Unless otherwise stated this guide is based on Artificial Intelligence: A Guide for Students created by Brenda Smith at TRU and licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial Share Alike (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0). Brenda Smith's guide was adapted from Artificial Intelligence by Ulrike Kestler from KPU used under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0.
OpenAI's ChatGPT is a type of generative AI, which means it uses algorithms and neural networks to learn patterns and relationships in data and generate new outputs based on that learning. Generative AI is a branch of artificial intelligence that can be used to create new content, such as text (e.g., a recipe, cover letter, poem, short story, summary, etc.), programming code, or artwork (e.g., mimicking a certain painter's style).
ChatGPT is an artificial intelligence language model that engages in conversational interactions and provides responses to a question based on chatbot style prompts. It is pretty good at creating natural sounding sentences, but it often fails at math and it frequently fabricates sources when asked to use citations.
ChatGPT is a web-based tool that requires you to make an account to use. Please note that according to OpenAi's Privacy Policy they "may share your Personal Information with third parties without further notice to you." It is currently free as part of a research preview, but OpenAI could later put it behind a paywall. OpenAI has already launched a $20/month subscription plan for ChatGPT.
Check out these two videos for an overview of ChatGPT:
