ChatGPT was launched last year in November, 2022. It has lit up internet, and gathered its first million users in less than week. It imitates human conversations. It has the potential to supplant professional writers.

The new technology is built on OpenAI’s GPT-3 language model and is powered by AI. The same company has Dall-E image generating model which accepts prompts to synthesize art and other images. Thus AI is getting infused into creative pursuits. OpenAI is already working on GPT-4 model for its natural language processing.

Search engines provide a basic set of links, but this bot ChatGPT is capable of responding to queries in a natural and human like manner, can carry a conversation and can answer follow-up questions. It threatens search engines such as Google.

Microsoft partnered with OpenAI by making an investment $ 1 billion. Microsoft is in further talks with OpenAI to invest as much as $10 billion in it which has been valued at $ 29 billion. Microsoft would be entitled to 75 percent of OpenAI’s profit until it recoups its initial investment. After that threshold, it would retain 49 per cent stake in OpenAI. Other investors who enter with MS would hold 49 per cent between them. The non-profit parent would retain 2 percent. This implies a current valuation of $29 billion. Once the initial $10 billion is recouped in profit sharing, there could be a cap on future profits to be pulled out by the investors. It is highly unusual. Microsoft could add ChatGPT to its Bing search engine. It is being said that MS will add ChatGPT to its MSOffice suite.

Altman, founder of OpenAI, himself wants to make ChatGPT more robust and truthful, and cautions about its premature use. NYC schools have concern for its accuracy, and have banned its students from accessing ChatGPT. ChatGPT lacks the judgement required to distinguish between fact from fake news or fiction.