ChatGPT has been on everyone’s lips since its launch late last year. How will the chatbot disrupt life as we know it? Also, will parent company OpenAI be going public any time soon?

What is ChatGPT?

ChatGPT is an artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot developed by OpenAI, a research company based in San Francisco, US.

The AI chatbot uses a machine learning technique called reinforcement learning from human feedback (RLHF), in which it mimics and produces human-like written communication (essays, emails, poems, etc) based on rounds of trained language models (with human trainers involved) and real-time instructions provided by end-human users.

The first, free version of ChatGPT (which was based on an earlier programme called InstructGPT) was launched in November 2022 to much fanfare. A second and stabler public version was released on 13 February 2023. A premium version, which gives subscribers ‘priority’ access and ‘faster response times’ even during peak hours, is also available at US$20 a month.

The service accumulated over 100 million users by January 2023, making it the fastest-growing consumer application in history.

What are some of ChatGPT’s potential use cases?

1. Answering customer queries

ChatGPT has the potential to answer a wide range of unique customer service questions that the present generation of chatbots currently struggle with.

2. Conducting research

ChatGPT could also eventually perform research tasks and functions as its capabilities develop further in the coming years.

3. Writing unique copies

One of the most immediate and apparent disruptive qualities of ChatGPT is its ability to write human-sounding articles relatively free of errors. The platform could eventually churn out unique copies for similar topic requests.

4. Providing a different search engine experience

The service might become a viable alternative to Google Search, particularly for users who prefer to access and read a range of search results all within one page setting.

5. Training and development tool

ChatGPT could also be employed in unique learning settings, allowing students to ask a range of highly-specific questions at any time of the day.

What are ChatGPT’s current limitations?

ChatGPT’s developers acknowledged that there are still several limitations with the service, including:

• Writing plausible-sounding but incorrect or nonsensical answers
• An inconsistency with answering questions with slightly different phrasings
• A tendency to be overly wordy while overusing certain phrases
• Assuming and not asking follow-up or clarifying questions to ambiguous queries
• Displaying bias to certain ‘inappropriate’ or ‘harmful’ requests and instructions

External researchers have also found other problems, such as:

• Inaccuracy as an academic plagiarism detection tool
• A lack of updated references, according to some news sites
• Being politically biased (i.e. the service has been found to be left-leaning)
• Coming up with identical write-ups for identical requests

Who is OpenAI?

OpenAI is an AI-focused research, development and deployment company with the aim of ‘building safe and beneficial artificial general intelligence for all humanity’.

The company was established in 2015 by Sam Altman, Reid Hoffman, Jessica Livingston, Elon Musk, Ilya Sutskever, Peter Thiel, Olivier Grabias and other investors who collectively pledged over US$1 billion towards the venture.

OpenAI started out as a non-profit entity, before transitioning into a ‘capped for-profit’ model (100 times the investment amount) in 2019.

OpenAI IPO: what could its stock price be?

So far, there has been no direct talk of an initial public offering (IPO).

As of January 2023, however, OpenAI was reportedly in funding talks with venture capital firms Thrive Capital and Founders Fund for a private tender sale of shares.

The tender sale, in which investors would buy shares from existing shareholders such as employees, could amount to a total of US$300 million. This would value the company at US$29 billion, double its value in 2021.

In terms of projected earnings, Reuters reported in Decembee 2022 that OpenAI is expecting to rake in US$200 million in revenue in 2023 and US$1 billion in 2024.

Microsoft also announced a US$10 billion multi-year investment into OpenAI in January 2023.