OpenAI launches a version of ChatGPT “as good as humans” for certain tasks

The Californian company OpenAI, behind the ChatGPT phenomenon, on Tuesday launched GPT-4, a new version of the generative artificial intelligence technology that operates the famous chatbot and is a step closer to computer programs that are as “intelligent”. than humans.

Microsoft, which has invested billions of dollars in the start-up, announced in the wake of having integrated GPT-4 to Bing, its search engine already equipped with ChatGPT functionalities for a month.

“GPT-4 is a great multimedia model, less adept than humans in many real-life scenarios, but as good as humans in many professional and academic contexts,” OpenAI said in a statement. “For example, he passes the exam to become a lawyer with a score as good as the top 10%. The previous version, GPT 3.5, was in the bottom 10%,” she said.

Enthusiasm and controversy

ChatGPT has generated a lot of enthusiasm, but also controversy, since it is freely available and used by millions of people around the world to write essays, lines of code, advertisements or simply to test its capabilities.

OpenAI has thus established itself as the leader in generative artificial intelligence (AI) with its programs producing texts or, like DALL-E, images. His boss, Sam Altman, recently explained that he is now working towards so-called “general” artificial intelligence, that is to say programs with human cognitive abilities.

“Our mission is to ensure that general AI — AI systems smarter than humans in general — benefits all of humanity,” he said on the company’s blog. February 24.

ChatGPT at university

The multimedia capabilities of GPT-4 are a step in this direction. Unlike previous versions, the new model is indeed equipped with vision: it can process text but also images. However, it only generates text. He will be available on ChatGPT, but without the possibility of providing him with images for the moment.

“The power of the algorithm will increase, but this is not a second revolution”, commented Robert Vesoul, CEO of the French company Illuin Technology. “We didn’t go from the Moon to Mars. »

Jim Fan, an AI specialist who worked for Google and OpenAI, and now at Nvidia, was more impressed. “GPT-4 can now apply to study at Stanford (a prestigious American university). His ability to reason is NEVER SEEN! he tweeted, admitting to having performed worse on some exams than the model.

The AI ​​Rush

The ChatGPT craze has started a race for the most powerful and useful generative AI among tech companies. Microsoft has added tools designed from OpenAI language models on Bing but also on other platforms, from office software to its browser, Edge. Google launched Bard, a competitor to ChatGPT.

Google also unveiled new features on Tuesday that will allow users of Gmail, Google Docs and Google Cloud, among others, to generate emails, advertising campaigns and other documents. The Snapchat social network and e-commerce applications have added this new generation of chatbots.

Hiccups

These rapid deployments have resulted in many hiccups, from an advertisement for Bard with factual errors to Bing declaring its love for a journalist from the New York Times. “Despite its capabilities, GPT-4 has similar limitations to previous models,” OpenAI pointed out. “He’s still not totally reliable (he hallucinates, invents things and makes errors in reasoning). »

The company announced that it has hired more than 50 experts to assess new dangers that could emerge, for cybersecurity for example, in addition to the already known risks (generation of dangerous advice, faulty computer code, false information, etc.). Their feedback and analyzes should make it possible to improve the model. “In particular, we collected additional data to ensure that GPT-4 denies user requests about the manufacture of dangerous chemicals. »

In the immediate future, generative AI worries many intellectual and creative professions, who already imagine themselves reduced to the role of managing chatbots to extract the best texts and images. “What will be left for humans? “, tweeted Elon Musk, one of the entrepreneurs who fear that artificial intelligence will one day take over humans.

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