OpenAI is yet again making headlines with the GPT 4 release date; just four months in wowing the tech sector with conversational AI, ChatGPT. The next-generation GPT-4 AI tech was unveiled in a blog post — and it’s more than a conversational AI.
Let’s talk about all things GPT-4 in this blog.
Initial OpenAI GPT 4 Release Date: March 14, 2023
In the GPT 4 release post, OpenAI claimed the new version is more unlikely to “go outside of guardrails” with its response as users have previously experienced. And far from its predecessor, GPT-3.5, which landed in the bottom 10% of a simulated law school bar exam, GPT-4 scored around the top 10% of test takers. On top of that, GPT-4 can write code in major programming languages and analyze and generate up to 25,000 words of text, unlike the previous series’ 3,000-word limit.
But what is GPT-4, exactly?
What Is GPT-4 AI?
GPT-4 is a multimodal large language model (MLLM) — the latest and most advanced of OpenAI’s large language models. At heart, GPT-4 is a text-generating machine. Being a multimodal large language model means it accepts multiple kinds of inputs other than text, such as video, image and sound. Akin to GPT-3 and its versions, GPT-4 is the machine learning algorithm behind the AI chatbot, ChatGPT.
If you’re wondering about the seemingly quick jump of the AI tech to its fourth version when GPT-3.5’s dominance over AI trends has yet to dwindle, OpenAI has been releasing large language models since 2018. GPT-3 was first introduced in 2020, so a massive upgrade three years later is only right.
While GPT-4 is armed with tremendous improvements, it’s not without problems, or as OpenAI calls it, “limitations.” These limitations include fact hallucinations to social biases and adversarial prompts, which users have been experiencing with OpenAI’s previous large language models.
But let’s look at GPT-4’s impressive demos:
Image: OpenAI; GPT-4 visual input demo
Image: OpenAI; GPT-4 “Creativity” text input demo
Image: OpenAI; GPT-4 in contrast with ChatGPT running on GPT 3.5
However, GPT-4’s text input capability is limited to ChatGPT Plus, while its image input capability has yet to be made available for use. If you’re a developer interested in GPT-4 API, you can sign up for OpenAI’s waitlist.
GPT-4: More Than a Conversational AI Chatbot
Along with its forerunning versions, GPT-4 is often mixed with the artificial intelligence chatbot, ChatGPT. So to clear the air for some, ChatGPT is the AI chatbot product of OpenAI — GPT is the brain behind it. ChatGPT is limited to being a conversational AI platform, while GPT-4 has outstandingly broader capabilities.
Products Powered With GPT-4
OpenAI partnered with other organizations to build and equip products with GPT-4.
1. Duolingo. GPT-4 adds depth to conversations on Duolingo.
2. Be My Eyes. GPT-4 transforms visual accessibility for the Be My Eyes app.
3. Stripe. GPT-4 combats fraud and streamlines user experience.
4. Morgan Stanley. GPT-4 organizes Morgan Stanley’s broad knowledge base.
5. Khan Academy. GPT-4 champions Khan Academy’s limited pilot program.
6. Government of Iceland. GPT-4 boosts Iceland’s language preservation.
Other OpenAI GPT 4 partners include:
• Dropbox
• Descript
• Intercom
GPT-4 AI: No Longer “Open”
Despite significant advancements, many people are raising their eyebrows over one particular change: GPT-4 is not open-source. While OpenAI disclosed substantial test and benchmark results along with intriguing demos, the company virtually provided zero details on the data used to train the tech, its energy consumption, or the specific methods and hardware used to develop GPT-4.
With this, the public has criticized OpenAI for seemingly bypassing its founding ethos embodied in its company name. Many also remark that the closed approach makes it challenging to develop defenses against the threats and risks posed by AI technologies such as GPT-4. As such, while OpenAI has called some to celebrate its mega contribution to AI trends, some are concerned over their safety.
I think we can call it shut on ‘Open’ AI: the 98 page paper introducing GPT-4 proudly declares that they’re disclosing *nothing* about the contents of their training set. pic.twitter.com/dyI4Vf0uL3
— Ben Schmidt / @[email protected] (@benmschmidt) March 14, 2023
Tweet: Ben Schmidt, VP of information design at Nomic AI, calling out OpenAI with a snippet of OpenAI GPT 4’s technical report
However, OpenAI’s chief scientist and co-founder, Ilya Sutskever, said, “Flat out, we were wrong.” and “It’s a bad idea…” to even share research, to begin with. Sutskever also claims that it will be completely apparent to the public why open-sourcing AI tech is “just not wise.”
So Is OpenAI Actually Giving Google a Run for Its Money?
OpenAI through its capped-profit leg, OpenAI LP, is in a deep, multi-billion dollar partnership with Microsoft, Google’s top rival. Conversational AI platform ChatGPT and multimodal large language model GPT-4 were trained on Microsoft Azure AI supercomputing infrastructure.
Before ChatGPT made waves in the digital space quietly dominated by Google, the latter appeared conservative or perhaps discreet in its approach toward AI. But in January this year, amid cutting 12,000 jobs, Sundar Pichai, CEO of Google and Alphabet, said the layoff signifies the company’s sharpening of focus to allocate its talent and capital to its highest priorities — one being its AI investments.
In the post, Pichai reiterated that Google has been on the ball with AI, noting its “early investments” in AI twice and that the company pivoted to be “AI-first” years ago. Pichai also said they are ready to venture into AI opportunities ahead of them “boldly and responsibly.”
As such, while Google remains a distinct beast in its own right, it appears the company was forced to revisit its focus to avoid being left behind.
Bard: Google’s New AI Chatbot
OpenAI’s ChatGPT has reigned over the top AI trends since its release, and now, GPT-4. But exactly a week after the GPT 4 release date, Google limitedly launched conversational AI, Bard. Bard is powered by Google’s Language Model for Dialogue Applications (LaMDA), the company’s own large language model and the GPT series’ counterpart.
So, you be the judge if Google feels threatened by OpenAI.
Microsoft Bing Running on GPT-4
In a March 14 post, Microsoft congratulated its partners at OpenAI for the release of GPT-4. Microsoft also confirmed that the new Bing is running on GPT-4. So we went ahead and tried it. We were asked to download Microsoft Edge, sign in and join a waitlist. But to our dismay and amusement, the new Bing insists otherwise.
To borrow TechCrunch’s humor on the matter: somebody needs to let Bing know it’s no longer under NDA. Now, let’s go over ways you can access OpenAI’s new tech.
How To Access GPT-4
As mentioned, you need a paid subscription to ChatGPT Plus (the premium version of ChatGPT) to experience GPT-4 text input function. Otherwise, you’ll only be interacting with GPT 3.5.
Accessing GPT-4 With ChatGPT
You can access GPT-4 via chat.openai.com with a usage cap. The subscription plan costs $20 per month and comes with member benefits, including faster response times and priority access to new features.
To upgrade from free membership, sign in and click “Upgrade To Plus” in the left menu. You can then follow the prompts from there.
Accessing GPT-4 in OpenAI Playground
The OpenAI Playground serves as a test environment, allowing users to experiment and explore the company’s other technologies besides its artificial intelligence chatbot, ChatGPT. Other tech includes DALL-E and DALL-E 2, which can generate realistic images following a prompt in natural language.
To access GPT-4 in OpenAI Playground, choose “Chat” as mode and select “GPT-4” as the model. Here, you’ll also need a ChatGPT Plus subscription.
Image: jspicher81; OpenAI community
GPT-4’s Impact on Content Creation
In GPT-4’s release, OpenAI highlighted one thing that caught the eye of some, particularly search engine optimization (SEO) marketers and writers — the “Longer context” demo. As mentioned, GPT-4 can handle over 25,000 words of text. Thus, aside from extended conversations, OpenAI noted that the capability allows for use cases such as “long form content creation” and “document search and analysis.”
Image: OpenAI; GPT-4 “Longer context” text input demo
Consequently, the demo further stirred the ongoing conversations on the SEO AI topic. Some are expressing concerns about losing their jobs with AI possibly replacing them. But to tame everyone’s anxieties, Search Engine Journal went ahead and asked ChatGPT: “Will AI put SEOs out of a job?
ChatGPT was nothing short of reassuring with its answer.
GPT-4: A Catalyst of Change for Google
To end: OpenAI’s GPT-4 is undoubtedly the most advanced AI the world has ever seen, causing Google to shift gears. And while it sparked concerns about the viability of Google Search as the ruling search engine, it’s unlikely that ChatGPT will entirely supersede the search engine soon — not unless OpenAI decides to put all hands on deck and directly go after Google. But for now, GPT-4 only stands as a catalyst of change for Google.
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