ChatGPT: pros and cons

ChatGPT: pros and cons

Thanks to ChatGPT, artificial intelligence (AI) has been the subject of much hype. The AI system can compose entire texts within a few seconds, write usable essays and poems, and understand compositions of up to 1500 words.

The chatbot speaks German, although registration must be done on the English site of the developer OpenAI. The Californian company has been cooperating with Microsoft since 2019. The US software giant plans to invest several billion US dollars in this strategic partnership in the coming years.

Learn here how ChatGPT works and what advantages and disadvantages the AI system has.

ChatGPT: How the AI system works

In simple terms, the ChatGPT text robot is a machine learning model that was created to communicate with humans in the most natural way possible. The system was trained with a gigantic amount of data, which is called a large language model.

ChatGPT is constantly learning and independently develops a strategy based on positive or negative feedback. In the first stages, the programmers provide the feedback, later the chatbot optimizes itself.

A study conducted at the renowned U.S. university Wharton proves that the AI system certainly delivers serious results. The task was for ChatGPT to pass the important MBA exam. And the text robot surprised with an appealing performance that was rewarded with a grade of "B minus".

Advantages of ChatGPT

Against the background of the known possibilities, the question arises what advantages an AI system like ChatGPT has.

Information gathering

The simplest method of use is to formulate a question. The program answers it in detail and saves the tedious research using a search engine like Google.

Source of inspiration

ChatGPT also plays its advantages as a source of inspiration. Creative minds such as journalists, speechwriters and songwriters are familiar with the phenomenon of writer's block. Sometimes the right formulations and ideas are simply missing. ChatGPT, as an artificial intelligence, does not suffer from this phenomenon and provides inspiration at the push of a button.

Takeover of complete text jobs

Last but not least: The chatbot can be used to write entire texts on specific topics. However, the task must be very precise so that a usable result emerges in the end. If the information about the content is only vague, this is immediately noticeable in the AI text.

The following result was provided by ChatGPT in response to a question about the landscape of the northern Italian region of Liguria:

"The landscape of Liguria is characterized by picturesque stretches of coastline and deep bays surrounded by steep cliffs and rugged cliffs. There are many beautiful beaches, some of which are remote and difficult to reach, while others are well visited and equipped with a variety of tourist facilities."

The article ended with the final sentence:

"All in all, Liguria is a beautiful and fascinating region of Italy, known for its natural beauty as well as its cultural and culinary diversity."

A text about this region could hardly be much more imprecise, boring and uninspired. If a copywriter had presented these sentences to his travel magazine editor, termination without notice would be the logical consequence. And that is not the only disadvantage of the chatbot.

Disadvantages of ChatGPT

Besides the mentioned advantages, ChatGPT also has some disadvantages that users of the text robot cannot ignore.

Missing source information

What can quickly become a problem when publishing texts are missing sources. With ChatGPT there are never any. Thus, it always remains in the dark where the information comes from.

Wrong answers

It is not at all uncommon for the chatbot to fail to answer a posed question correctly. However, if the facts in a text are wrong, this can have devastating effects when published. This is especially true for publication in media, where journalistic care is assumed.

Lack of timeliness

ChatGPT is not always able to relate to current events and provide the appropriate text. On 03/14/2023, the chatbot was asked the question about the winner of the 2022 World Cup. The answer was as follows:

"I can't answer this question because the 2022 World Cup has not yet taken place. The World Cup is scheduled to take place in Qatar from November 21 to December 18, 2022. Once the tournament has taken place, the winner will be announced." - just not from ChatGPT.

No wordplay and lack of linguistic subtleties

Language is not the oldest, but the most important means of human communication. The subtleties and nuances that make the written word so unique are correspondingly great. These subtleties and wordplay are missing in ChatGPT, as the system itself admits when asked specifically.

Conclusion: ChatGPT is an excellent source of inspiration and information. However, the lack of reliability in terms of the accuracy of the answers and current facts, as well as the lack of linguistic gradations, are negative points. When asked about the disadvantages of ChatGPT itself, the program points out that the information has to be verified with the help of various sources.