Technologies

Why Everyone’s Obsessed With ChatGPT, a Mindblowing AI Chatbot

This artificial intelligence bot is an impressive writer, but you should still be careful how much you trust its answers.

There’s a new AI bot in town: ChatGPT. And you’d better take notice.

The tool, from a power player in artificial intelligence, lets you type questions using natural language that the chatbot answers in conversational, if somewhat stilted, language. The bot remembers the thread of your dialog, using previous questions and answers to inform its next responses.

It’s a big deal. The tool seems pretty knowledgeable if not omniscient — it can be creative and its answers can sound downright authoritative. A few days after its launch, more than a million people are trying out ChatGPT.

But its creator, the for-profit research lab called OpenAI, warns that ChatGPT «may occasionally generate incorrect or misleading information,» so be careful. Here’s a look at why this ChatGPT is important and what’s going on with it.

What is ChatGPT?

ChatGPT is an AI chatbot system that OpenAI released in November to show off and test what a very large, powerful AI system can accomplish. You can ask it countless questions and often will get an answer that’s useful.

For example, you can ask it encyclopedia questions like, «Explaining Newton’s laws of motion.» You can tell it, «Write me a poem,» and when it does, say, «Now make it more exciting.» You ask it to write a computer program that’ll show you all the different ways you can arrange the letters of a word.

Here’s the catch: ChatGPT doesn’t exactly know anything, though. It’s an AI trained to recognize patterns in vast swaths of text harvested from the internet, then further trained with human assistance to deliver more useful better dialog. The answers you get may sound plausible and even authoritative, but they might well be entirely wrong, as OpenAI warns.

Chatbots have been of interest for years to companies looking for ways to help customers get what they need and to and AI researchers trying to tackle the Turing Test. That’s the famous «Imitation Game» that computer scientist Alan Turing proposed in 1950 as a way to gauge intelligence: Can a human judge conversing with a human and with a computer tell which is which?

What kinds of questions can you ask?

You can ask anything, though you might not get an answer. OpenAI suggests a few categories, like explaining physics, asking for birthday party ideas and getting programming help.

I asked it to write a poem, and it did, though I don’t think any literature experts would be impressed. I then asked it to make it more exciting, and lo, ChatGPT pumped it up with words like battlefield, adrenaline, thunder and adventure.

One wacky example shows how ChatGPT is willing to just go for it in domains where people would fear to tread: a command to write «a folk song about writing a rust program and fighting with lifetime errors.»

ChatGPT’s expertise is broad, and its ability to follow a conversation is notable. When I asked it for words that rhymed with «purple,» it offered a few suggestions, then when I followed up «How about with pink?» it didn’t miss a beat. (Also, there are a lot more good rhymes for «pink.»)

When I asked, «Is it easier to get a date by being sensitive or being tough?» GPT responded, in part, «Some people may find a sensitive person more attractive and appealing, while others may be drawn to a tough and assertive individual. In general, being genuine and authentic in your interactions with others is likely to be more effective in getting a date than trying to fit a certain mold or persona.»

You don’t have to look far to find accounts of the bot blowing people’s minds. Twitter is awash with users displaying the AI’s prowess at generating art prompts and writing code. Some have even proclaimed «Google is dead,» along with the college essay. We’ll talk more about that below.

Who built ChatGPT?

ChatGPT is the computer brainchild of OpenAI, an artificial intelligence research company. Its mission is to develop a «safe and beneficial» artificial general intelligence system or to help others do so.

It’s made splashes before, first with GPT-3, which can generate text that can sound like a human wrote it, and then DALL-E, which creates what’s now called «generative art» based on text prompts you type in.

GPT-3, and the GPT 3.5 update on which ChatGPT is based, are examples of AI technology called large language models. They’re trained to create text based on what they’ve seen, and they can be trained automatically — typically with huge quantities of computer power over a period of weeks. For example, the training process can find a random paragraph of text, delete a few words, ask the AI to fill in the blanks, compare the result to the original and then reward the AI system for coming as close as possible. Repeating over and over can lead to a sophisticated ability to generate text.

Is ChatGPT free?

Yes, for now at least. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman warned on Sunday, «We will have to monetize it somehow at some point; the compute costs are eye-watering.» OpenAI charges for DALL-E art once you exceed a basic free level of usage.

What are the limits of ChatGPT?

As OpenAI emphasizes, ChatGPT can give you wrong answers. Sometimes, helpfully, it’ll specifically warn you of its own shortcomings. For example, when I asked it who wrote the phrase «the squirming facts exceed the squamous mind,» ChatGPT replied, «I’m sorry, but I am not able to browse the internet or access any external information beyond what I was trained on.» (The phrase is from Wallace Stevens’ 1942 poem Connoisseur of Chaos.)

ChatGPT was willing to take a stab at the meaning of that expression: «a situation in which the facts or information at hand are difficult to process or understand.» It sandwiched that interpretation between cautions that it’s hard to judge without more context and that it’s just one possible interpretation.

ChatGPT’s answers can look authoritative but be wrong.

The software developer site StackOverflow banned ChatGPT answers to programming questions. Administrators cautioned, «because the average rate of getting correct answers from ChatGPT is too low, the posting of answers created by ChatGPT is substantially harmful to the site and to users who are asking or looking for correct answers.»

You can see for yourself how artful a BS artist ChatGPT can be by asking the same question multiple times. I asked whether Moore’s Law, which tracks the computer chip industry’s progress increasing the number of data-processing transistors, is running out of steam, I got two answers. One pointed optimistically to continued progress, while the other pointed more grimly to the slowdown and the belief «that Moore’s Law may be reaching its limits.»

Both ideas are common in the computer industry itself, so this ambiguous stance perhaps reflects what human experts believe.

With other questions that don’t have clear answers, ChatGPT often won’t be pinned down.

The fact that it offers an answer at all, though, is a notable development in computing. Computers are famously literal, refusing to work unless you follow exact syntax and interface requirements. Large language models are revealing a more human-friendly style of interaction, not to mention an ability to generate answers that are somewhere between copying and creativity.

What’s off limits?

ChatGPT is designed to weed out «inappropriate» requests, a behavior in line with OpenAI’s mission «to ensure that artificial general intelligence benefits all of humanity.»

If you ask ChatGPT itself what’s off limits, it’ll tell you: any questions «that are discriminatory, offensive, or inappropriate. This includes questions that are racist, sexist, homophobic, transphobic, or otherwise discriminatory or hateful.» Asking it to engage in illegal activities is also a no-no.

Is this better than Google search?

Asking a computer a question and getting an answer is useful, and often ChatGPT delivers the goods.

Google often supplies you with its suggested answers to questions and with links to websites that it thinks will be relevant. Often ChatGPT’s answers far surpass what Google will suggest, so it’s easy to imagine GPT-3 is a rival.

But you should think twice before trusting ChatGPT. As with Google itself and other sources of information like Wikipedia, it’s best practice to verify information from original sources before relying on it.

Vetting the veracity of ChatGPT answers takes some work because it just gives you some raw text with no links or citations. But it can be useful and in some cases thought provoking. You may not see something directly like ChatGPT in Google search results, but Google has built large language models of its own and uses AI extensively already in search.

So ChatGPT is doubtless showing the way toward our tech future.

Technologies

Gemini AI Lands in Android Auto. Here’s How It Could Change Your Drive

Those who have upgraded from Google Assistant to Gemini will have access to Gemini AI in their cars.

Google is bringing AI conversations to drivers in 45 countries with an update to Android Auto that adds Gemini software as a passenger. The ambitious global rollout of the AI chatbot technology to a potential 250 million Android Auto customers will be available to those who have upgraded Google Assistant to Gemini AI on their phone.

Once enabled, Google Gemini will be able to engage in hands-free conversations with drivers who want to do things like get recommendations for activities at their destination, sort through emails, or compose and edit texts while driving.

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In a blog post, the company offered five ways to use the new features. These include asking for recommended stops while on a route, composing or editing messages (including translations for 40 languages), looking for things in your Gmail inbox or Google Calendar, creating music playlists, or rehearsing a speech on the way to, say, a wedding rehearsal dinner.

Whether it is a good idea to do those things at highway speeds is a separate debate. While the features are hands-free, Google does not address the distraction factor of, for example, verbally building a playlist while driving down the highway.

A representative for Google did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

How Gemini works in Android Auto

Google says that accessing Gemini happens when you say «Hey Google,» hit the mic button in Android Auto, or do a long press on the voice control button if your steering wheel has one.

Google says it will add more features and capabilities in the future. For now, the Gemini update can access information from Google Calendar, Google Tasks, Google Keep, Samsung Calendar, Samsung Reminder, and Samsung Notes, with additional third-party app support expected in the future.

Technologies

Score 6 Months of Apple TV for $36, Plus More Prime Video Add-On Bargains

Ready to binge shows and movies this winter? This deal could be for you.

You can nab a Black Friday deal on Apple TV right now, but you need to take a slightly unconventional route to sign up.

The streaming service formerly known as Apple TV Plus is one of the add-on subscriptions that Prime Video offers, and now you can sign up for a subscription for only $6 per month for six months. You need a Prime membership, which costs $15 per month or $139 per year, to get Apple TV through Prime Video (and snag the deal). The offer ends Dec. 1.

Apple TV typically costs $13 per month and is ad-free. This Apple TV discount is just one of many deals you can score as Amazon enters Black Friday mode. Here are some more Prime Video offers to consider right now.

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Prime Video subscription deals

Apple TV: $6 per month for six months. Typically $13 per month.

Starz: $2.75 per month for two months. Typically $11 per month.

MGM Plus: $2 per month for two months. Typically $8 per month.

BritBox: $2.75 per month for two months. Typically $11 per month.

BET Plus: $1.50 per month for two months. Typically $6 per month.

Crunchyroll: $3 per month for two months. Typically $12 per month.

PBS Kids: $1.25 per month for two months. Typically $5 per month.

AMC Plus: $1.75 per month for two months. Typically $7 per month.

Acorn TV: $2.25 per month for two months. Typically $9 per month.

Hallmark Plus: $2 per month for two months. Typically $8 per month.

BBC Select: $1.50 per month for two months. Typically $6 per month.

PBS Masterpiece: $1.75 per month for two months. Typically $7 per month.

Moviesphere Plus: $1.25 per month for two months. Typically $5 per month.

UP Faith & Family: $1.50 per month for two months. Typically $6 per month.

Ryan and Friends Plus: $1 per month for two months. Typically $4 per month.

PBS Documentaries: $1.25 per month for two months. Typically $5 per month.

Great American Pure Flix: $2.50 per month for two months. Typically $10 per month.

The Great Courses Signature Collection: $2 per month for two months. Typically $8 per month.

You can also save on streaming service bundles. Browse all of the options right now at Amazon.

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Technologies

‘High-Risk, High-Reward Personified’: Overwatch Devs Talk Upcoming DPS Hero, Vendetta

Overwatch’s new sword-wielding gladiator should appeal to players who want the tension of feasting on enemy backlines or dying in the process.

Next weekend, you can try out Overwatch 2’s next hero ahead of her official release with season 20 of Blizzard’s online multiplayer hero shooter in December. Or, at least, you can race the other DPS player for the honor.

Vendetta is a sword-wielder in a game where almost everyone else has guns. She’s not the first melee-ranged hero in Overwatch: We’ve always had Reinhardt bonking enemies with his hammer, and Brigitte’s rocket flail is similarly close-range. And before Doomfist was moved over to the tank role for Overwatch 2, he was the first melee-focused damage hero. But it’s still an ambitious thing to put a hero with very limited range into a game focused on shooting firearms.

In group interviews with the media, Associate Game Director Alec Dawson said one of the goals behind Vendetta was to «make sure there’s a play style … that players haven’t seen before and one that might be really attractive for a whole new subset of players.»

She’s also a fascinating addition from the narrative side of things. Vendetta’s father, Antonio, was killed by Reaper as part of Overwatch’s black ops branch, Blackwatch, in the playable Retribution mission. Her story trailer and hero name make it clear she’s out for revenge, and it seems like both Overwatch and their enemies, Talon, might be on her hit list.

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Vendetta’s trial weekend comes two years after Activision Blizzard was acquired by Xbox-maker Microsoft. Since the acquisition, Overwatch 2 has ramped up bold experiments such as changes to health and projectile sizes, and the addition of perks as part of the core gameplay loop. Meanwhile, Xbox continues to balance its hardware ambitions, like the Xbox ROG Ally, against its general push to expand Xbox Game Pass (including a hefty price hike). We’ve also seen the gates between Xbox and PlayStation lower, as Xbox brought longtime Xbox exclusive Gears of War to PS5.

Ahead of Vendetta’s hero trial, I spoke with Dawson and Bryan Bedford, a senior character artist for the game, about the new hero, her abilities and what it’s like designing such a distinct hero.

Vendetta abilities

Dawson and Bedford described Vendetta as a «high-octane» character who’s highly mobile but also very dependent on her abilities. Here’s a quick rundown of what those abilities do.

Passive: Onslaught

If you played the Haunted Masquerade mode, you may have gotten a taste of this ability already. When her attacks connect, Onslaught gives Vendetta boosts to movement and attack speed, allowing her to stay on top of and quickly dispatch targets. One of her minor perks, Relentless, allows her to stack those bonuses up to three more times.

Primary fire: Palatine Fang

Look, it’s a sword. You swing your sword. But there is a small combo element to Vendetta’s primary: two horizontal swipes followed by an overhead slash that’s narrower but hits for critical damage.

Alternate fire: Warding Stance

Vendetta draws her sword across her body, reducing incoming damage, including melee damage. The block is tied to a resource meter that drains as you negate damage. You can also trade some of that resource to send out a projectile, giving you a potential finisher for enemies who escape your reach. It can also be used to trigger Onslaught and start gaining stacks before enemies are in range of your sword.

Ability 1: Whirlwind Dash

This ability, bound to Shift on PC, causes Vendetta to lunge forward and swing her sword in a circle, potentially hitting multiple enemies simultaneously. I imagine this to be a good way to build Onslaught stacks against groups of enemies.

Ability 2: Soaring Slice

This ability, bound to E on PC, lets Vendetta throw her sword into the air and dash to it. In the gameplay trailer, we see her use it to dodge Junker Queen’s ultimate. Soaring Slice also skips her primary fire to the overhead swing part of the combo, allowing you to drop down and immediately deal critical damage to an enemy.

Ultimate: Sundering Blade

Vendetta’s ultimate doesn’t care about your defenses. «It’ll go right through armor. It’ll eliminate overhealth. You can’t block it with a barrier,» Dawson said. On paper, that makes it an effective counter against support ultimates like Lucio’s Sound Barrier and Lifeweaver’s Tree of Life, which provide significant overhealth to their team.

Here are all of Vendetta’s abilities and perks laid out together.

How Vendetta fits into Overwatch’s roster

The devs said Vendetta is designed for dive compositions, which aim to use their abilities to quickly close the distance on their opponents and burst them down. But the team also gave her some perks to help her function in other compositions, especially up-close brawl compositions. One of Vendetta’s minor perks, Siphoning Strike, gives her lifesteal on overhead swings, allowing her to stay in a fight longer, and one of her major perks, Raging Storm, doubles up her Whirlwind Dash ability.

I asked Dawson and Bedford about the challenge of balancing melee-based DPS in a hero shooter, where it can feel like a razor’s edge separates them from feeling useless versus overpowered, and asked what the team’s «safe side of strong» philosophy looks like for a hero like Vendetta.

«It’s a tricky problem, especially for her,» Dawson admitted, saying the team spent a lot of time figuring out how to tune her Warding Stance, mobility and lethality. But he also pointed to the hero’s ability-focused nature as an area for counterplay. «You have to be very, very cognizant of your cooldown management…While there’s a lot of mobility, there’s gaps in that mobility as well.»

If a team can turn on Vendetta, she’s easy to shut down, Bedford said, but a smart Vendetta can also gauge that overcommitment to get back out. He pointed out that an enemy Zenyatta is an enticing target for Vendetta, but his Orb of Discord, which increases incoming damage, is particularly threatening to her.

The tension of either getting a kill or dying in the attempt is «exactly what she’s there for,» said Dawson. «If you enjoy that type of frenetic gameplay, I think she’s for you.»

Vendetta will be available to play from Nov. 26 to Dec. 1 before joining the roster in season 20.