PowerPlatformLearn | Rory Neary

ChatGPT is coming to a browser near you, and I’ve been so impressed with it that I wrote a free online course in its honour.

Simply click the image if you’d like to head directly there. Head on further down for a brief overview of this AWESOME free tool (access details shown below).

Unless you’ve been living under a stone these past months you’ll know that ChatGPT is likely to be a massive disruptor of search in the weeks, months and years ahead. ChatGPT is a chatbot trained on billions of text in what is known as a large language model and answers all manner of questions from the meaningful, to the frivolous.

This post might well have been written by ChatGPT, but chances are that if it had been it would be a heck of a lot better put together. Which is why educational establishments are so scared of this product, to the point that many have either banned it’s use or required students to cite the product. The educational debate is likely to rage for some time to come.

Who Built ChatGPT?

ChatGPT was built by the OpenAI team, led by Sam Altman, which was originally a not-for-profit organisation, but now has a much stronger tie up with Microsoft. Check out their mission statement.

How do you get ChatGPT?

To get ChatGPT simply go to https://chat.openai.com/auth/l… and create yourself a login.  

Make sure you have your mobile phone to hand as it will be used on a one-off basis during the setup phase.  You’ll also need access to your emails.

Then create yourself and account

You’ll be asked to verify your email and also to confirm via a SMS text to your phone.

What a research phase!

Within 5 days of the introduction of ChatGPT in November 2022 the service had 1 million new users and this has moved to upwards of 100 million and counting. Anyone using the service is well aware of just how often it is at capacity, but this is a reflection of it’s popularity and lack of competition at this time.

ChatGPT is still in a massive “research” phase, which is an excellent way of ensuring that if errors are produced then it is less likely to be damaging to the overall product, and the organic way in which it has been brought to market has ensured that people are using it reasonably well for the most part. Anyone using the service will know just how frequently it isn’t available, and the only suggestion I can have on this is to have patience – we can’t rely on it in our jobs….yet.

Microsoft and ChatGPT

Microsoft have $10 billion stake in ChatGPT, and are embedding the product not just in their search engine Bing, but also throughout their products.

Microsoft only have a 3% stake in global search versus 93% for Google, so it is somewhat inevitable that Microsoft would bring this to the $200 billion market.

Google response

Google have been taken by surprise by the pace of the uptake of ChatGPT and the strategic changes Microsoft have made to embed the product. Their own product Bard was very much caught out when it supplied an incorrect response at a press event and the outcome was nearly a 5% drop in the value of Alphabet shares.

As much as anything else this is a salutory tale of the way in which Large Language Models have a habit of presenting fiction as fact, and we will all need to get used to working with these products.

ChatGPT at work

From letter writing to brainstorming – Chat GPT has got your back!

Here’s an example of brainstorming some marketing ideas.

ChatGPT at Home

There are many ways of using ChatGPT, from creating recipes through to writing stories.

Many people have amused themselves by simply writing poems about unusual topics. Here’s one of mine

Getting to the course

If you’d like to head directly to the ChatGPT course head here.

Ready, get set, go!

What are you waiting for a world of insight awaits.