What Is ChatGPT? How It WorksHow to Use Itand More

ChatGPT is a popular generative artificial intelligence (AI) tool that can produce writinganswer questionsexplain complicated topicsprovide insightsand write computer code (among many other things). At a glancehere's what you need to know about this very popular AI tool:

• ChatGPT is one of the most widely used generative AI tools with more than 800 million weekly active users as of October 2025 [1].

• As a large language model (LLM)ChatGPT tries to understand a conversation's context to provide relevantinformative responses. As a resultit's commonly used for such tasks as composing textconducting cursory data analysiswriting codeand summarizing information.

• Howeverit's important to note that ChatGPT is a computer program. While helpfulit can sometimes make mistakes or provide incorrect information.

AI tools like ChatGPT are increasingly prevalent in the world today. In this articleyou'll learn more about ChatGPTthe technology that powers itand its features and limitations. Afterwardif you want to learn how to use ChatGPT in your personal and professional lifeyou might consider enrolling in Vanderbilt's ChatGPT: Master Free AI Tools to Supercharge Productivity Specialization.

What is ChatGPT?

ChatGPT is an artificial intelligence chatbot from the company OpenAI that enables users to "converse" with it in a way that mimics natural conversation. As a useryou can prompt ChatGPT by asking it questions or making requests. The intuitivefree tool has already gained popularity as an alternative to traditional search engines and as a tool for AI writingamong other things.  

What does GPT stand for?

The "GPT" in ChatGPT is short for generative pre-trained transformer. In the field of AItraining refers to the process of teaching a computer system to recognize patterns and make decisions based on input datasimilar to how a teacher gives information to their students and then tests their understanding. 

A transformer is a type of neural network trained to analyze the context of input data and weight the significance of each part of the data accordingly. Since this type of model learns contextit's commonly used in natural language processing (NLP) to generate text similar to human writing. (In AIa model is a set of mathematical equations and algorithms that a computer uses to analyze data and make decisions. Read more about some common machine learning models here.)

While older AI chatbots could answer questions with detailed responsesChatGPT uses a dialog formatwhich allows it to answer follow-up and clarifying questionsas well as recognize and reject inappropriate or dangerous requestssuch as questions about illegal activity. 

Read more: 24 AI Tools for Work to Increase Productivity

How does ChatGPT work?

ChatGPT uses natural language processing (NLP)an AI technology that deals with understandinganalyzingand generating human-like language. The large language model (LLM) was trained using a combination of two major inputs:

1. A massive volume of sample text pulled from web pages and program code.

2. Conversations provided by real humanswho demonstrated the desired responses to provided promptsthen ranked outputs from the model based on the quality of the response  

Providing occasional feedback from humans to an AI model is a technique known as reinforcement learning from human feedback (RLHF). Leveraging this technique can help fine-tune a model by improving both safety and reliability.

How to use ChatGPT in your work

With a thorough understanding of the featureslimitationsand risks associated with generative AIit becomes a powerful tool for saving time and energy. Knowing how to effectively communicate with ChatGPT or any generative AI model is called prompt engineering.

New use cases for this technology are emerging every day; here are just a few ways you might incorporate ChatGPT (or another generative AI model) into your day-to-day work:

1. Conduct research. 

While ChatGPT lacks some of the critical functionality of Google and other search engines (particularly in making attribution easy to see and access)it can be a useful starting point for conducting research. Here are two examples:

2. Beat writer's block.

If you've ever experienced difficulty getting started on a writing project while staring at a blank pageyou're not alone. Depending on the source of your writer's block and what you're trying to achieveyou may be able to use ChatGPT to overcome inertia:

• Get your creativity flowing with generated writing prompts.

• Build an outline or structure from key points you want to include.

• Generate a first paragraph to build upon. (You can go back and revise or delete it later.)

• Find that word that's on the tip of your tongue.

3. Strengthen an existing piece of writing.

You can input an existing piece of text into ChatGPT and ask it to identify uses of passive voicerepetitive phrases or word usageor grammatical errors. This could be particularly useful if you're writing in a language for which you're not a native speaker.

Read more: How to Use ChatGPT to Write Your Resume

4. Write and debug code.

ChatGPT isn't just for use with text as prose. You can also use to:

• Explain the functionality of unfamiliar input code

• Generate boilerplate code to build off of

• Identify bugs within existing code 

• Add comments to existing code for improved readability and collaboration

• Identify edge cases where your code might fail

5. Generate keywords for blog posts or marketing campaigns.

ChatGPT's use of a transformer model (the "T" in ChatGPT) makes it a good tool for keyword researchas it can generate related terms based on context and associations (compared to the more linear approach of more traditional keyword research tools). You can also input a list of keywords and classify them based on search intent.

6. Summarize long documents or explain complex concepts.

ChatGPT can quickly summarize the key points of long articles or sum up complex ideas in a way that's easier to understand. This could be a time saver if you're trying to get up to speed in a new industry or need help with a tricky concept while studying.

Features and limitations of ChatGPT

ChatGPT represents an exciting advancement in generative AIwith several features that could help accelerate certain tasks when used thoughtfully. It also comes with limitations. Understanding both the features and limitations is key to leveraging this technology for the greatest impact.

Features of ChatGPT

Some of the features of ChatGPT include the ability to:

• Generate human-like text that mimics the and structure of the input data

• Generate a response to a given prompt or input text. This could include writing a story or answering a question. 

• Generate text in multiple languages

• Modify the of generated text (formal or informalfor example)

• Ask clarifying questions to better understand the intent of input data

• Respond with text that is consistent with the context of a conversationsuch as offering follow-up instructions or understanding references made to previous questions

Other generative AI models can perform similar tasks with imagessoundsand video.

Limitations of ChatGPT

While ChatGPT is a powerful toolit has its limitations. To startthese types of transformer models lack common-sense reasoning ability. This can translate to a limited ability to handle complexitynuanceand questions around emotionsvaluesbeliefsand abstract concepts. These limitations can manifest in many ways:

• It does not understand the meaning of the text it generates. While some output from ChatGPT may sound humanlikethe model isn't human. This has a few implications. It may have a limited ability to handle nuanceambiguityor things like sarcasm or irony. Perhaps more problematic is the fact that it can generate text that sounds plausible but is incorrect or even nonsensical. What's moreit can't verify the veracity of its output.   

• It can generate biaseddiscriminatoryor offensive text. Artificial intelligence models like ChatGPT are only as good as their input data. This model was trained on large amounts of text data from across the internetincluding biased input. If the data used to train the model is biasedthis can show up in the generated text and lead to offensive or biased responses. Learn more about AI ethics and why it matters.

• Responses can be rooted in outdated information. The most recent model (GPT 5.0) has limited knowledge of events after September 302024 but it can connect to the internet and search for up-to-date information. If you're using ChatGPT to produce codefor exampleit could be pulling from outdated examples that no longer meet modern cybersecurity standards. 

• Output can be formulaic (and sometimes lead to nonsensical answerstoo). ChatGPT can generate text that's similar to existing text and is known to overuse certain phrases. This can mean text that reads as flat and unimaginativeor in more extreme casescould constitute plagiarism or a copyright infringement.  

• The tool isn't always available. The exploding popularity of ChatGPT has led to some capacity issues. When the servers get overloadedyou may get a message that "ChatGPT is at capacity." This means that while some ChatGPT users may be able to access the platform's chat servicesothers might only have limited access – or maybe none at all.

5 tips for using ChatGPT responsibly

Take advantage of generative AI tools thoughtfully and responsibly by following these five guidelines:

1. Always review and edit generated text for accuracy and quality.

2. Treat generative AI as a starting point rather than a finished product.

3. Use it for repetitive or time-consuming tasks that don't require creativity or originality.

4. Don't use any sensitive or private information as input data.

5. Leverage it in conjunction with other tools and techniquesincluding your creativityemotional intelligenceand strategic thinking skills.

Build your AI skills on Coursera

AI tools like ChatGPT are increasingly widespread in the workplace. Learn more about this impactful technology with these resources from Coursera:

• Watch on YouTube: How to Use ChatGPT for Job Applications (The Right Way)

• Take a mini quiz: Which AI Course Should You Take? Find Out in 1 Minute

• Explore: Popular AI courses

Whether you want to develop a new skillget comfortable with an in-demand technologyor advance your abilitieskeep growing with a Coursera Plus subscription. You’ll get access to over 10,000 flexible courses. 

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