Technologies

AI Gets Smarter, Safer, More Visual With GPT-4 Release, OpenAI Says

ChatGPT Plus subscribers can try it out now.

The hottest AI technology foundation, OpenAI’s GPT, got a big upgrade Tuesday that’s now available in the premium version of the ChatGPT chatbot.

The new GPT-4 can generate much longer strings of text and respond when people feed it images, and it’s designed to do a better job avoiding artificial intelligence pitfalls visible in the earlier GPT-3.5, OpenAI said Tuesday. For example, when taking bar exams that attorneys must pass to practice law, GPT-4 ranks in the top 10% of scores compared to the bottom 10% for GPT-3.5, the AI research company said.

GPT stands for Generative Pretrained Transformer, a reference to the fact that it can generate text on its own and that it uses an AI technology called transformers that Google pioneered. It’s a type of AI called a large language model, or LLM, that’s trained on vast swaths of data harvested from the internet, learning mathematically to spot patterns and reproduce styles.

OpenAI has made its GPT technology available to developers for years, but ChatGPT, which debuted in November, offered an easy interface that yielded an explosion of interest, experimentation and worry about the downsides of the technology. ChatGPT is free, but it falter when demand is high. In January, OpenAI began offering ChatGPT Plus for $20 per month with assured availability and, now, the GPT-4 foundation.

GPT-4 advancements

«In a casual conversation, the distinction between GPT-3.5 and GPT-4 can be subtle. The difference comes out when the complexity of the task reaches a sufficient threshold,» OpenAI said. «GPT-4 is more reliable, creative and able to handle much more nuanced instructions than GPT-3.5.»

Another major advance in GPT-4 is the ability to accept input data that includes text and photos. OpenAI’s example is asking the chatbot to explain a joke showing a bulky decades-old computer cable plugged into a modern iPhone’s tiny Lightning port.

Another is better performance avoiding AI problems like hallucinations — incorrectly fabricated responses, often offered with just as much seeming authority as answers the AI gets right. GPT-4 also is better at thwarting attempts to get it to say the wrong thing: «GPT-4 scores 40% higher than our latest GPT-3.5 on our internal adversarial factuality evaluations,» OpenAI said.

GPT-4 also adds new «steerability» options. Users of large language models today often must engage in elaborate «prompt engineering,» learning how to embed specific cues in their prompts to get the right sort of responses. GPT-4 adds a system command option that lets users set a specific tone or style, for example programming code or a Socratic tutor: «You are a tutor that always responds in the Socratic style. You never give the student the answer, but always try to ask just the right question to help them learn to think for themselves.»

«Stochastic parrots» and other problems

OpenAI acknowledges significant shortcomings that persist with GPT-4, though it also touts progress avoiding them.

«It can sometimes make simple reasoning errors … or be overly gullible in accepting obvious false statements from a user. And sometimes it can fail at hard problems the same way humans do, such as introducing security vulnerabilities into code it produces,» OpenAI said. In addition, «GPT-4 can also be confidently wrong in its predictions, not taking care to double-check work when it’s likely to make a mistake.»

Large language models can deliver impressive results, seeming to understand huge amounts of subject matter and to converse in human-sounding if somewhat stilted language. Fundamentally, though, LLM AIs don’t really know anything. They’re just able to string words together in statistically very refined ways.

This statistical but fundamentally somewhat hollow approach to knowledge led researchers, including former Google AI researchers Emily Bender and Timnit Gebru, to warn of the «dangers of stochastic parrots» that come with large language models. Language model AIs tend to encode biases, stereotypes and negative sentiment present in training data, and researchers and other people using these models tend «to mistake … performance gains for actual natural language understanding.»

OpenAI, Microsoft and Nvidia partnership

OpenAI got a big boost when Microsoft said in February it’s using GPT technology in its Bing search engine, including a chat features similar to ChatGPT. On Tuesday, Microsoft said it’s using GPT-4 for the Bing work. Together, OpenAI and Microsoft pose a major search threat to Google, but Google has its own large language model technology too, including a chatbot called Bard that Google is testing privately.

Microsoft uses GPT technology both to evaluate the searches people type into Bing and, in some cases, to offer more elaborate, conversational responses. The results can be much more informative than those of earlier search engines, but the more conversational interface that can be invoked as an option has had problems that make it look unhinged.

To train GPT, OpenAI used Microsoft’s Azure cloud computing service, including thousands of Nvidia’s A100 graphics processing units, or GPUs, yoked together. Azure now can use Nvidia’s new H100 processors, which include specific circuitry to accelerate AI transformer calculations.

Technologies

Today’s NYT Connections Hints, Answers and Help for Jan. 15, #949

Here are some hints and the answers for the NYT Connections puzzle for Jan. 15, #949

Looking for the most recent Connections answers? Click here for today’s Connections hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Mini Crossword, Wordle, Connections: Sports Edition and Strands puzzles.

Today’s NYT Connections puzzle has a fun purple category that expects you to find two words hidden in four separate clue words. It’s tricky, but intriguing. Read on for clues and today’s Connections answers.

The Times has a Connections Bot, like the one for Wordle. Go there after you play to receive a numeric score and to have the program analyze your answers. Players who are registered with the Times Games section can now nerd out by following their progress, including the number of puzzles completed, win rate, number of times they nabbed a perfect score and their win streak.

Read more: Hints, Tips and Strategies to Help You Win at NYT Connections Every Time

Hints for today’s Connections groups

Here are four hints for the groupings in today’s Connections puzzle, ranked from the easiest yellow group to the tough (and sometimes bizarre) purple group.

Yellow group hint: For planting things.

Green group hint: Not going anywhere.

Blue group hint: Little pieces of something.

Purple group hint: Combine two names.

Answers for today’s Connections groups

Yellow group: Gardening tools.

Green group: Unmoving.

Blue group: Things that come in flakes.

Purple group: Words formed by two men’s names.

Read more: Wordle Cheat Sheet: Here Are the Most Popular Letters Used in English Words

What are today’s Connections answers?

The yellow words in today’s Connections

The theme is gardening tools. The four answers are hose, rake, shovel and spade.

The green words in today’s Connections

The theme is unmoving. The four answers are frozen, static, stationary and still.

The blue words in today’s Connections

The theme is things that come in flakes. The four answers are cereal, dandruff, salt and snow.

The purple words in today’s Connections

The theme is words formed by two men’s names. The four answers are jackal, levitate, melted and patron.

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Toughest Connections puzzles

We’ve made a note of some of the toughest Connections puzzles so far. Maybe they’ll help you see patterns in future puzzles.

#5: Included «things you can set,» such as mood, record, table and volleyball.

#4: Included «one in a dozen,» such as egg, juror, month and rose.

#3: Included «streets on screen,» such as Elm, Fear, Jump and Sesame.

#2: Included «power ___» such as nap, plant, Ranger and trip.

#1: Included «things that can run,» such as candidate, faucet, mascara and nose.

Technologies

Today’s NYT Mini Crossword Answers for Thursday, Jan. 15

Here are the answers for The New York Times Mini Crossword for Jan. 15.

Looking for the most recent Mini Crossword answer? Click here for today’s Mini Crossword hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Wordle, Strands, Connections and Connections: Sports Edition puzzles.

Need some help with today’s Mini Crossword? I sure did. I did not understand the first two Across clues. What you need to do is read the clue for 1-Across and then the clue for 4-Across together. Then, those two answers go together. Still confused? Read on. And if you could use some hints and guidance for daily solving, check out our Mini Crossword tips.

If you’re looking for today’s Wordle, Connections, Connections: Sports Edition and Strands answers, you can visit CNET’s NYT puzzle hints page.

Read more: Tips and Tricks for Solving The New York Times Mini Crossword

Let’s get to those Mini Crossword clues and answers.

Mini across clues and answers

1A clue: Feature of …
Answer: TWO

4A clue: … every clue
Answer: WORDS
(«Feature of every clue,» meaning that all the clues in today’s Mini Crossword consist of two words. And they do, but I found this clue pairing really confusing.)

6A clue: Kindle download
Answer: EBOOK

7A clue: Attempt again
Answer: RETRY

8A clue: Peering pair?
Answer: EYES

Mini down clues and answers

1D clue: Actor Maguire
Answer: TOBEY

2D clue: Jotted (down)
Answer: WROTE

3D clue: Foul smells
Answer: ODORS

4D clue: Had been
Answer: WERE

5D clue: Rainbow’s place
Answer: SKY

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Technologies

Today’s NYT Connections: Sports Edition Hints and Answers for Jan. 15, #479

Here are hints and the answers for the NYT Connections: Sports Edition puzzle for Jan. 15, No. 479.

Looking for the most recent regular Connections answers? Click here for today’s Connections hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Mini Crossword, Wordle and Strands puzzles.

Today’s Connections: Sports Edition is a tough one. The purple category hopes you not only know a certain team’s iconic players, but you will recognize their names with a different letter. If you’re struggling with today’s puzzle but still want to solve it, read on for hints and the answers.

Connections: Sports Edition is published by The Athletic, the subscription-based sports journalism site owned by The Times. It doesn’t appear in the NYT Games app, but it does in The Athletic’s own app. Or you can play it for free online.

Read more: NYT Connections: Sports Edition Puzzle Comes Out of Beta

Hints for today’s Connections: Sports Edition groups

Here are four hints for the groupings in today’s Connections: Sports Edition puzzle, ranked from the easiest yellow group to the tough (and sometimes bizarre) purple group.

Yellow group hint: No points for you!

Green group hint: Italian league.

Blue group hint: Put up your dukes.

Purple group hint: The Bronx Bombers.

Answers for today’s Connections: Sports Edition groups

Yellow group: Reject a shot.

Green group: Serie A teams.

Blue group: Benches-clearing brawl.

Purple group: Yankees greats, with the first letter changed.

Read more: Wordle Cheat Sheet: Here Are the Most Popular Letters Used in English Words

What are today’s Connections: Sports Edition answers?

The yellow words in today’s Connections

The theme is reject a shot. The four answers are block, deny, stuff and swat.

The green words in today’s Connections

The theme is Serie A teams. The four answers are Bologna, Como, Juventus and Roma.

The blue words in today’s Connections

The theme is benches-clearing brawl. The four answers are brouhaha, fight, fracas and rhubarb.

The purple words in today’s Connections

The theme is Yankees greats, with the first letter changed. The four answers are fudge (Aaron Judge), meter (Derek Jeter), terra (Yogi Berra) and word (Whitey Ford).

Don’t miss any of our unbiased tech content and lab-based reviews. Add CNET as a preferred Google source.