ChatGPT-4 has been officially announced, confirming long-standing rumors about its improvements on the already incredibly impressive language skills of OpenAI’s ChatGPT.
OpenAI calls it the “company’s most advanced system, producing safer and more useful responses.” Here’s everything we know about it so far.
Availability and release date
GPT-4 was officially announced on March 13, as Microsoft confirmed in advance, although the exact day was unknown. However, from now on, it will only be available on the paid subscription of ChatGPT Plus. The current free version of ChatGPT will continue to be based on GPT-3.5.
GPT-4 will also be available as an API “for developers to build applications and services.” Some of the companies that have already integrated GPT-4 include Duolingo, Be My Eyes, Stripe, and Khan Academy. The first public demo of GPT-4 was also streamed live on YouTube, showcasing some of its new capabilities.
What’s new in GPT-4?
GPT-4 is a new language model created by OpenAI that can generate text similar to human speech. It will advance the technology used by ChatGPT, which is currently based on GPT-3.5. GPT is an acronym for Generative Pre-trained Transformer, a deep learning technology that uses artificial neural networks to type like a human.
According to OpenAI, this next-generation language model is more advanced in three key areas: creativity, visual input, and more extensive context. In terms of creativity, OpenAI says that GPT-4 is much better for both creating and collaborating with users on creative projects. Examples of these include music, scripts, technical writing, and even “learning a user’s writing style.”
The longest context also influences this. GPT-4 can now process up to 25,000 words of user text. You can even simply send a web link to GPT-4 and ask it to interact with the text on that page. OpenAI says this can be useful for creating long-form content, as well as “extended conversations.”
GPT-4 can now also receive images as a basis for interaction. In the example provided on the GPT-4 website, the chatbot is given a picture of some baking ingredients and asked what can be made with them. It is not currently known if the video can also be used in this same way.
Lastly, OpenAI also says that GPT-4 is significantly more secure to use than the previous generation. It can reportedly produce 40% more factual responses in OpenAI’s own internal tests, while being 82% less likely to “respond to requests for disallowed content.”
OpenAI says it has been trained with human feedback to achieve these advances, claiming to have worked with “more than 50 experts to get early feedback in domains including AI safety and security.”
limitations
While discussing the new capabilities of GPT-4, OpenAI also points out some of the limitations of the new language model. Like previous versions of GPT, OpenAI says the latest model still has problems with “social biases, hallucinations, and conflicting indications.”
In other words, it’s not perfect, but OpenAI says these are all issues the company is working to address.
Does Bing Chat use GPT-4?
Microsoft originally claimed that the new Bing, or Bing Chat, was more powerful than ChatGPT. Since OpenAI Chat uses GPT-3.5, there was an implication at the time that Bing Chat might be using GPT-4. And now, Microsoft has confirmed that Bing Chat is, in fact, built on top of GPT-4.
Still, features like visual input weren’t available in Bing Chat, so it’s still unclear which exact features have been integrated and which haven’t.
Regardless, Bing Chat has clearly been upgraded with the ability to access current information over the Internet, a vast improvement over the current version of ChatGPT, which can only take advantage of training it received through 2021.
In addition to Internet access, the AI model used for Bing Chat is much faster, which is extremely important when taken out of the lab and added to a search engine.
An evolution, not a revolution?
We haven’t tested GPT-4 in ChatGPT Plus yet, but it will surely be more impressive, building on the success of ChatGPT. In fact, if you’ve tried the new Bing Chat, apparently you’ve already tried it. Just don’t expect it to be something completely new.
Prior to the release of GPT-4, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said in a StrictlyVC interview posted by Connie Loizos on YouTube that “people are begging to be disappointed, and they will be.”
Altman acknowledges AGI’s potential to wreak havoc on world economies, saying a rapid implementation of several small changes is better than one shocking breakthrough that provides little opportunity for the world to adapt to the changes.
In short, GPT-4 will be an evolution, not a revolution. According to Altman, the next version of ChatGPT will not be an AGI and will not have 100 trillion parameters. Those rumors are wrong.
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