ChatGPT - Chat Generative Pre-training Transformer - https://openai.com/product/gpt-4
An AI (Artificial Intelligence) powered chatbot from the OpenAI research company that simulates a human speaking English and other languages. ChatGPT will generate a response when asked open-ended questions about any topic. It is also used for writing program code, composing music, answering test questions and generating short essays and articles.
(https://www.pcmag.com/encyclopedia/term/chatgpt)
What are Chatbots?
A chatbot is a computer program that uses artificial intelligence (AI) and natural language processing (NLP) to understand customer questions and automate responses to them, simulating human conversation.
The value of chatbots
Chatbots can make it easy for users to find the information they need by responding to their questions and requests—through text input, audio input, or both—without the need for human intervention.
Chatbot technology is almost everywhere these days, from the smart speakers at home to messaging applications in the workplace. The latest AI chatbots are often referred to as “virtual assistants” or “virtual agents.” They can use audio input, such as Apple's Siri, Google Assistant and Amazon Alexa, or interact with you via SMS text messaging. Either way, you’re able to ask questions about what you need in a conversational way, and the chatbot can help refine your search through responses and follow-up questions.
How chatbots work
Historically, chatbots were text-based, and programmed to reply to a limited set of simple queries with answers that had been pre-written by the chatbot’s developers. They operated like an interactive FAQ, and while they worked well for those specific questions and answers on which they had been trained, they failed when presented with a complex question or one that hadn’t been predicted by the developers.
Over time, chatbots have integrated more rules and natural language processing, so end users can experience them in a conversational way. In fact, the latest types of chatbots are contextually aware and able to learn as they’re exposed to more and more human language.
Today’s AI chatbots use natural language understanding (NLU) to discern the user’s need. Then they use advanced AI tools to determine what the user is trying to accomplish. These technologies rely on machine learning and deep learning—elements of AI, with some nuanced differences—to develop an increasingly granular knowledge base of questions and responses that are based on user interactions. This improves their ability to predict user needs accurately and respond correctly over time.
chatbots vs. virtual agents
You may notice the terms chatbot, AI chatbot and virtual agent being used interchangeably at times. And it’s true that some chatbots are now using complex algorithms to provide more detailed responses.
However, it is worth noting that the deep learning capabilities of AI chatbots enable interactions to become more accurate over time, building a web of appropriate responses via their interactions with humans. The longer an AI chatbot has been in operation, the stronger its responses become. So an AI chatbot using deep learning may provide a more detailed and accurate response to a query, and especially to the intentions behind the query, than a chatbot with recently integrated algorithm-based knowledge.
(https://www.ibm.com/topics/chatbots)
The History of Chatbots https://onlim.com/en/the-history-of-chatbots/
Infographic on Chatbots (up to 2016) https://futurism.com/images/the-history-of-chatbots-infographic
Heaven, W. D. (2023, March 3). The inside story of how ChatGPT was built from the people who made it. MIT Technology Review.