We’re going to play with ChatGPT today a bit. We’ve got a few objectives in mind:
- Learning how to use ChatGPT.
- Learning how not to use ChatGPT.
- Understanding the types of mistakes that ChatGPT makes.
- Publishing results via WordPress.
ChatGPT Versions
As of today, ChatGPT comes in a couple flavors: Version 3.5 and Version 4
- ChatGPT 3.5
- ChatGPT 3.5 Turbo
- ChatGPT 4
In addition, ChatGPT 3.5 Turbo and ChatGPT 4 are available via an API or an Application Programming Interface. That means you can write a computer program to interface with ChatGPT and then use the results. This is commonly used to provide a so-called “code assist”. That is, you can describe what you’d like a program to do in English and ChatGPT will (try to) write the program for you.
As you might guess, ChatGPT 4 is more advanced that ChatGPT 3.5. For example, ChatGPT incorporates DALL·E 2, which allows it to draw images.
Access options
ChatGPT is a commercial product created by OpenAI. Version 3.5 is free to use but you still need an account. ChatGPT 3.5 Turbo and ChatGPT 4 cost $20/month.
You are certainly not required to purchase ChatGPT 3.5 Turbo or ChatGPT 4 for this class! I would like you to create an account through your UNCA email and play with ChatGPT 3.5, though. It’s great fun!
The examples below use a mix of versions 3.5 and 4.
Problems
As much fun as it is to play with Chat GPT, one major thing I’d like to get across to students is that you cannot trust it blindly. So, let’s just straight into a serious issue. I fave ChatGPT 4 the following directive:
Draw a map of the United States with all of the states labeled correctly.
Here’s what I got back:
Hmm…
Here’s one thing you must know about ChatGPT: It doesn’t know anything!
When dealing with text, ChatGPT works by guessing the next most likely word. It doesn’t check or even know how to check.
Here’s a somewhat mathy example done today with Version 3.5:
Though, today’s V4 is better:
I stumbled on this kind of example when I asked ChatGPT to write some proofs for me a while back. You can find one in this linked conversation.
Note: In order to embed a conversation into your WordPress site, you should place IFrame code into an HTML block. For example, the following IFrame code embeds the first conversation above:
<iframe width="100%" height="1200" frameborder="0"
src="https://chat.openai.com/share/d6440419-3d4d-42e9-86bc-d75294d5c925"></iframe>Sharing activity
You’ll notice that I’ve shared some Chat results in a few ways there:
- As an uploaded image,
- as an embedded conversation, and
- as a link to a shared conversation.
Ultimately, I’d like you to explore ChatGPT a bit, try to find queries that it clearly does not respond to correctly and write about that in your WordPress site.
For today, just try to log onto OpenAI and embed a simple chat into your WordPress site.