Term of the Moment
architecture neutral
Definition: ChatGPT
(CHAT Generative Pretrained Transformer) An AI-powered chatbot from the OpenAI research company that simulates a human speaking English and more than 50 other languages. Also called an "AI assistant and an example of "generative AI," ChatGPT creates a seemingly human response when asked open-ended questions about any topic. It is also used to write program code, compose music, answer test questions and generate short essays, articles and images. See OpenAI and generative AI.
Rising While Others Are Dropping
In April 2025, Visual Capitalist charted ChatGPT's month-over-month traffic increase at 13%, while Wikipedia dropped 6%. Google, Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram, Reddit, Yahoo!, YouTube and X all showed decreases from 2% to 5%. The conclusion, at least for the moment and especially because of Wikipedia, is that people are relying on ChatGPT for answers instead of traditional information platforms.
The World of Knowledge
Known as a "large language model" (LLM), ChatGPT gained its knowledge base from the text in hundreds of millions of websites, articles, journals and books, creating a gigantic hierarchy of word and phrase patterns. The results are also adjusted by human engineers to make them more accurate. ChatGPT generates absolutely amazing results, and it is also accused of delivering "coherent nonsense."
ChatGPT Plus - A Better Experience
A paid version for heavy users, ChatGPT Plus gives users priority during peak usage and access to the latest GPT model such as GPT-4 Turbo. As of 2025, the Plus option costs $20 per month.
ChatGPT Pro - Developer Grade
At 10 times the monthly fee of the Plus offering, ChatGPT Pro is for AI engineers and researchers. Pro offers faster speeds, higher priority responses, a choice of several models, voice capabilities and access to new features.
Academia Is Alarmed
Because of ChatGPT's seemingly unique prose, university professors are thinking that oral answers may be the way to grade students. Already called the most phenomenal technological achievement of the century, imagine 25 years from now! See SearchGPT, chatbot, Gemini chatbot, AI text generator, neural network and AI.
ChatGPT Does All This
In 2023, The New York Times listed the following ways people use ChatGPT.
Create a Happy Computer
The following is the first of five paragraphs from ChatGPT when prompted with "create an essay about a happy computer."
A Few Months Later
When the same question was asked several months later, ChatGPT waxed poetic:
Getting Better All the Time
With additional training and tuning, the language model, the foundation of these chatbots, is improving all the time (see large language model).
A Lot of Controversy
Rising While Others Are Dropping
In April 2025, Visual Capitalist charted ChatGPT's month-over-month traffic increase at 13%, while Wikipedia dropped 6%. Google, Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram, Reddit, Yahoo!, YouTube and X all showed decreases from 2% to 5%. The conclusion, at least for the moment and especially because of Wikipedia, is that people are relying on ChatGPT for answers instead of traditional information platforms.
The World of Knowledge
Known as a "large language model" (LLM), ChatGPT gained its knowledge base from the text in hundreds of millions of websites, articles, journals and books, creating a gigantic hierarchy of word and phrase patterns. The results are also adjusted by human engineers to make them more accurate. ChatGPT generates absolutely amazing results, and it is also accused of delivering "coherent nonsense."
ChatGPT Plus - A Better Experience
A paid version for heavy users, ChatGPT Plus gives users priority during peak usage and access to the latest GPT model such as GPT-4 Turbo. As of 2025, the Plus option costs $20 per month.
ChatGPT Pro - Developer Grade
At 10 times the monthly fee of the Plus offering, ChatGPT Pro is for AI engineers and researchers. Pro offers faster speeds, higher priority responses, a choice of several models, voice capabilities and access to new features.
Academia Is Alarmed
Because of ChatGPT's seemingly unique prose, university professors are thinking that oral answers may be the way to grade students. Already called the most phenomenal technological achievement of the century, imagine 25 years from now! See SearchGPT, chatbot, Gemini chatbot, AI text generator, neural network and AI.
ChatGPT Does All This
In 2023, The New York Times listed the following ways people use ChatGPT.
Create a Happy Computer
The following is the first of five paragraphs from ChatGPT when prompted with "create an essay about a happy computer."
A Few Months Later
When the same question was asked several months later, ChatGPT waxed poetic:
Getting Better All the Time
With additional training and tuning, the language model, the foundation of these chatbots, is improving all the time (see large language model).
North Korea, China, Russia, Italy and other countries banned ChatGPT right away, but Italy has since lifted its ban. Will the panic be soon forgotten or is it here to stay? See GPT and Luddite. (Image courtesy of ZDNET.)
To explore the variety of topics in this reference, see What's in this encyclopedia.