What is ChatGPT? The AI chatbot explained

Showing ChatGPT users a tiny disclaimer that the chatbot can make mistakes clearly isn’t enough. OpenAI wants to incorporate Anthropic’s Model Context Protocol (MCP) into all of its products, including the ChatGPT desktop app. OpenAI made a notable change to its content moderation policies after the success of its new image generator in ChatGPT, which went viral for being able to create Studio Ghibli-style images.

OpenAI says it has trained an AI that’s “really good” at creative writing

A new report from app analytics firm Appfigures found that over half of ChatGPT’s mobile users are under age 25, with users between ages 50 and 64 making up the second largest age demographic. OpenAI says it collects user posts from the subreddit and asks its AI models to write replies, in a closed environment, that would change the Reddit user’s mind on a subject. OpenAI used the subreddit r/ChangeMyView to measure the persuasive abilities of its AI reasoning models.

What can I do with ChatGPT?

  • In December 2024, OpenAI launched a new feature allowing users to call ChatGPT with a telephone for up to 15 minutes per month for free.
  • Text-generating AI models like ChatGPT have a tendency to regurgitate content from their training data.
  • Noam Brown, who heads AI reasoning research at OpenAI, thinks that certain types of AI models for “reasoning” could have been developed 20 years ago if researchers had understood the correct approach and algorithms.
  • It continues by saying “The model can understand and respond to user input in a way that mimics human conversation, allowing for more natural and engaging interactions.
  • There are also desktop apps for Windows and macOS that add systemwide shortcuts for quickly launching ChatGPT and sharing your screen, files, or screenshots directly in a chat.
  • In November 2023, OpenAI released GPT Builder a tool for users to customize ChatGPT’s behavior for a specific use case.

OpenAI now allows developers to build interactive apps directly inside ChatGPT, with early partners like Booking.com, Expedia, Spotify, Figma, Coursera, Zillow, and Canva already onboard. ChatGPT now has 800 million weekly active users, reflecting rapid growth across consumers, developers, enterprises, and governments, Sam Altman said. In some of these countries, users can pay in local currencies, while in others, payments are required in USD, with final costs varying due to local taxes.

OpenAI launches a general-purpose agent in ChatGPT

OpenAI suggests traits like “Chatty,” “Encouraging,” and “Gen Z.” However, some users reported that the new options have disappeared, so it’s possible they went live prematurely. Some users found they can specify a preferred name or nickname and “traits” they’d like the chatbot to have. The feature will start rolling out to ChatGPT Plus, Team, and Pro users around the globe this week. OpenAI has begun testing a feature that lets new ChatGPT users sign up with only a phone number — no email required. In a follow-up to its 2023 poll on ChatGPT usage among young people, Pew asked ~1,400 U.S.-based teens ages 13 to 17 whether they’ve used ChatGPT for homework or other school-related assignments. OpenAI says that ChatGPT Gov enables agencies to more easily manage their own security, privacy, and compliance, and could expedite internal authorization of OpenAI’s tools for the handling of non-public sensitive data.

OpenAI uses Google’s AI chips to power its products

  • He posted a lengthy sample from the model given the prompt “Please write a metafictional literary short story about AI and grief.” OpenAI has not extensively explored the use of AI for writing fiction.
  • The model will roll out to paid ChatGPT users and developers in three versions — Instant, Thinking, and Pro — tailored for everything from everyday tasks to complex reasoning and high-accuracy work.
  • The developer has not yet indicated which accessibility features this app supports.
  • It is unclear whether OpenAI intends to launch the social network as a standalone application or incorporate it into ChatGPT.
  • ChatGPT shows inconsistent responses, lack of specificity, lack of control over patient data, and a limited ability to take additional context (such as regional variations) into consideration.
  • OpenAI has not revealed technical details and statistics about GPT-4, such as the precise size of the model.

What started as a tool to supercharge productivity through writing essays and code with short text prompts has evolved into a behemoth with 300 million weekly active users. ChatGPT, OpenAI’s text-generating AI chatbot, has taken the world by storm since its launch in November 2022. Settle a dinner table debate, or practice a new language. Just keep in mind that advanced features, history/memory, and higher limits require an account. It can take detailed prompts and produce realistic images in minutes.
OpenAI has not revealed technical details and statistics about GPT-4, such as the precise size of the model. GPT-4V is a version of GPT-4 that can process images in addition to text. Shortly after the bug was fixed, users could not see their conversation history. In March 2023, a bug allowed some users to see the titles of other users’ conversations. Despite this, users may jailbreak ChatGPT with prompt engineering techniques to bypass these restrictions.
Users interact with ChatGPT through conversations which consist of text, audio, and image inputs and outputs. ChatGPT is frequently used for translation and summarization tasks, and can simulate interactive environments such as a Linux terminal, a multi-user chat room, or simple text-based games such as tic-tac-toe. The laborers were exposed to toxic and traumatic content; one worker described the assignment as “torture”.
OpenAI leaders have been talking about allowing the open model to link up with OpenAI’s cloud-hosted models to improve its ability to respond to intricate questions, two sources familiar with the situation told TechCrunch. An issue within OpenAI’s ChatGPT enabled the chatbot to create graphic erotic content for accounts registered by users under the age of 18, as demonstrated by TechCrunch’s testing, a fact later confirmed by OpenAI. OpenAI has released a post on the recent sycophancy issues with the default AI model powering ChatGPT, GPT-4o, leading the company to revert an update to the model released last week. OpenAI has announced its plan to make changes to its procedures for updating the AI models that power ChatGPT, following an update that caused the platform to become overly sycophantic for many users.
Generative Pre-trained Transformer 4 (GPT-4) is a large language model developed by OpenAI and the fourth in its series of GPT foundation models. In September 2025, following the suicide of a 16-year-old, OpenAI said it planned to add restrictions for users under 18, including the blocking of graphic sexual content and the prevention of flirtatious talk. It was capable of autonomously performing tasks through web browser interactions, including filling forms, placing online orders, scheduling appointments, and other browser-based tasks. These images are generated with C2PA metadata, which can be used to verify that they are AI-generated.

OpenAI has added new controls in ChatGPT that let users adjust the chatbot’s warmth, enthusiasm, emoji use, and formatting style. Most recently though, headlines around OpenAI have focused on its competition gaining ground, with CEO Sam Altman’s “code red” internal memo shifting company focus toward its flagship chatbot. The developer has not yet indicated which accessibility features this app supports. Privacy practices may vary based, for example, on the features you use or your age.
In December 2022, the question-and-answer website Stack Overflow banned the use of ChatGPT for generating answers to questions, citing the factually ambiguous nature of its responses. Robin Bauwens, an assistant professor at Tilburg University, found that a ChatGPT-generated peer review report on his article mentioned nonexistent studies. In January 2023, Science “completely banned” LLM-generated text in all its journals; however, this policy was just to give the community time to decide what acceptable use looks like. ChatGPT has been used to generate introductory sections and abstracts for scientific articles. Additionally, using a model’s outputs might violate copyright, and the model creator could be accused of vicarious liability and held responsible for that copyright infringement.
The ethics of its development, particularly the use of copyrighted content as training data, have also drawn controversy. The chatbot can facilitate academic dishonesty, generate misinformation, and create malicious code. The service gained 100 million users in two months, making it the fastest-growing consumer software application in history. It uses generative pre-trained transformers (GPTs), such as GPT-5, to generate text, speech, and images in response to user prompts.

The Guardian questioned whether any content found on the Internet after ChatGPT’s release “can be truly trusted” and called for government regulation. In June 2023, hundreds of people attended a “ChatGPT-powered church service” at St. Paul’s Church in Fürth, Germany. Between March and April 2023, Il Foglio published one ChatGPT-generated article a day on its website, hosting a special contest for its readers in the process. Efforts to ban chatbots like ChatGPT in schools focus on preventing cheating, but enforcement faces challenges due to AI detection inaccuracies and widespread accessibility of chatbot technology. Opinions are especially varied on what constitutes appropriate use of ChatGPT in education.
OpenAI charges $150 for every million tokens (about 750,000 words) input into the model and $600 for every million tokens the model produces. OpenAI says foxygold casino its o1-pro uses more computing than its o1 “reasoning” AI model to deliver “consistently better responses.” It’s only accessible to select developers who have spent at least $5 on OpenAI API services. The company claims they are improved versions of what was already there and that they hallucinate less.
ChatGPT includes a built-in image generator that’s powered by GPT-4o. Ask it to find, for example, the best humidifier available — and specify any features or a price range. You can probably tell by now that ChatGPT is far more than a simple chatbot. Once you’ve chosen a model and even a mode or tool in ChatGPT, it’s time to finally ask something.