ChatGPT, OpenAI's language model, has been a topic of conversation for quite some time now. And with the recent release of GPT-4 on March 14th, 2023, the excitement surrounding this remarkable AI chatbot has resurfaced.
Before diving into the details, it's helpful to understand what GPT (Generative Pre-trained Transformer) is.
GPT :
GPT stands for "Generative Pre-trained Transformer" and refers to a family of language models developed by OpenAI. These models use deep learning algorithms to generate human-like text, which can be used for a variety of natural language processing tasks, such as language translation, text summarization, and question answering. The models are trained on large amounts of text data and are designed to improve over time as they are exposed to more data. GPT models have made significant advances in the field of natural language processing and have been applied to a range of practical applications, including chatbots, content generation, and language translation.
In this article, we'll explore the capabilities and limitations of GPT-4, as well as the potential risks associated with its use. By the end, you'll have a better understanding of what GPT-4 is capable of, as well as its limitations and potential impact on the field of natural language processing.
GPT-4 :
GPT-4 is a large multimodal model (accepting image and text inputs, emitting text outputs) that, while less capable than humans in many real-world scenarios, exhibits human-level performance on various professional and academic benchmarks.
GPT-4 represents a significant improvement over its predecessor, GPT-3.5, particularly in terms of reliability, creativity, and its ability to handle complex instructions.
OpenAI has taken steps to enhance the safety of GPT-4 and mitigate potential risks associated with its use.
However, it's important to note that GPT-4's training data only go up until September 2021, which may cause it to make simple reasoning errors when faced with more recent events.
Capabilities
GPT-4's capabilities represent a significant improvement over its predecessor, GPT-3.5, particularly in terms of reliability, creativity, and its ability to handle nuanced instructions.
OpenAI has extensively tested GPT-4 on various benchmarks, including simulated exams designed for humans, and the results demonstrate that GPT-4 outperforms existing large language models.
Moreover, GPT-4 shows promising performance in languages other than English, including low-resource languages like Latvian, Welsh, and Swahili. This suggests that GPT-4 has the potential to be applied to a much broader range of natural language processing tasks and can advance research in linguistics and cross-lingual NLP.
Visual Inputs
GPT-4 can accept both text and images as input, making it capable of generating text outputs based on inputs consisting of both text and images.
This feature is still in the research preview stage, but it shows great potential for applications such as image captioning and visual storytelling
Steerability
OpenAI is actively working on each aspect of its plan to define the behavior of AI, including steerability.
This means that developers can now prescribe the style and task of their AI by describing the directions in the "system" message.
With this development, API users can customize their user experience within certain limits, enabling significant personalization.
As a result, OpenAI is making great strides toward creating more controllable and beneficial AI technologies.
From the demos OpenAI showcased in its blog post, it was quite funny to see the user trying to get GPT-4 to stop being a Socratic tutor and just tell them the answer to their query. However, as it was programmed to be a tutor, GPT-4 refused to break character, which is the same as many developers can expect when they train their bots in the future.
Limitations
GPT-4 is not perfect and has similar limitations as earlier GPT models.
It can still “hallucinate” facts and make reasoning errors, so caution should be taken when using language model outputs, particularly in high-stakes contexts.
GPT-4 doesn’t know about events after September 2021, which can cause it to make simple reasoning errors and accept false statements as true.
It may also fail at challenging problems like humans, such as introducing security issues in its code.
GPT-4 can make confident but incorrect predictions and doesn’t always check its work carefully.
Interestingly, the base model is good at predicting the accuracy of its answers, but this ability is reduced after post-training.
Possible Applications of GPT-4?
OpenAI has partnered with the app Be My Eyes to integrate GPT-4's capabilities for visually impaired users to improve accessibility for blind and low-vision people.
This allows users to take a picture of their surroundings, and GPT-4 will describe what's on the screen in detail, including various objects, plants, machines in a gym, and more.
GPT-4 has also partnered up with other apps like Duolingo, Khan Academy for intelligent learning, and even the government of Iceland for language preservation.
While GPT-4’s API is currently available on a waitlist basis, we can expect developers to come out with amazing experiences once it is finally released. Even before that happens, the applications above are already live for people to use.
Conclusion
The development of GPT-4 is a major achievement in OpenAI's mission to advance deep learning technology. Despite its imperfections, GPT-4 has demonstrated remarkable performance on academic and professional benchmarks, positioning it as a powerful tool for a wide range of applications.
However, it is important to exercise caution when using language model outputs in high-stakes contexts due to the risk of errors and inaccuracies. OpenAI is actively working to mitigate these risks and build a deep learning stack that can scale predictably, which will be crucial for the development of future AI systems. Overall, GPT-4 represents a significant step forward in the field of deep learning, with the potential to transform a wide range of industries and applications.
Source: OpenAI