamlet?example above). It unlocks both natural language understanding and natural language generation and makes it accessible to everyone with an internet connection (only if the free server isn’t overloaded, or if you have the $20/month pro subscription).
Launched in 2015 as a nonprofit research center, OpenAI pivoted to a capped for-profit business model in 2019 and?received a $1 billion investment from Microsoft ?to support its artificial general intelligence (AGI) initiatives.?In January 2023, Microsoft announced a new multiyear, multi-billion-dollar investment ?to "accelerate breakthroughs in AI and help both companies commercialize advanced technologies in the future." Once again, Microsoft is positioning itself to catalyze mass adoption of a powerful technology, just like it did with the Office suite for productivity and the Power Platform for automation.
For businesses looking to explore ChatGPT use cases,?developers can now integrate the model into their apps and products via API . The GPT model released on March 1, 2023, gpt-3.5-turbo, is the same model used in the basic ChatGPT app and is priced at $0.002 per 1,000 tokens—10 times cheaper than earlier GPT-3.5 models.
Two weeks later, OpenAI announced GPT-4, a large multimodal model that’s "more reliable, creative, and able to handle much more nuanced instructions than GPT-3.5." To give you an idea of the difference between the two models,?GPT-4 was able to pass the Uniform Bar Exam in the 90th percentile , while GPT-3.5 only scored in the 10th. GPT-4 is currently available on the?ChatGPT Plus paid subscription app , and?developers can sign up for its API waiting list . I'm already seeing applications from?Robot Lawyer DoNotPay, who wants to leverage GPT-4 to sue robocallers for $1,500 with "One Click Lawsuits." ?Talk about AI wars, eh?
Can you really use ChatGPT for business?
Given the torrent of buzz built up around it, sometimes it’s easy to forget that ChatGPT as we know it is really still in its infancy—just a few months old. Still, businesses are already harnessing some capabilities to support their day-to-day operations.
Entertainment and extracurricular tasks
Need to plan an offsite event in an unfamiliar city? ChatGPT can generate an itinerary based on your schedule, your preferences, and the local landscape. I asked it to whip up a plan for my own bachelor party, and the result was so impressive, I sent it as-is to my best man and older brother, Jay. We’re heading to Glacier National Park in June on a three-night, four-day excursion planned entirely by AI … what a time to be alive.
AI content generation
Yes, the app can write content … within limits. If you’re having writer’s block over a short email or a social media post, you can ask ChatGPT to generate a draft, then customize the results to your liking. I personally use it daily as a sounding board to refine, structure, and further explore nebulous ideas and concepts. Can I do it without the AI? Sure, but it would likely take me at least twice as long to achieve a similar result. Just like when we threw away paper maps after Google Maps came out (and never looked back), ChatGPT is another inflection point in our journey as an advanced technology civilization.
Prompt-based automation
Notice there’s no menu or taskbar in the ChatGPT app; just a prompt box where you enter your request. This is the way automation is going,?as Bill Gates pointed out in a recent article :
Eventually your main way of controlling a computer will no longer be pointing and clicking or tapping on menus and dialogue boxes. Instead, you’ll be able to write a request in plain English.
Enterprise support functions
With the proper training on data specific to your organization, ChatGPT can serve as a virtual help desk for both customers and internal employees. Check out?SupportGPT , a generative AI for customer support automation powered by ChatGPT on Product Hunt as just one example.
What are the most impactful and realistic ChatGPT use cases for business?
Customer service: supercharging large-scale customer interactions with AI
Businesses can supercharge their customer service applications with ChatGPT via APIs that enable them to train the app on company-specific information.
One point of concern in this area has been the possibility of ChatGPT generating responses that "go rogue" and fall outside the context of the company. However, if the app is trained correctly on company data such as products, services, pricing, etc., it can "learn" these things while also maintaining the integrity of the data set. It may cross-reference between company data and the ChatGPT database, but the two remain separate and distinct.
ChatGPT's limitations in this area are primarily that it is the new kid on the block. For any organization, security-conscious decision-makers are wary of trusting it immediately with the company's proprietary data. Leadership may also be concerned over the platform's long-term staying power, not wanting to be in the position of making major investments in a technology that could be here today, gone tomorrow.
Marketing: hyper productivity using AI as your creative muse
My LinkedIn feed is saturated with marketing teams that are uncovering ChatGPT use cases covering a broad range of tasks, such as:
While ChatGPT can provide excellent support for enterprise marketing teams, it’s far from being a replacement, if it ever gets there. You still, and likely always, will need your team’s creativity, strategic insights, and initiative to drive the organization towards its marketing goals. I do not foresee these tools replacing original human ingenuity,?as we eventually realized when robotic process automation (RPA) caused a few to have an existential crisis back in 2016/2017 about the Future of Work.
Also keep in mind that generative AI applications are only as good as the directions they receive, so make sure your marketing team is up to speed on best practices in formulating their prompts and interacting with the app (see "How to use ChatGPT: best practices for getting started " below).
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Legal: dramatically reducing cost of knowledge in an elite white-collar field
Sure, ChatGPT-4 did a bang-up job passing the Uniform Bar Exam, but how well does it perform in the day-to-day work of a real-world legal team? The answer is "quite well" when you assign it tasks such as
I've tested out many of the above scenarios, and the results provided by ChatGPT were a great start. That being said, the output provided was at best a rough draft that would require many edits. But even with that caveat, the time saved was significant.
As is the case with marketing, ChatGPT cannot—and probably never will—replace the experience and personal capabilities of a human attorney. Think about it: If you were faced with a major legal issue, would you entrust the outcome entirely to a robot? Probably not. How about a human attorney who is 100 percent focused on winning your case, unencumbered by rote tasks? That’s more like it.
I do see this as a tool that will make knowledge in specialized areas like law, medicine, and accounting that are somewhat deterministic (rules-based), more accessible to the layperson. I even ran some medical symptoms that my fiancée, Larissa, encountered with an anonymous patient of hers, and it gave me the correct diagnosis that took her and her team of fellow doctors multiple lab tests to confirm—not to mention years of expensive training!
How are real-world businesses already using ChatGPT?
Even though the app is in its infancy and its APIs only recently became available, businesses are already discovering ChatGPT use cases that can help them achieve productivity gains, increase ROI on resources, and elevate the value delivered to their customers. Here are just a few examples:
Microsoft
It's no surprise that Microsoft, as OpenAI's No. 1 investor, is taking a leading role in putting ChatGPT to work in driving business value.?The tech giant recently announced a new GPT-powered version of its Bing search engine ?that consolidates resources from around the web to deliver concise answers and enables searchers to refine results with follow-up prompts. On the business application side,?Microsoft is also launching Copilot , which integrates with Office 365 to "turn your words into the most powerful productivity tool on the planet."
By adding generative AI-powered capabilities to its existing offerings, Microsoft is emphasizing that the enterprise is "all in" with artificial intelligence. With the new Bing, it also leaped ahead of "800-pound gorilla" Google in the race to bring AI-powered search into the mainstream. (Google has launched its own generative AI application, Bard , and recently opened its waitlist to the public.) I recently got access to Bard and asked it to compare itself to GPT-4:
Quizlet
Online study platform?Quizlet recently launched Q-Chat, "the world’s first AI tutor built with OpenAI’s ChatGPT." ?CEO Lex Bayer explains,
Pulling from Quizlet's massive educational content library and using the question-based Socratic method to promote active learning, Q-Chat has the ability to test a student's knowledge of educational content, ask in-depth questions to get at underlying concepts, test reading comprehension, help students learn a language and encourage students on healthy learning habits.
Quizlet's unique application of generative AI enables the organization to set itself apart in the crowded competitive space of online learning by enhancing the value delivered to its users. I'm excited for the day that an organization like Khan Academy leverages these tools to teach the world any about topic. I used many free resources like Khan Academy and MIT’s OpenCourseWare to survive my grueling engineering courses at the University of Toronto a decade ago—I can only imagine what college students today are doing to level-up their productivity and "hack" their curriculums. It feels like some of these courses will need a serious re-design in the wake of these tools (e.g. how can professors allow, even encourage, their students to use AI tools to write essays and learn new concepts?)
Shopify
E-commerce giant?Shopify has created a ChatGPT-powered assistant within its Shop app ?to offer customers a personal guide on their shopping journeys:
Morgan Stanley
Yes, generative AI is even making a splash in the financial services world:?Morgan Stanley is leveraging GPT-4 to make its massive content library more easily accessible to its financial advisers . Jeff McMillan, Head of Analytics, Data & Innovation, explains,
You essentially have the knowledge of the most knowledgeable person in Wealth Management—instantly … Think of it as having our Chief Investment Strategist, Chief Global Economist, Global Equities Strategist, and every other analyst around the globe on call for every advisor, every day. We believe that is a transformative capability for our company.
This bold foray into generative AI applications represents a major step forward for the financial services industry leader. Instead of transitioning services from humans to AI, it's leveraging artificial intelligence to make its white-glove service from trusted financial professionals even better.
On a more personal note, and not directly relevant to ChatGPT, I recently came across Spotify's AI DJ that curates music for me to listen to based on my long history with the service. Not only does it play the kind of music I like, but it also explores ancillary genres that likely use basic machine learning techniques to help me find new music with a high probability of capturing my interest. This weekend, it recommended the song "Bandana" by Fireboy DML and Asake, and I couldn’t stop jamming to it in my car.
How to use ChatGPT: best practices for getting started
It's easy to get caught up in the buzz around ChatGPT; however, I will be proceeding with this slowly and gradually. This is fairly new technology, so taking time in this early stage to fully understand how it works and how to get the most out of it will pay dividends in the future.
?Master the art of the prompt
To maximize the value of ChatGPT use cases, you must be able to craft prompts in a way that corresponds with how the app understands inputs. After some experimentation, I've come up with a simple formula for improving your results:
Be mindful of legal, security, and data privacy risks
One data security service provider reports that?it has blocked requests to input data into ChatGPT from more than 4 percent of the 1.6 million employees at its client companies ?"because of the risk of leaking confidential information, client data, source code, or regulated information." In one case, an executive copy-pasted the organization’s entire 2023 strategy document into the app and prompted it to build a PowerPoint deck. Clearly, this person needs to learn about the formula above and write better prompts.
Keep in mind that ChatGPT is a public-facing application and that all inputs become part of its continuously growing set of training data. "On the flip side,"?attorney Karla Grossenbacher notes in a Bloomberg Law column , "since ChatGPT was trained on wide swaths of online information, employees might receive and use information from the tool that is trademarked, copyrighted, or the intellectual property of another person or entity, creating legal risk for employers."
Some employers are responding to these risks by banning employees from using the app for work altogether, while others (wisely, I believe) are?permitting its use within well-defined parameters . All of this kind of reminds me of when Facebook first came out and a number of employers banned it, only to find employees circumventing the IT policy with VPNs—and then products like Yammer being released as "enterprise social networks."
So, why?should?you care?
Well, hopefully I've illustrated above how this technology is not just powerful,?but also how, with the right approach and training, it can be applied in a myriad of applications that will level-up anyone who is curious and brave enough to explore the art of the possible. From its viral never-before-seen adoption rate to the direct impact it's already made in my personal life, to the breakneck speed of innovation happening across the annals of technology—with Google, Meta, and Microsoft going toe-to-toe … it’s only a matter of time until AI will touch the life of every single person, potentially every single being, on this tiny blue dot we call home. If you haven’t already,?please go create an account and try ChatGPT .
I’d love to hear from you about your thoughts and experiences! I’ll be sharing more about these AI tools, beyond ChatGPT, in future articles, podcasts, and playbooks.
Great article, Amit! The travel planning...incredible! I used it for a Europe trip I have coming up. Will report back on its viability ??
Strategic Partnerships | Board Director | Ecosystem and Ideas Builder
1 年Insightful article! We live in some interesting times. It’ll be fascinating to watch how this tech evolves. Thanks Amit Unadkat