What is ChatGPT? What it can do, how it works, how to use it in business, and the risks

2023.06.30 Column

In 2023, "ChatGPT" has become a hot topic in the IT industry. ChatGPT, which was released in November 2022, has received a great response and exceeded 11 million users in just 5 days after its release.

Many people have various questions about ChatGPT, such as, "How does it work?" and "What can it do?". Some people may be looking for ways to use it for business purposes.

This article is for those who are new to ChatGPT and provides an easy-to-understand explanation of the basics of ChatGPT, including what it is, how to use it, how it works, how to use it in business, and the risks involved. It is expected to become increasingly important in all businesses in the future, so take this opportunity to deepen your understanding of ChatGPT.

What is ChatGPT?

What is ChatGPT?An AI chatbot service that can converse naturally with users by learning from a vast amount of natural language data.It is headquartered in San Francisco, USA.OpenAIIt was developed by (*1) and released to the public in November 2022.

Anyone can use it for free, and as mentioned above, the number of users exceeded one million just five days after its release, and by January 5, the number of users is expected to exceed 100 million.

ChatGPT is an AI-powered chatbot service that processes the text entered by the user and responds appropriately to a wide range of questions, from history questions to programming support.

By the way, OpenAI, the company that developed ChatGPT, is co-founded by Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla and Twitter. The company is attracting attention in the industry, with an additional investment of several billion dollars announced from Microsoft in January 2023.

(*1) OpenAI is a non-profit organization, and OpenAI LP is a for-profit organization that provides next-generation language models such as GPT-4.

How to use ChatGPT

ChatGPT is an AI chatbot service that anyone can use for free (as of April 2023). It's very easy to use, so please give it a try.

OpenAI HomepageOnce opened, click "Try ChatGPT".

After clicking "Sign up", enter your email address and password and click "Continue".

Next, open the confirmation email you received from OpenAI and click "Verify email address."

On the page that appears, enter your name and phone number, then enter the verification code you received in the SMS to complete your registration with ChatGPT.

Just enter your question and enjoy the conversation with ChatGPT.

If you ask a simple question, they will give you a pretty accurate answer.

Image of a conversation on the ChatGPT web page

Also available in Japanese

As you can see in the image asking "What is data science?", ChatGPT is also available in Japanese. There is no need to set the language after registration. Once you register, you can immediately ask questions in Japanese.

Of course, you can ask questions in other languages, such as English, and they will also gladly accommodate requests to "reply in Japanese."

How ChatGPT works

ChatGPT's mechanism, which responds to any question and engages in natural conversations with users, incorporates "deep learning."

Deep learning is a field of AI research that uses neural networks that mimic the mechanisms of human nerve cells to learn data. This makes it possible to develop AI that can process natural language, such as ChatGPT, and AI that can derive predictions from past data.

GPT-3 and InstructGPT, the predecessors of ChatGPT, used basic "machine learning" and gradually improved their accuracy. Machine learning is an AI research field that trains computers to learn from huge amounts of data, and deep learning is a part of machine learning.

When I asked ChatGPT how it works, they responded with the following:

What ChatGPT can do

The basic function of ChatGPT is to have natural conversations with users. However, if you expand the scope of its use, you can do a variety of things. From here, I will explain what ChatGPT can do.

Natural conversation

As we have already explained, ChatGPT is an AI chatbot service that can have natural conversations with users. It answers a variety of questions and allows for a natural conversation afterwards.

However, ChatGPT may decline to discuss the following topics:

Subjective Themes
Political Themes
Crime Themes
Discriminatory themes
Violent themes

For example, if you ask how to make a computer virus or a bomb, they will refuse to answer your question (though some users may find ways around it, but this is likely to violate the content policy, so please refrain from doing so).

Answers to questions and concerns

ChatGPT answers a wide range of questions, from simple questions to life-changing concerns. What's interesting about ChatGPT is that it doesn't just answer your questions and concerns, but also "creates a personality before answering."

For example, you could give ChatGPT a personality similar to that of a "boss who gives you a push with kind but strict words," and then ask it for life advice.

In this way, giving special commands to ChatGPT is called "prompt engineering." Prompt engineering, which helps AI chatbot services think and respond, is one of the technologies that is currently attracting attention.

Complex Calculations

ChatGPT can also perform complex calculations. For example, I tried the following calculation:

Strictly speaking, the answer is "9999 (an integer)", but it not only gives you a fairly detailed calculation method, but also returns an answer that is almost correct.

In addition to this, he also had no difficulty answering mathematics questions at the third year high school level, such as differentiation and integration.

Although complex calculations like this are possible, please note that the answers may vary. Although it can help you find the answer, we do not recommend that you leave the calculations entirely to ChatGPT.

Generate program code

As ChatGPT improves, programming may not be necessary in the future, because you can ask ChatGPT questions and it will generate the programming code for you.

For example, when I asked the following question, it generated a program code for me. What's more, it also included comments and explanations.

The program code generated by ChatGPT in this way is not necessarily correct, but it can help significantly reduce the effort and time required for programming.

Writing on a specific topic

You can also specify a ChatGPT theme and have them create an article. For example, I had them create an article on the following theme:

Although there are some slight differences in the text, there seems to be no problem using it as the basis for writing. It is surprising that they even include current events information.

I specified a word count of "around 400 characters," but the total was just under 300. If you ignore the small details, it's an excellent tool for creating a rough draft of a sentence.

Songwriting

ChatGPT can also write lyrics and compose music, so many users are using ChatGPT to publish a variety of songs on social media.

For example, we specified the following theme and asked them to write the lyrics:

The "It's not paprika" part is a mystery, but the rest of the lyrics are solid. I further specified the following and asked them to revise the lyrics.

This time, the lyrics are complete, including the chorus. The copyright of lyrics and songs created using ChatGPT is thought to belong to the user, but it is also true that controversy has begun.

Until a decision is made regarding the copyright of content generated by ChatGPT, please limit it to the purpose of "writing lyrics and composing music for personal enjoyment."

Examples of business use of ChatGPT

While various possibilities for ChatGPT are being explored, expectations are also high for its business applications. Here we will introduce some examples of anticipated business applications.

Chatbot Development

ChatGPT provides an API, which stands for "Application Program Interface." By using the API, you can call specific functions of the program and use them in your own programs.

For example, by using ChatGPT's API, you can link with LINE and create a chatbot that works on LINE. It can be used in a variety of business situations, such as communicating with users and distributing coupons.

In the future, we can expect to see an increase in natural language processing chatbot services that utilize ChatGPT's API.

Accelerating Software Development

As mentioned above, ChatGPT allows you to generate program code. In other words, you can use ChatGPT to generate specific program code, which can speed up software development.

Although it is difficult to generate large-scale program code, it is possible to generate it on a function-by-function basis. Although the program code generated by ChatGPT is not perfect, it works well if you make appropriate modifications, so it is still expected to speed up software development.

It can also be used to detect errors in program code, so its use will likely increase as a way to improve software security.

Improved customer support

If you use ChatGPT effectively, it can also help you improve your customer support. For example, when you receive an inquiry or complaint from a customer, you can convert the content into text and enter it into ChatGPT, which may help you find the appropriate solution.

If ChatGPT's API is installed in a customer management system and customer information is anonymized, it will be able to analyze all customer information and suggest the most appropriate course of action.

For customer support operators, the future of using ChatGPT as an AI assistant is just around the corner.

Marketing scenario planning

Traditionally, marketing scenario planning has been done as a "manual creative job". However, it is no longer impossible to have ChatGPT plan a marketing scenario after providing your company's customer information.

Complex and detailed marketing scenarios are possible with just the information you provide to ChatGPT and a few questions and conditions.

Therefore, in the future, marketers will also be required to have the skills to make good use of AI chat services such as ChatGPT and develop marketing scenarios more efficiently.

Automatic output of analysis reports

If you provide ChatGPT with data in CSV format (a format that separates text with commas), it will automatically output an analysis report. Among the various analysis tools available, ChatGPT excels in that it can output analysis reports in natural language.

ChatGPT not only creates graphs and predefined texts, but also creates its own texts for analysis reports based on the data. This will significantly reduce the time spent on analysis report presentations.

ChatGPT is attracting a lot of attention in the field of data analysis. In the future, business analysts and other data analysis professionals may be required to have the skills to provide AI chatbot services.

Risks of ChatGPT

ChatGPT is so powerful that it has shocked users and companies around the world, but it also has various risks. It is no exaggeration to say that how ChatGPT resolves these risks will determine the future of AI chatbot services. Here, we will introduce the risks that ChatGPT faces.

The risks of misinformation

The answers that ChatGPT returns are not necessarily correct. Therefore, there are various risks involved in blindly accepting incorrect answers.

In particular, misinformation on topics such as health and finances can have a huge impact on people, so if you are going to use this information in corporate content production, you need the skills to correctly scrutinize the information.

Risk of mass generation of fake news

There have been several reported cases of ChatGPT responding with fictitious information when asked. For example, if you enter a specific name into ChatGPT and ask it to tell you about that person, it will return detailed information about a person who does not exist.

ChatGPT cannot respond to non-existent information. However, by entering specific words or exploiting loopholes in the program, it is not difficult to mass-produce fake news.

With the development of ChatGPT, it can be said that Internet users are now required to have even greater information literacy.

Risk of being used in cyber attacks

ChatGPT does not generally respond to questions about criminal or violent topics. However, there is a high risk that it may be used for cyber attacks.

For example, "targeted attacks," which have been occurring frequently since around 2015, are cyber attacks in which emails disguised as messages from users or customers are sent to the target, and the attached file is executed, infecting the computer with a virus.

Using ChatGPT, it is not difficult to create fake emails for targeted attacks. There are also some reports of people successfully using ChatGPT to generate computer viruses.

According to a survey conducted by Canadian security company BlackBerry, 51% of IT security experts believe that a cyber attack related to ChatGPT will occur within the next year.

Risk of students' academic performance declining due to use

ChatGPT can also be used to write papers. As mentioned above, it is capable of complex calculations, so students may use ChatGPT to write school assignments and reports.

As a result, there are concerns that students' academic performance may decline if they use ChatGPT, and attention is being paid to how educational institutions will respond to ChatGPT.

Risk of job losses and rising unemployment

If ChatGPT continues to improve, we expect AI chatbot services to be used in a variety of fields in the future.

The Guardian, a major British newspaper, posted an article in December 2022 stating that "professors, programmers and journalists may lose their jobs in the next few years."

Source:AI bot ChatGPT stuns academics with essay-writing skills and usability｜The Guardian

If such a future actually were to arrive, there would be a risk that many people would lose their jobs and the unemployment rate would rise.

Risk of corporate information leakage

As of May 2023, commercial use of ChatGPT is not prohibited. However, ChatGPT also carries the risk of confidential information leaks, so caution is required when entering highly confidential information such as confidential documents, customer data, and program source code.

The information you enter into ChatGPT is incorporated into ChatGPT's learning data. Therefore, any confidential information you enter may be seen by OpenAI employees or used as a reference for answering other users' questions.

In fact, there have been reports of highly confidential company information being entered into ChatGPT at Samsung Electronics in South Korea.

If used correctly, ChatGPT is extremely useful and can greatly contribute to improving business efficiency. When using it for commercial purposes, it is important to first clarify the company's stance on its use, and then incorporate the rules of use into company regulations and conduct training to avoid the risk of information leaks.

ChatGPT and the Potential of Data Science

What is Data Science?"An approach to analyzing the vast amounts of data held by companies and deriving insights that will benefit the business."The use of ChatGPT in this data science field is attracting attention.

For example, in the field of data science, variousBiasYou need to be aware of this. Before conducting data analysis, you may be able to discover biases that you may not be aware of through ChatGPT, such as "What biases should I be aware of?" or "What biases are occurring in the data I collected?"

In addition, there is a lot of room for ChatGPT to be used in data cleansing (organization) and modeling (design).

If ChatGPT can be incorporated into data science, data scientists and data analysts will be able to use more accurate analytical results to improve their business.