In this post I will give a quick introduction how to get started with ChatGPT and go through some of the features. We will then have a look at a comparison between the free version and the paid version as well as Bing chat.
If you rather watch than read, have a look at my video:
Save Time and Effort in Your Language Teaching with ChatGPT: The AI Tool That Does the Work for You!
Getting started
First of all, go to ChatGPT (openai.com) and create an account. You can use a Microsoft or Google account, e.g. with a hotmail or gmail address or you can enter an email. If you work at a Microsoft school and want to use your microsoft 365 email, you can't do it through the "sign up with Microsoft" feature, but you can use it as a normal email address. You will need your phone nearby to receive a verification code, the first time you use it.
If you want to download the app, make sure it is the official one, ChatGPT on the App Store (apple.com), as there are lots of fake knock-offs.
Prompting
Once you are logged in, you can start typing into the text box at the bottom to start the chat. The best imput is natural speech, talk to it like it is a person and ask it questions or give it instructions. Unlike a Google search, it will understand even more complex questions.
Things you need to know:
It can not search the internet (if you are using the standard version).
It is NOT the best tool to find factual information - it has a tendency to "haluzinate", meaning it will make up information by combining different bits of information it has - any facts it gives you will need to be checked manually if it is important
it's greatest strenghts are creating a varity of text types (emails, poems, summaries, short stories, computer code) and working with texts that it is given (summarise, create exercises, re-write for a different target group)
It can understand and produce texts in a large number of languages and is excellent at translating
It only knows information up to September 2021 (when they stopped training this model)
It produces a slightly different answer every time, even with exactly the same prompt (which makes it hard to detect plagiarsim)
Don't put in personal data - anything you write can be used by the company for further training (but there is a "icognito mode" - see below)
This is not a Google search request, it is a dialogue: it will remember what was said before and can expand, simplify, explain and change things that is has said instruction
It can infer what you are refering to if you say "explain this further" or "give me more info on bullet point 5"
If the first answers is not what you are looking for, keep giving it more instructions, and specify further what you want or what the purpose is
Some prompts to get you started
Let's give you some prompts from simple to more complex. Copy them into chatGPT and just change the word in [ ]. Remember you can ask follow up questions to make it even better.
Give me 10 ideas what to do with a family in [name of your town]
Write an email to my landlord to complain about a leaking tap
Explain [topic] so that a five year old could understand it
Write me a short story about a person called [your name] who loves to [hobby]
Prepare a lesson for [age group] studying [curriculum] on the topic of [topic], make it interactive and fun with lots of practical examples
Write me a summary of this article [paste in a news story from a website: the whole text, not the link], then give me 10 true false questions about the summary.
How the website works
Here are some elements of the website that will help you get the most out of it.
Chat History:
on the left hand side
titles are automatically generated by ChatGPT
Click on a title to change it, delete the chat or share the chat with others (they can see the whole dialogue up to that point)
Click "New chat" at the top to start a new chat - I recommend doing that whenever you start a new topic, otherwise it can become confused
Click the icon next to New Chat to minimise the chat bar
Regenerate response
button above chat input bar (after you got your first respone)
will re-write the last answer it has given
the bot assumes that you didn't like the last answer, so will try to change the style or format of the last answer or include different ideas
after you have used it, you will see 2/2 next to the respone, click it to get back to the first version of the response
You can use it to generate answers as many times as you want, but if you don't get what you need, it is better to change the prompt
Modify your prompt
Hover over your input and you will see a little pen and paper icon on the right
click the icon to open the prompt for editing again
make changes to your prompt, then click "save and submit" to get a new answer
after you have used it, you will see 2/2 next to the input, click it to get back to the first version of the input
Stop response
button appears above input window while the bot is writing
use this to stop it from writing if it is producing a very long answers that you don't want
Copying
Clipboard icon next to any response
use this to copy the text to paste it into a different place, e.g. Word
if you just highlight the text and use the normal way of "copy and paste", it normally appears in an annoying format with a grey background, but using the icon solves this problem
How to go into incognito mode
In May 2023, the EU threatened to ban ChatGPT due worries about its handling of large amounts of user data and possible breach of GDPR rules. OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT, manage to avoid that by add a private mode. If this is enabled, any information that the user inputs, will not be used for data training. Turning on private mode will also disable the chat history and you can only see previous chats again, when you turn off private mode.
How to turn it on:
Find your usename underneath the chat history
Click the three dots next to it
Click "Settings"
Click "Data Controls"
Toggle off "Chat history and training"
To go back into standard mode, click "enable chat history" which appears in your chat history bar
Pro version vs Standard version
The standard version of chatGPT is free (at least currently in June 2023). There is option to pay for ChatGPT pro, which is $20 a month. But is it worth it?
Here is an overview:
Free Version | Paid version |
Uses model 3.5 | Uses model 4 - trained on an exponentially larger amount of data (the exact amount has not been disclosed) |
produces answer quicker | produced aswers a little bit slower |
can be unavailable when demand is very high (was a bigger problem when the website first became public) | always available |
more halluzinations, false information | more correct information |
not very good at maths or logic questions | much better at maths or logic questions |
makes more mistakes when explaining grammar (e.g. uses imperfect sentences when speaking about the perfect tense) | better at understanding and explaining grammar |
unlimited requests | at busy times, input may be limited to a certain number per hour |
no internet access | browsing enabled, meaning it can find more current information and can research a topic and provide reference in form of weblinks |
no plugins | plugins can be installed. They are add ons created by third party providers that add a lot of functionality, e.g. ChatGPT can find holiday flights with KAYAK or add food to a shopping cart with INSTACART. See me future post of plugins for Languages. |
Verdict: If you are just getting started, the free version is excellent and will do nearly everything you need. Once you are in the habit of using it regularly, and/or if you need more accurate information, then the internet access and plugins are invaluble and definitly worth the cost.
There is, however another, free version to get internet-enabled ChatGPT: Bing Chat
Using Bing Chat
When the ChatGPT craze started at the beginning of 2023, Microsoft made the clever move to buy into chatGPT and has revealed plans to integrate it completely into Microsoft 365, so in future you will be able to ask it questions about your own documents. For now, you can use ChatGPT within Bing, Microsofts search engine.
You will need a microsoft or hotmail account and sign into https://www.bing.com/ or download the app: Bing: Chat with AI & GPT-4 on the App Store (apple.com). You might have to join a waiting list to try out the new Bing. Once you are signed up, the Bing search enginge will show the "chat" option in its search, next to conventional options like search, image and video. There you can chat with ChatGPT, exactly like on the ChatGPT website but with the added benefit that it can access webpages and give you links to information you need. Currently there is a limit of 30 turns per conversation, then you will need to start a new chat.
There are creative, balanced and precise modes, and apparently the creative mode is the most similar to using ChatGPT on their own website.
I personally prefer using it on the OpenAi website, as I feel it produces better outcomes but I have not done a side-by-side comparison (maybe in a future blog post!). On the other hand, Bing chat has the advantage that is suggests possible follow up questions after each response, which can save typing and give you new ideas for the converstation.
Bing Button
Another great ChatGPT powered feature is the Bing button, which is now built into the Edge browser. If you are not using Edge yet, you can download it here: Download Microsoft Edge
Once you are signed up for the new Bing, you can use the Bing button that is in the top right corner of the browser at all times. You can chat with Bing chat from there or get it to write a range of texts for you in the "compose" tap, but the biggestest advantage is that it can access the website you are currently on. This means that you can ask the chat questions like "What is this website about" or "summarise the article on this website" or "what does this website tell me about Hemmingway's death" (great for long wikipeadia pages).
The insights tab in the Bing button will also give you lots of information about the current page like key points, usage statistics, reliability and similar pages.
What is ChatGPT (as described by itself)
Introducing ChatGPT: Your AI-Powered Text Generator
ChatGPT is a state-of-the-art language model developed by OpenAI. It uses machine learning to understand and generate human-like text based on the input it receives. But how does it work, and where does it get its information?
What is ChatGPT?
ChatGPT is a variant of the GPT (Generative Pretrained Transformer) model, which is trained using a method called transformer neural networks. It's designed to generate coherent and contextually relevant sentences by predicting the next word in a given piece of text.
How Does ChatGPT Get Its Information?
ChatGPT is trained on a diverse range of internet text. However, it doesn't know specifics about which documents were in its training set or have access to any personal data unless explicitly provided during the conversation. It's important to note that it doesn't have the ability to access or retrieve personal data from users unless it has been shared in the conversation. It generates responses based on patterns and information in the data it was trained on.
How Does ChatGPT Work?
When you input a prompt into ChatGPT, the AI analyzes the input and generates a response. It does this by calculating the probability of each word following the given input and selecting the word with the highest probability. This process is repeated until a full sentence or paragraph is formed. The result is a human-like text that maintains the context and intent of the original prompt.
In essence, ChatGPT is a powerful tool that leverages the power of machine learning to generate human-like text, making it a valuable asset for a wide range of applications, from content creation to customer service and beyond.