In December of last year, Elon Musk called OpenAIs newly developed chatbot, ChatGPT, “Scary good.” Additionally stating, “We are not far from dangerously strong AI.” Since then, the buzz and fanfare around the artificial intelligence program have only gotten greater. Leading us to look back at the meteoric rise of ChatGPT.
The OpenAI-developed program made its debut in December, leading with a test release. The chatbot wasn’t just well executed, it also blew people away; it became a viral sensation for its near-endless capabilities. Since its arrival, it has only gotten more mainstream attention and seemingly only proven the strength of its coding time and time again.
OpenAI
Although the name ChatGPT has gotten a plethora of fanfare — and rightfully so — the real mastermind behind that name is OpenAI. A Texas-based research and development company, the creators of the viral chatbot are in the midst of a self-professed mission to:
“Ensure that artificial general intelligence benefits all of humanity.”
The company has been on a journey to not just develop more advanced and technologically sound artificial intelligence, but embrace a way to achieve that safely. One look at OpenAI’s mission statement is accompanied by their promise to “build safe and beneficial AGI,” in their pursuit. Ultimately, seeing their “mission fulfilled,” if their creations “aids others to achieve this outcome.”
OpenAI was birthed by a founding board of Greg Brockman, Sam Altman, Jessica Livingston, Reid Hoffman, and Elon Musk himself. What started as a research project in 2015 has developed into a company worth nearly $20 billion, according to a recent report.
The board of the OpenAI nonprofit governs the company. These include Brockman as Chairman and President of the company, Chief Scientist Ilya Sutskever, and Sam Altman as CEO. Also on the board are Adam D’Angelo, Hoffman, Will Hurd, Tasha McCauley, Helen Toner, and Shivon Zilis.
Since then, and since ChatGPT’s December launch, the company has seen a plethora of high-profile investments. These include various charitable foundations driven by Hoffman, Khosla Ventures, and Microsoft. The latter was recently the subject of an extended partnership announced as a “multi-year, multi-billion dollar investment from Microsoft,” following previous investments over the past five years.
ChatGPT
Although OpenAI has embraced an all-encompassing mindset toward AI research, its driving product has been ChatGPT. The recently released chatbot has become a viral sensation, recently surpasng1 million users.
Any product or interface that features a million users is rather impressive, but what is unheard of is just how quickly it reached that user base. ChatGPT was available for only five days before the company reached that number. In comparison, Netflix to three and a half years. Conversely, it Twitter took two years.
The biggest question that people may be asking regarding the chatbot is, why the hype and is it warranted? The answer is a resounding yes. Our own site put the capabilities of the program to the test and experienced firsthand just how smart the system is and just how convincing its programming has deemed it.
The program is not perfect, but it is clearly the most advanced system of its kind. Moreover, it has earned the fanfare it has received. The technology will only get better, and the wide user base and consistent interaction with the technology should only benefit its long-term earning potential.