Learn how the disruptive AI chatbot is going to change school, work, and beyond

ChatGPT For Dummies demystifies the artificial intelligence tool that can answer questions, write essays, and generate just about any kind of text it’s asked for. This powerful example of generative AI is widely predicted to upend education and business. In this book, you’ll learn how ChatGPT works and how you can operate it in a way that yields satisfactory results. You’ll also explore the ethics of using AI-generated content for various purposes. Written by a journalist who’s been on the front lines of artificial intelligence for over a decade, this book dives deep into ChatGPT’s potential, so you can make informed decisions―without asking ChatGPT for help.

• Learn how ChatGPT works and how it fits into the world of generative AI
• Harness the power of ChatGPT to help you, and avoid letting it hinder you
• Write queries that deliver the kind of response you want
• Take a look into how the ChatGPT API interacts with other tools and platforms

This just-in-time Dummies title is perfect for anyone life or career may be impacted by ChatGPT and other AI. ChatGPT is just the tip of the iceberg, and this book can help you prepare for the future.

Get to know the first AI A-lister

ChatGPT™ is the generative artificial intelligence tool that can answer questions, pen poetry, create ad copy, build computer code, and even write books (but we promise you that ChatGPT did not write this one). This book introduces you to why everyone’s talking about ChatGPT. Discover how ChatGPT works and how it can help you at work, in school, and beyond. Find out how to write prompts, and dig into how to evaluate and use ChatGPT results. With this book, you’ll discover how a world with generative AI is an exciting prospect.

Inside…

• Disrupting businesses with ChatGPT™
• Writing prompts that yield the outputs you want
• Using the ChatGPT API and plug-ins
• Applying ChatGPT in knowledge industries
• Considering the ethics of generative AI
• Evaluating the role of ChatGPT in education
• Living with AI in daily life

Table of Contents

Chapter 1 Introducing ChatGPT

Chapter 2 Discovering How ChatGPT Works

Chapter 3 Writing Prompts for ChatGPT

Chapter 4 Understanding GPT Models in ChatGPT

Chapter 5 Warnings, Ethics, and Responsible Al

Chapter 6 Probing Professional and Other Uses for ChatGPT

Chapter 7 Working with ChatGPT in Education

Chapter 8 Using ChatGPT in Daily Life

Chapter 9 Recognizing the Ways ChatGPT and Generative Al Will Change the World

Chapter 10 Ten Other Generative Al Tools to Try

Please explain why ChatGPT is a big deal.

While ChatGPT is an interesting and useful Generative AI-driven chatbot, it is its role as a harbinger of exponential change that is the most notable. Its sudden and rapidly accelerating adoption by millions of people signifies a dramatic market pivot to widespread openness and acceptance of AI. The result will be profound and widespread societal, industry, and creative disruption from the rapid proliferation of various forms of Generative AI. No one can afford to be left behind in the global upheaval. It is important to learn how to use this relatively simple Generative AI tool as it becomes ubiquitous to work and daily life and serves as a steppingstone for the exponential change to come.

What are the practical uses for this technology?

Today the practical uses are vast and include replacing or augmenting self-help knowledge repositories in IT; onboarding and other HR technologies and processes; content generation for media, marketing, and other industries; reporting tools of all kinds; generating new businesses for solopreneurs: lesson planning tools for educators; and mind mapping or idea inspiration exercises for R&D departments, among many other personal and professional uses. In the near future, practical uses will also include automated programming (writing computer code); accident and police reports: high-function avatars attending virtual meetings and taking notes so their human owners can skip it but still appear to be there; pharmaceutical and manufacturer packaging insert writing; speech writing; disinformation and propaganda creation; and more. There will be uses in the far future that we can't even imagine today.

We hear artificial intelligence tools like this will “replace humans” in the workplace. Do you think that’s a possibility?

No, actually I don't. ChatGPT has limitations. For one thing, it can lie. Yes, it can spin an untruth seemingly out of thin air. And, of course, it can make more mundane errors too. Think of ChatGPT as a tool that will speed up work by a lot. It means you can do more, easier and faster. But on its own, it can't think, so there's only so much it can do. However, OpenAI is reportedly working now to teach ChatGPT how to program, i.e., to write computer code, something it does fairly decently now. As ChatGPT improves over time, it is possible that some will try to "do things on the cheap" and over rely on ChatGPT to cut costs. That's likely to lead to errors and liabilities that are far more costly than payroll. Think hard about that before you try to replace jobs with it.

About the author

Pam Baker is a freelance journalist and industry analyst focused on emerging tech topics like artificial intelligence, quantum computing, swarm computing, metaverse, data analytics, edge computing, and others. She is the author of Decision Intelligence For Dummies and Data Divination: Big Data Strategies. Her work is published in many leading publications including Institutional Investor magazine, Ars Technica, CIO, CISO, InformationWeek, PCmag, The Linux Foundation, and the Annals of the NY Academy of Sciences. Baker is also a popular speaker at conferences such as the Excellence in Journalism conferences on data journalism, a medical research conference at the NY Academy of Sciences on using data from wearables and other groundbreaking IoT medical devices, and at a variety of technology conferences addressing various topics. She is a longstanding member of the National Press Club, the Society of Professional Journalists, and the Internet Press Guild.