Today, I signed up with Chat GPT at OpenAI.com. I wanted to learn about it and, if possible, use it to enhance my own work.
I quickly discovered two things.
- Its ability to write with flawless grammar is astonishing. Every sentence is correctly composed. A line editor or proofreader would find very little work with a Chat GPT document. You can definitely call its style pedantic. Boring, even.
- Its research skills are actually very limited. I gave it several prompts of subjects that I know quite a lot about, and its responses were thin and repetitive. It says in 500 words what a good human author could say in 100 words. If I hired Chat GPT as a research assistant, I’d fire them very quickly!
In one prompt, I asked Chat GPT to write about a very specific subject – the use of lithium to treat Alzheimer’s disease. I asked it to provide citations of its sources. This is what Chat GPT wrote to me:
“I don’t have direct access to external sources or the internet to provide citations or specific sources. The information provided in my responses is based on my training data, which includes a wide range of general knowledge up until January 2022. If you have specific questions or need information on a particular topic, please feel free to ask, and I’ll do my best to provide accurate and informative responses based on the knowledge within my training data.”
Chat GPT Can’t Go Online. Its Knowledge Ends at January 2022!
Chat GPT doesn’t have access to the internet! I thought this was astonishing. I assumed that was the whole point of Chat GPT – it would go online and ferret out information about your subject, like a Google search would. Instead, it has only its training data, which ends at January 2022. So for fun, I asked it about the 2023 Super Bowl game. It replied:
“I’m sorry, but I don’t have access to real-time information or events that occurred after my last knowledge update in January 2022. Therefore, I cannot provide specific details about the 2023 Super Bowl game or any events that have taken place since then.
“To learn about the 2023 Super Bowl game, I recommend checking the latest news sources, sports websites, or official NFL sources for up-to-date information on the teams, players, and game outcomes. You can also consider searching for articles, videos, or social media updates to get the most recent and accurate information about the game and any related events.”
Pretty weak sauce, I’d say! Chat GPT is looking more like Rip Van Winkle. If you want to take a walk down memory lane, it might be helpful; but as for current events and knowledge? Fuggetaboutit!
