ChatGPT is OpenAI’s chat product. You type a message, and it writes a reply in ordinary language. It can continue that same conversation, answer a follow-up, and draft things such as an explanation, a list, or a short piece of writing.
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It is not a search box
People compared the first public version with Google because both answer a question you type. They do different jobs. A search box points you to pages. ChatGPT writes a reply of its own. That reply can sound confident and still be wrong, including on arithmetic, dates, and facts about a product or a law. Check anything you would rely on.
The 2022 preview is not what opens today
OpenAI opened ChatGPT in late 2022 as a research preview built on GPT-3.5. In the announcement, OpenAI said the dialogue format let it answer follow-up questions, admit mistakes, and reject some requests. That preview is not the product on the site now. The model behind the chat changes, and the page you open shows the current one. This article does not name a model version, because that label goes out of date.
Inside one chat, it can use what you already said in that conversation. A new chat does not automatically know the previous one unless you are signed in and the product has saved it.
How to use it
- Open chatgpt.com. The older address, chat.openai.com, is the same product.
- You can type a prompt before making an account. That try-it chat is not kept once you leave.
- To save chats, choose Sign up. Continue with email, Google, Microsoft, or Apple, and use that same method the next time. Different methods can create different accounts. OpenAI’s help page describes the home screen: The ChatGPT home page.
- Type in the box at the bottom. Enter sends the message. You can then ask it to change, shorten, or continue the reply.
What to watch for
- It can invent a detail. Treat names, numbers, and “the current rule is” as something to verify.
- It can carry over a wrong assumption from earlier in the chat. Start a new chat when the topic changes.
- Do not paste a password, a card number, or an identity number into the box.
- There is a free way to use the chat and there are paid plans. Prices change on OpenAI’s own site, so this page does not list them.
