ChatGPT For Dummies (eBook)

Pam Baker (Autor)

eBook Download: EPUB

2025 | 2. Auflage
457 Seiten
For Dummies (Verlag)
978-1-394-31446-1 (ISBN)

Infos

Updated to provide a deeper and closer look at ChatGPT

Expanded and extended, this new edition of ChatGPT For Dummies covers the latest tools, models, and options available on the popular generative AI platform. You'll learn best practices for using ChatGPT as a text and media generation tool, research assistant, and content reviewer. If you're new to the world of AI, you'll get all the basic know-how needed to add ChatGPT to your professional toolbox. And if you've been doing the genAI thing for a while already, this book will sharpen your skills as you apply AI to real-world projects in an ethical manner. You'll get insight on the best practice for using ChatGPT to make your life and work easier and how to write prompts that result in high-quality output.

• Understand what generative AI is and how ChatGPT produces human-like responses
• Get tips on writing effective prompts and using ChatGPT to generate sound and images
• Apply ChatGPT to your daily work or personal life
• Discover the best way to fact-check AI-generated content to avoid errors and hallucinations

Anyone using ChatGPT to enhance their work-whether for professional or personal use-will get better results with ChatGPT For Dummies.

Pam Baker is an author and a trainer with over two decades of experience as a journalist focused on the tech industry. She recently won an AZBEE award from the American Society of Business Publication Editors for B2B writing. She is author of the first edition of ChatGPT For Dummies and Generative AI For Dummies.

Textauszug

Chapter 1

Introducing ChatGPT

IN THIS CHAPTER

Learning ChatGPT’s user interface

Comparing ChatGPT versions

Understanding what ChatGPT is

Choosing between features and options

Making and managing ChatGPT outputs

Conquering the fears that ChatGPT conjures

The Chat in ChatGPT’s name is a reference to its use of natural-language processing and natural-language generation. GPT stands for generative pretrained transformer, which is a deep learning neural network model developed by OpenAI, an American AI research and development company. You can think of GPT as the secret sauce that makes ChatGPT work as it does. In short, ChatGPT is a GPT-based chatbot.

ChatGPT is a huge phenomenon and a major paradigm shift in the accelerating march of technological progression. It’s a chatbot that can run on one of several large language models (LLMs) and small language models (SLMs) developed and offered by a company called OpenAI. All these models belong to a category of artificial intelligence (AI) called generative AI, so named because these models can generate new content rather than simply regurgitate information. ChatGPT doesn’t create original content in the purely creative sense; rather, it remixes data to produce new content that’s calculated and contrived in response to a user’s question or command both of which are referred to as a prompt. Almost anyone can interact with ChatGPT because prompting can be done in their own words. No computer code is needed to elicit a response. Rapid computer responses follow your prompts and mimic natural humanlike dialogue. This appearance of a conversation with a machine is an illusion.

In this chapter, you learn where and how to access ChatGPT, why you should bother, the pros and cons of using it, how to use it, and whether common fears are justified or wildly off base.

ChatGPT is often directly accessed online by users at https://chat.openai.com/, but it’s also integrated with several third-party applications. Typically, you can access ChatGPT embedded in other applications simply by signing onto that application in the usual way. The number of app integrations seems to grow every day as existing software providers hurry to capitalize on ChatGPT’s popularity. ChatGPT can also be accessed via apps on mobile devices.

Comparing Different Account Versions of ChatGPT

ChatGPT offers several account versions to suit different user needs: Free, Plus, Teams, Pro, and Enterprise. The free version of ChatGPT has received significant upgrades, but you may prefer the Plus version for its higher usage limits and additional features. Free users may also encounter slower response times during peak usage periods and more limited availability.

For a monthly subscription fee of $20, ChatGPT Plus offers faster responses and access, which gives you more powerful and consistent performance. For businesses or collaborative settings, the ChatGPT Teams subscription plan offers more flexibility through multiuser access, administrative controls, and shared workspaces. The Teams version caters to groups working together on projects or customer support.

The new Pro version comes at a much higher price. For $200 a month, you get “the best of OpenAI with the highest level of access,” the company says. Currently that means everything available in the ChatGPT Plus version and unlimited access to GPT-4o and o1 plus unlimited access to advanced voice and access to o1 pro mode. I haven’t yet found sufficient need of the Pro features to justify the higher monthly subscription cost. But your mileage may vary.

For larger organizations, ChatGPT Enterprise delivers advanced features such as unlimited access, longer inputs (prompts), integration options, enhanced security, higher customization, and comprehensive analytics. This version is designed for businesses with large-scale needs, including better privacy controls and support for more complex operations and larger or more numerous team collaborations.

Setting Up an Individual Account

To set up an individual account and enter your first prompt, take the following steps:

1. Go to https://openai.com/blog/chatgpt.

   Returning users can go straight to https://chat.openai.com/ and skip the rest of the steps.

2. Click the Try ChatGPT button, which will open the ChatGPT user interface (UI) as shown in Figure 1-1.

   You don’t have to create an account to try ChatGPT this way. However, this version is limited and not truly representative of the premium versions which have an escalating number of features to match the bigger price tags.

3. Or, follow the prompts to create your OpenAI account.

   After you have registered for an OpenAI account, select the subscription plan you prefer. The cost for a ChatGPT Plus subscription, as of this writing, is $20 per month. Other subscription plans are also available: Teams at $25 per month, Pro at $200 per month, and Enterprise, which requires a call with an OpenAI salesperson to get a quote on the price for your company needs. Having an OpenAI account also gives you access to other AI apps built on OpenAI models, such as DALL-E.

4. When ChatGPT opens, enter your prompt in the prompt bar, shown in figure 1-1.

   ChatGPT will then generate a response.

5. If you want to continue the dialogue, enter another prompt.
6. Newest UI doesn’t have the thumbs up and thumbs down icons.
7. When you’re finished using ChatGPT, log out or simply close the window in your browser.

In some subscription plans, OpenAI’s team can see any information you enter in the prompt and the entire conversation that ensues. They may use this data in training other AI models. See a key disclosure in OpenAI’s privacy policy in Figure 1-2, and check out the full policy at https://openai.com/policies/row-privacy-policy/. When using ChatGPT, don’t disclose anything you want to keep private or confidential.

Generated with AI in ChatGPT

FIGURE 1-1: ChatGPT Plus UI.

Generated with AI in ChatGPT

FIGURE 1-2: A key disclosure in OpenAI’s privacy policy found in full at https://openai.com/policies/row-privacy-policy/.

Touring the User Interface

The following will guide you through the essential parts of the ChatGPT Plus User Interface (UI) so you’ll know where to find the information and features you need. Anywhere you encounter ChatGPT, such as embedded in other software or in other versions of ChatGPT, the UI will be similar. Incidentally, competing generative AIs also have similar user interfaces.

You may want to refer to Figure 1-1 again because it’s a screenshot of the full UI. What follows is a list of the parts of the UI with an explanation of each.

1. Far left of the UI at the top of the sidebar: This part of the UI contains a Close Sidebar button on the left, a chat search icon in the middle, and a New Chat button on the right which starts a new chat rather than you simply continuing in the current chat session (see Figure 1-3).

   Generated with AI in ChatGPT

   FIGURE 1-3: Close Sidebar button is the left. In some versions there is a chat search icon, a magnifying glass, in the middle of the bar. Start New Chat button on the right. All three are at the top left of the UI.

2. Directly below those buttons on the same sidebar are another New Chat start button followed by the Explore GPTs button (see Figure 1-4). The former is just an alternate way to start a new chat, whereas the latter takes you to the GPT Store, where you’ll find a collection of GPT minis, which are smaller applications tailored to perform specific tasks. Whichever GPT minis you choose will also be listed here afterwards, making it easier for you to return to those again later.

   Generated with AI in ChatGPT

   FIGURE 1-4: Upper part of sidebar found on left side of UI showing the New Chat start button, a list of GPT minis previously selected, and an Explore GPTs button, which takes you to the GPT Store.

3. When you click on the Explore GPTs button, it will take you to the page shown in Figure 1-5. You can either use the search bar or simply scroll through the selection to find a GPT mini that’s already customized to perform whatever task you need.

   Generated with AI in ChatGPT

   FIGURE 1-5: A screenshot of the GPT Store page.

4. The rest of the sidebar lists your chat histories. You can revisit and resume any chat that’s listed there. You can also archive, rename, or delete any chat by clicking on the three dots at the upper right of each chat and selecting an action from the dropdown options.
5. At the bottom of the sidebar is a button that enables you to upgrade your subscription at any time.
6. Moving right is the main body of the UI, which is everything on the UI that’s to the right of the sidebar. At the top is a dropdown menu of OpenAI’s Generative AI models (see Figure 1-6). Choose one for your chat to run...

Produkt-Details

• Erscheint lt. Verlag: 3.3.2025
• Sprache: englisch
• Themenwelt: Mathematik / Informatik ► Informatik ► Theorie / Studium
• Schlagworte: ai beginners • AI Content Creation • AI Prompts • books on AI • ChatGPT • chatgpt ai assistant • chatgpt beginners • chatgpt book • chatgpt business • chatgpt content • ChatGPT Guide • chatgpt prompts • genai business • generative ai book • Prompt Engineering
• ISBN-10: 1-394-31446-9 / 1394314469
• ISBN-13: 978-1-394-31446-1 / 9781394314461