ChatGPT - your AI personal assistant

ChatGPT is a free, Artificial Intelligence (AI) tool that is trained to interact in a conversational style. It is able to answer questions, assist you with tasks like writing emails, and can even write code. Effectively, this means that you can ask it a question, and it will search the internet for an answer, and return it in a conversational form. For example, you could ask 'What should I consider when moving house? Our results returned a list of 25 things to consider.

You may ask what is the point of this, when I can simply search for the answer online? Chat GPT goes further than a conventional search by returning answers on one page that it has found in multiple websites – it synthesises. More than that, it can be used to help with every day transactional writing – you could ask it to 'write to my boss explaining that I deserve a raise because I have worked hard and achieved good results.' You can also ask it to write your essay, or assignment!

ChatGPT is trained to adapt too, so that if you're not happy with the results, you can revise your prompt, or enter more detailed information for it to incorporate in its answers. Or you can start with something completely new. It can be used to summarise existing information, or to tabulate it into bullet points and tables – handy for presentations!

ChatGPT was launched on the 30th November 2022 by OpenAI. It uses large language models and NLP (Natural Language Processing) to understand and respond to questions or requests from users. There are inbuilt safeguards to prevent people from accessing harmful information, such as 'how to build a bomb' or explicit content. This is not however infallible, and there are also instances where the 'information' it provides is incorrect, so you still have to do your research.

ChatGPT incorporates an API (Application Programming Interface) which means you can connect it to other programmes you use, although this does take more skill and some knowledge of coding.

As with any tool, it can be misused: asking it to write your thesis is of course plagiarism. Plagiarism detectors are rapidly catching up so that they can spot AI generated content. It is also quite easy to spot, particularly in creative writing, if you know what you are looking for. If in doubt, you can always try it to see if it generates the writing you are looking at. Some Scientific papers have begun to list ChatGPT where it has been used, and some will accept AI content, as long as its use is acknowledged.

However you can use it to help you with ideas, prompts and for a starting point in work that you're doing.

If you'd like to try it out, then go to the OpenAI website (https://openai.com/blog/chatgpt) and sign up for a free account. Once you're in, type your request. You can try one of these if you can't think of your own, or use one of it's prompts:

• Write a love letter to __
• Create a personalized email greeting for a VIP customer
• Suggest 10 Chrome extensions for students designed to improve productivity while studying.
• Tell me a joke about the weather
• How can I use ChatGPT?
• Used ethically and responsibly, ChatGPT is an incredibly powerful assistant for your everyday life and work.

ChatGPT is a useful and powerful tool that is free, and easy to use.