AI technology is absolutely everywhere, a trend that’s set to continue following OpenAI’s announcement of GPT-4, its latest deep learning model with advanced text and image features.
ChatGPT, which commanded everyone’s attention late last year, is based on OpenAI’s GPT-3 model. On the page detailing the features of GPT-4, OpenAI claims the new model solves “difficult problems with greater accuracy” and has greater “advanced reasoning capabilities”. Above all else, the upgraded AI technology reportedly provides “safer and more useful responses”.
What is GPT-4?
Described by OpenAI as a large multimodal model that provides text responses to both text and image-based inputs, GPT-4 is essentially a bigger and stronger version of GPT-3. To illustrate this, the research lab responsible for the deep learning technology said that GPT-4 passes notoriously tricky tests such as the bar exam with a score in the top 10%. For comparison, GPT-3.5 was on the other end of the spectrum, in the bottom 10%.
Other examples provided of GPT-4’s enhanced features include being able to suggest recipes based on a picture of ingredients, and synthesise up to 25,000 words of information into a single succinct response.
Safety is also a big focus for GPT-4. Open AI spent the past six months ensuring the technology is “82% less likely to respond to requests for disallowed content” and generates factual responses 40% more often than GPT-3.5.
Is it available to use?
As it turns out, Microsoft Bing’s new AI features have been running on GPT-4, as confirmed by the company overnight. Microsoft announced the Bing and Edge AI tools in February, gradually rolling out access to users who signed up for the preview. If the preview is anything to go by, GPT-4 is far from perfect, resulting in some utterly bizarre Bing responses in the tech’s early days.
For now, GPT-4 is available to try via OpenAI’s paid ChatGPT Plus service, which costs US$20 per month. There’s also a waitlist for developers to access the API for using the model in their own software. Other than Microsoft, the language-learning app Duolingo, payment platform Stripe, and visual accessibility startup Be My Eyes all use GPT-4 to varying extents.
As for how the latest iteration impacts the world, we’ll have to wait and see. Between OpenAI, various search engines like the tracker-free Neeva, and countless other examples, deep learning technology continues to be a big deal.
