In brief

• ChatGPT is a revolutionary chatbot launched by OpenAI in November 2022.

• ChatGPT has quickly gained prominence, with Microsoft investing $10 billion in OpenAI and integrating the chatbot into its Bing search engine and other services within weeks.

• Chatbots are language processing tools that are often used in virtual assistants like Siri or to create written text, as in the customer service portal on many corporate websites.

• ChatGPT’s functionality includes those uses but also extends well beyond them to include enhancing search engines, creating copy in a multitude of settings, translating, working as an educational tool, and coding.

• In February 2023, a New York Times tech columnist wrote of his experience interacting with ChatGPT through Bing, saying that at one point the bot divulged dark secrets and said that it loved him.