ChatGPT is a generative artificial intelligencechatbot[2][3] developed by OpenAI and launched in 2022. It is currently based on the GPT-4olarge language model (LLM). ChatGPT can generate human-like conversational responses and enables users to refine and steer a conversation towards a desired length, format, style, level of detail, and language.[4] It is credited with accelerating the AI boom, which has led to ongoing rapid investment in and public attention to the field of artificial intelligence (AI).[5] Some observers have raised concern about the potential of ChatGPT and similar programs to displace human intelligence, enable plagiarism, or fuel misinformation.[6][7]
By January 2023, ChatGPT had become what was then the fastest-growing consumer software application in history, gaining over 100 million users in two months[8][9] and contributing to the growth of OpenAI's current valuation of $86 billion.[10][11] ChatGPT's release spurred the release of competing products, including Gemini, Claude, Llama, Ernie, and Grok.[12]Microsoft launched Copilot, initially based on OpenAI's GPT-4. In May 2024, a partnership between Apple Inc. and OpenAI was announced, in which ChatGPT was integrated into the Apple Intelligence feature of Apple operating systems.[13] As of July 2024, ChatGPT's website is among the 10 most-visited websites globally.[14][15]
ChatGPT is built on OpenAI's proprietary series of generative pre-trained transformer (GPT) models and is fine-tuned for conversational applications using a combination of supervised learning and reinforcement learning from human feedback.[6] Successive user prompts and replies are considered at each conversation stage as context.[16] ChatGPT was released as a freely available research preview, but due to its popularity, OpenAI now operates the service on a freemium model. Users on its free tier can access GPT-4o. The ChatGPT subscriptions "Plus", "Team", and "Enterprise" provide additional features such as DALL-E 3 image generation and an increased usage limit.[17]