ChatGPT said:
ChatGPT works by using a large language model (LLM) — a kind of artificial intelligence trained to understand and generate human-like text. Here’s a simple explanation of how it works:
1. What It’s Built On
ChatGPT is based on a neural network architecture called Transformer, introduced by Google in 2017. The specific version used is called GPT (Generative Pretrained Transformer).
2. Two Main Phases
a. Pretraining
- ChatGPT is trained on a massive amount of text from books, websites, articles, and more.
- It learns language patterns by predicting the next word in a sentence, over and over again.
- For example: Given the text “The cat sat on the”, it might learn that “mat” is a likely next word.
b. Fine-Tuning (RLHF)
- It is then fine-tuned using a technique called Reinforcement Learning from Human Feedback (RLHF).
- Humans review model responses and score them to teach the model how to be more helpful, safe, and conversational.
3. How It Answers You
When you type a question:
- Your input is converted into tokens (small text chunks).
- The model processes the tokens using its internal knowledge and patterns it has learned.
- It generates a response one token at a time, choosing the most likely next word at each step.
- The result is sent back to you as a full answer.
4. What’s Inside ChatGPT?
- Parameters: These are like brain cells. GPT-4 has trillions of them, helping it understand complex language.
- Training Data: It was trained on publicly available data and licensed datasets — but not real-time data or private chats.
- No Memory (unless enabled): Normally, ChatGPT doesn’t remember past chats, unless memory is turned on.
5. What It Can and Can’t Do
✅ Can:
- Write code, stories, and essays
- Translate languages
- Solve math problems
- Answer questions based on learned knowledge (up to 2024 for GPT-4)
❌ Can’t:
- Access the internet (in most cases)
- Know anything you haven’t told it or that it wasn’t trained on
- Have real emotions or consciousness
