OpenAI's ChatGPT chatbot: The good, the very bad, and the uncannily fun

'After years of false hype, the real thing is here'

A word balloon.
(Image credit: Illustrated | Getty Images)

OpenAI, a for-profit artificial intelligence lab in San Francisco, invited the public to converse with a new artificially intelligent chatbot, ChatGPT, on Nov. 30, 2022. Within days, more than a million people had signed up to converse with the program — and ask it to write poems, explain complicated scientific ideas, compose essays for English class or in the style of some specific writer, offer home decorating tips, and code for them, among countless other two-way interactions. Minds were blown.

"This is insane," Tobi Lütke, CEO of Shopify, tweeted on day one. "It's like we just split the atom and everyone is talking about football," agreed Silktide founder Oliver Emberton. Microsoft decided to talk business, announcing Jan. 23 a "multiyear, multibillion dollar investment" in OpenAI that will allow the company to use ChatGPT and OpenAI's other technology in its Bing search engine, Office software suite, and other products. So, what is ChatGPT, and why is it a big deal?

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Peter Weber, The Week US

Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.