What Is ChatGPT?

ChatGPT is an artificial intelligence chatbot capable of having conversations with people and generating uniquehuman-like text responses. By using a large language model (LLM)which is trained on vast amounts of data from the internetChatGPT can answer questionscompose essaysoffer advice and write code in a fluent and natural way. 

The GPT in ChatGPT stands for “general pre-trained transformer,” which is a language model that uses deep learning and natural language processing to generate naturalhuman-like text based on a given text input. In shortChatGPT “allows us to talk to AIand it allows AI to talk back to us,” Jeff Kagana tech industry analysttold Built In. “It’s got the power to do a sort of computer version of thinking.”

 

What Is ChatGPT?

ChatGPT is a generative AI chatbot created by OpenAI. It’s capable of carrying on conversations with human users and generating a wide range of text outputs including recipescomputer codeessays and personal letters. It can also critique the user’s writingsummarize long documents and translate text from one language to another. The paid version of ChatGPT also offers features like image and voice inputs and integrations with other OpenAI services like the image generator DALL-E.

 

How Does ChatGPT Work?

ChatGPT is powered by a large language model made up of neural networks trained on a massive amount of information from the internetincluding Wikipedia articles and research papers. This allows ChatGPT to take a sequence of words a user gives itsuch as a half-completed sentenceand fill in the blanks with the most statistically probable word given the surrounding context — sort of like auto-complete. The process happens iterativelybuilding from words to sentencesto paragraphsto pages of text.

In order to sift through terabytes of internet data and transform that into a text responseChatGPT uses a technique called transformer architecture (hence the “T” in its name).

The language models used in ChatGPT are specifically optimized for dialogue and were trained using reinforcement learning from human feedback (RLHF). This approach incorporates human feedback into the training process so it can better align its outputs with user intent (and carry on with more natural-sounding dialogue).

“It actually integrates and systematizes humans’ subjective judgment into the model training process,” Sam Stonethe director of product managementpricing and data products at real estate tech firm Opendoortold Built In. This is used to not only help the model determine the best outputbut it also helps improve the training processenabling it to answer questions more effectively.

Related ReadingWhat Is Conversational AI?

 

Who Created ChatGPT?

OpenAIan AI research company based in San Franciscocreated ChatGPTreleasing it publicly on November 302022.

OpenAI was co-founded in 2015 by billionaire business mogul Elon Musk and former Y Combinator President Sam Altmanalong with a handful of other entrepreneurs. Notable investors include Microsoft and Thrive Capitalas well as Reid HoffmanPeter Thiel and Jessica Livingstonfounding partner of Y Combinator.

Prior to ChatGPTOpenAI launched several productsincluding automatic speech recognition software Whisperand DALL-Ean AI art generator that can produce images based on text prompts.

InitiallyOpenAI was a non-profit focused on developing artificial intelligence “in the way that is more likely to benefit humanity as wholeunconstrained by a need to generate financial return,” according to a statement from 2015. But the company is shifting toward a more traditional for-profit model.

 

What Can ChatGPT Do?

ChatGPT is quite practicalparticularly in business applications. And it has affected how everyday people experience the internet in “profound ways,” according to Raghu Ravinutalathe co-founder and CEO of customer experience startup Yellow.ai.

“We’ve already seen it,” Ravinutala told Built In. “And I think we are in for much bigger things as this technology develops and gets adopted.”  

Create Content

ChatGPT is one of many AI content generators tackling the art of the written word — whether that be a news articlepress releasecollege essay or sales email.

All a user has to do is hop on ChatGPT and type in a quick prompt. If they want to create a blog post about the health benefits of sweet potatoesthey just need to type in “Write an article about the benefits of sweet potatoes.” The model will then generate a draft that the user can edit and refine as needed. 

EditTranslate and Summarize Content

ChatGPT can be used for other writing tasks beyond just content creation. It can translate a piece of text into different languagessummarize several pages of text into a paragraphfinish a partially complete sentencegenerate dialogue and more. It can also be fine-tuned for specific use cases such as legal documents or medical recordswhere the model is trained on domain-specific data. 

Write Code

Not only can ChatGPT generate working computer code of its own (in many different languages)but it can also translate code from one language to anotherand debug existing code. By virtue of its trainingChatGPT has read countless more documentations than any one individual programmer could ever seewhich is why it can write code in a matter of secondsas well as provide step-by-step explanations as it does it.

Some developers were so excited by ChatGPT’s capabilities that they used it to actually create their own appsincluding a spreadsheet assistant capable of performing complex calculations in response to a simple request. 

Answer Questions

ChatGPT can be used as a sort of search engine. Instead of a list of websitesthoughit’ll provide users with a simple list of answers. For instanceif you ask ChatGPT a question like “What sites should I see in my upcoming vacation to Paris?” or “What are some gift ideas for Father’s Day?” it’ll offer you its own answers. People can use ChatGPT for advice on their relationshipsfinances and even their health.

Help With Customer Service

ChatGPT and other conversational AI models have generated a lot of buzz in the customer service spaceoffering a way to automate responses to customer queries as opposed to relying on a human agent. Ravinutala said chatbots like ChatGPT can be used by customer experience companies to automate customer service interactionsallowing companies to better understand user intent and respond accordingly. He added that Yellow.ai’s sales team has already begun using ChatGPT to compose emails to customerswith humans making minor edits when needed.

 

How to Access ChatGPT

To access ChatGPT on a web browservisit ChatGPT’s website at https://chat.openai.com/auth/login. If ChatGPT is at capacityput in your email address to get notified when there is more space.

ChatGPT can also be accessed as a mobile app on iOS and Android devices. To do sodownload the ChatGPT app from the App Store for iPhone and iPad devicesor from Google Play for Android devices.

Before using ChatGPT for the first timeyou must create an OpenAI account and accept the terms of service. Once you’re inyou can start using it immediately.

 

Is ChatGPT Free?

ChatGPT is free to use. But for those who want an upgrade over the free versiona paid subscription versioncalled ChatGPT Plusis also available for $20 a month.

ChatGPT Plus offers: 

• Access to ChatGPTeven during peak times when the server is at capacity. 
• Faster response times. 
• Priority access to the latest ChatGPT modelsfeatures and improvements. 
• Ability to generate images using DALL-E.

In additionOpenAI has released another plan called ChatGPT Pro. At $200 per monththe plan is intended to give users access to OpenAI’s latest offeringthe o1 model family.   

 

ChatGPT Limitations

Despite its strengthsChatGPT isn’t perfect. It has its limitations — particularly when it comes to issues of inaccuracy and bias.

Inaccurate Information

ChatGPT’s reliance on data found online makes it vulnerable to false informationwhich in turn can impact the veracity of its statements. This often leads to what experts call “hallucinations,” where the output generated is stylistically correctbut factually wrong.

Hallucinations can become a huge issue if ChatGPT is being used tosay, write a news articleor ask questions about historical eventsor get healthcare advice. Orin the case of one New York lawyeruse ChatGPT for a brief in a client’s personal injury case (where it inadvertently cited six non-existent court decisions).

Instead of asking for clarification on an ambiguous questionor saying that it doesn’t know the answerChatGPT will just take a guess at what the question means and what the answer should be. Andbecause the model is able to produce incorrect information in such an eloquent waythe fallacies are hard to spot and control. 

Biased Responses

ChatGPT also produces biased results. Most people know thatjust because something is on the internetthat doesn’t make it true. Racismsexism and all manner of prejudices run rampant onlineand it is up to the individual to decide how much weight to give it. ChatGPT doesn’t have that ability. Sodespite the guardrails OpenAI has put in place to prevent itthe chatbot still has a tendency to let biases creep into its outputs. 

“There are things that have existed in the past that these statistically oriented models will then pick up onbut we don’t want to project those associations into the future. It’s especially dangerous if we don’t even know what those associations are,” Stone said. “We’ve got to be really careful.” 

Job Disruption

Professional writers and marketers across a variety of industries are worried ChatGPT and other AI writers could take their jobs.

Stone doesn’t think this is likelythough: “When technology makes people more productivemore people tend to be employed,” he saidlikening it to what the invention of the personal computer or the internet did for the productivity of office workers. Technology like ChatGPT will serve as a resourcenot a replacementfor a lot of professionals. “We’ll use language models to help us write first draftsto brainstorm. But then the value of domain experts will continue to refine that and make it better than whatever a model can produce.” 

Plagiarism

ChatGPT’s impressive writing abilities have not gone without some controversy. Teachers are concerned that students will use it to cheatprompting some schools to completely block access to it. And several authors and journalists have sued OpenAI for copyright infringementclaiming their work was scraped from the internet and used as training data without their permission.

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GPT-5 vs. GPT 4o

In August 2025OpenAI released GPT-5its fastest and smartest model to dateand the current language model for ChatGPT. Users can toggle between three settings — “Auto”“Fast”and “Thinking” — with Fast being for fast responsesThinking being for more deep “reasoning” and Auto acting as a router system that automatically switches between Fast and Thinking depending on the complexity of the prompt. OpenAI claims that GPT-5 outperforms past models in mathreal-world codingmultimodal understanding and health knowledgeand is also less likely to hallucinate or make false claims. 

The release of GPT-5 provides a sizable update to previous modelsat least on paper. For examplethe new model doubles its context window from 128,000 tokens in GPT-4o to 256,000 tokens in GPT-5. This could enable ChatGPT to keep track of larger documents and conversationsand to handle more complex projects. GPT-5 also added enhanced multimodal capabilities with improvements to emailcalendar and code environment integrations. 

Despite these clear advances compared to prior modelsGPT-5 is still susceptible to the same problems that plagued its predecessors. In factmany users have reported instances of GPT-5 making simple mistakes. Others have stated that there is no observable difference from its predecessors. This has led to users labeling GPT-5 as underwhelming.

 

Notable ChatGPT Updates

Since its launch in November 2022ChatGPT has undergone a slate of significant updates adding new features or enhancing existing capabilitiesincluding:

Group Chat Feature Release (November 2025)

OpenAI announced group chats as a ChatGPT featureallowing users in select regions to collaborate with each other — and with the AI — in a shared conversation for planningdecision-making or working through ideas. This feature keeps group chats separate from personal conversations within ChatGPTwhere adding another user to an existing chat creates a copy of the original conversation. Initially released as a pilotgroup chats will be steadily released globally to all logged-in ChatGPT FreeGoPlus and Pro users.

Intuit Apps Integrated With ChatGPT (November 2025)

OpenAI and Intuit signed a multi-year contract worth more than $100 millionenabling Intuit’s tax and financial services — TurboTaxCredit KarmaQuickBooks and Mailchimp — to operate within ChatGPT. With users’ permissionthese apps will be able to access their financial data and offer personalized financial insights and recommendationsas well as review credit cardspersonal loans and mortgages. The partnership also involves Intuit deepening its use of OpenAI’s frontier models to support a range of use cases on its platformincluding powering select AI agents and improving employee productivity at Intuit.

Partnerships with Walmart and PayPal (October 2025)

Following the addition of agentic e-commerce and easy checkout featuresOpenAI partnered with Walmartthe country’s largest retailer to enhance digital shopping experiences. Through the partnershipChatGPT users will be able to find products sold by Walmart and complete entire purchases without leaving the chatbot’s interface. The company also partnered with PayPalone of the largest payment processing services in the worldto let users pay for their shopping directly within ChatGPT.

Instant Checkout Feature Release (September 2025)

OpenAI announced that it is letting users buy goods directly in ChatGPT through a feature called Instant Checkout. So farusers can make single-item purchases from domestic sellers on online marketplace Etsyas well as some merchants on Shopify’s e-commerce platform. The company also unveiled an open-source technical standard called Agentic Commerce Protocol for merchants to build integrations with ChatGPTessentially making their products available for purchase within the chatbot. 

GPT-5 Release (August 2025)

OpenAI released GPT-5calling it its “fastest” and “smartest” AI model to date. Based on internal evaluationsGPT-5 outperforms its predecessors in multiple areasincluding mathcodingvisual perception and health knowledge. It is now available to both paying and non-paying ChatGPT userswith usage limitations of course. Howeverit was labeled underwhelming by some users due its performance shortly after its release.

Study Mode Release (July 2025)

OpenAI has faced quite a bit of criticism for how students can use ChatGPT to cheat on their homework or examsand the company.introduced a study mode tool to directly address those concerns. The new feature helps students engage more effectively with study materials by altering how it responds when it is enabled. For exampleChatGPT will offer hintsorganize content into sections and create custom lessons and quizzes instead of providing a direct answer to students. According to OpenAIstudy mode is powered by custom system instructions written in collaboration with teachersscientists and educational experts. 

ChatGPT Agent Launch (July 2025)

OpenAI launched agentic capabilities for ChatGPT. The new feature enables the chatbot to start and complete tasks on behalf of the user with minimal input. For exampleit can browse the web and create documents. ChatGPT Agent functions by using a text-based browser to find information related to the action requested by the user. It then uses a terminal to run code or commandsand connects to external APIs to perform real-world actionssuch as booking flights or sending emails.

Addition of E-Commerce Features (April 2025)

OpenAI announced the addition of product recommendations on ChatGPT when users implied shopping intent in their queries. While users cannot checkout inside ChatGPTthey are redirected to the merchant’s website when they click on the link. The new features also provide enhanced analytics referral links if they enable their robots.txt files to interact with OpenAI’s site crawler.

ChatGPT Pro Plan Announcement (December 2024)

OpenAI announces the ChatGPT Pro plana new premium plan for ChatGPT users to access even more features. The plan costs $200 per month and gives users access to Open AI o1o1-miniGPT-4o and advanced voice mode. 

Expansion of Advanced Voice Mode to Browsers (November 2024)

Advanced voice mode becomes available on web browsers — beforeit could only be accessed on mobile and desktop formats. The feature is also still exclusive to ChatGPT users who have a PlusTeamEnterprise or Education plan. 

Advanced Voice Mode Release (September 2024)

Advanced voice mode enables ChatGPT users to have more natural-sounding conversations when interacting with the chatbot. OpenAI initially released this feature to users who pay for the PlusTeam or Enterprise plan.

OpenAI o1 Model Family Announcement (September 2024)

OpenAI announces the release of its o1 modelwhich demonstrates complex reasoning capabilities. To kick off the start of its o1 model familyOpenAI also announces the limited release of its o1-preview and o1-mini models.   

Memory Update (February 2024)

The February 2024 memory update allows ChatGPT to remember details from previous conversations and tailor its future responses accordingly. This can include factual information — like dietary restrictions or relevant details about the user’s business — as well as stylistic preferences like brevity or a specific kind of outline. According to an OpenAI blog postChatGPT will build memories on its own over timethough users can also prompt the bot to remember specific details — or forget them. 

ChatGPT Team Release (January 2024)

ChatGPT Team lets companies create shared workspaces with settings that apply to all usersas well as the ability to share proprietary data sets. A marketing teamfor examplemight coach the model on its brand voice guidelines and upload campaign analytics so members of the team can use ChatGPT to spot trends. 

GPT Store Launch (January 2024)

The GPT Store allows users to share their customized GPT models with others. According to OpenAIbuilders based in the United States will be eligible for payments based on the usage of their custom GPTs. 

Custom GPTs Update (November 2023)

This update allows users to create customized GPTs that follow specific instructions and knowledge provided by the builder. Custom GPTs can also be connected to real-world data through APIs. 

DALL-E 3 Made Available in ChatGPT Plus and Enterprise (October 2023)

The newest version of OpenAI’s image generatorDALL-Ewas made available to ChatGPT Plus and Enterprise users. 

Image and Voice Recognition and Text to Speech Features Release (September 2023)

This update allows users to interact with ChatGPT via speechand to upload images that the model can analyze and use to generate outputs. It also added voice-to-text capabilitieseffectively making ChatGPT a full-fledged voice assistant. 

Custom Instructions Feature Beta Release (July 2023)

Custom instructions allow users to save directions that apply to all interactionsrather than adding them to every request. 

GPT-4 General Availability (July 2023)

According to OpenAIGPT-4 is capable of handling “much more nuanced instructions” than its predecessorand can also accept image inputs. OpenAI also highlighted that GPT-4 scored “around the top 10 percent of test takers” in a simulated bar examwhereas its predecessor landed in the bottom 10 percent. 

ChatGPT Plus Launch (February 2023)

This paid subscription version of ChatGPT provides faster response timesaccess during peak times and the ability to test out new features early. 

ChatGPT Launch (November 2022)

ChatGPTpowered by OpenAI’s GPT-3.5 model, launched in November 2022.

 

The Future of ChatGPT

ChatGPT is due for more upgrades in the near futurewith the advanced voice mode potentially receiving a live camera feature to create even more seamless interactions. But it’s OpenAI’s plan to launch AI agents in 2025 that could bring it close to its ultimate goal of achieving artificial general intelligence (AGI)where a machine can behave and perform actions the way humans can. AI agents represent stage three of AGIenhancing ChatGPT’s reasoning abilities and enabling it to complete a broader range of tasks without human assistance.

OpenAI has already gotten a glimpse of this future through its o1 modeland the results have been mixed. According to research conducted by OpenAI and AI safety organization Apollo Researcho1 provides more intelligent answers than GPT-4o while also attempting to deceive users more than any major AI model available. These new potential dangers need to be factored into the continued progression of ChatGPT. 

For now“this technology is amazingbut it’s still first generation,” Kaganthe tech industry analystsaidlikening ChatGPT to what the Ford Model T did for cars. “It was a really exciting innovationbut it was nothing compared to what we’re driving today.” 

Frequently Asked Questions