The company behind the popular AI chatbot ChatGPT is testing a subscription service in the US. For $20 (£16) a month, subscribers will be able to access the platform during peak times when logins are difficult, as well as “priority access” to new features, said chatbot creator OpenAI. There are plans to expand this research further, but initially, it will only be offered to those on the waiting list. The free version is still available, the company said. In a blog post, OpenAI said it hopes subscriptions will support free access. Today, every time a chatbot is used, it costs the company a small amount.
ChatGPT provides convincingly human responses to questions using information from the internet, but it is not connected live – it uses data from the internet as it was in 2021. Within a few days of its launch, OpenAI boss Sam Altman tweeted that it had already been used more than one million times, however, the firm has not released any further data since then. The chatbot has captured people’s imagination by being able to mimic a wide range of writing styles, from journalist and doctor, to rock star and student essay writer.
However, ChatGPT does not currently identify the information or comment on its accuracy, and there are numerous instances of incorrect information being presented as fact. Also, as of 2021, it is limited to internet content. The released version is version 3 and the company says the next generation is currently being built. ChatGPT is known as a language learning model and is developed by many other companies. Google’s was called Lamda and was so convincing that Blake Lemoine, one of his engineers who worked on it.
