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What This Guide Covers About OpenAI and ChatGPT

OpenAI is an artificial intelligence research company founded in 2015 that has developed several AI tools, with ChatGPT being among the most widely known. This guide provides educational information about what these tools are, how they work, and what you might use them for. The information presented here is designed to help you understand the technology landscape around AI assistants, not to promote or recommend any particular service.

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ChatGPT is a large language model—a type of artificial intelligence trained on vast amounts of text data to recognize patterns and generate human-like responses to questions and prompts. OpenAI released a free version to the public in November 2022, which garnered significant attention. According to OpenAI's own reports, ChatGPT reached 100 million monthly active users within two months of its release, making it one of the fastest-growing applications in history.

This guide explains how ChatGPT works at a basic level, what it can and cannot do, real-world uses people have found for it, and what limitations exist. Understanding these fundamentals helps you make informed decisions about whether and how to explore AI tools in your personal or professional life. The guide does not endorse or recommend any particular product; rather, it provides factual information about existing technology.

Practical Takeaway: Before using any AI tool, understanding what it actually is and how it functions helps you set realistic expectations and use it responsibly. This guide provides that foundation of knowledge.

How ChatGPT and Large Language Models Actually Work

Large language models like ChatGPT operate through a process called "transformer architecture," a technical approach developed by researchers at Google in 2017. The model learns patterns from billions of words in text documents, websites, books, and other sources. It does not search the internet or access real-time information; instead, it generates responses based on patterns learned during its training period, which ended in April 2024 for ChatGPT-3.5.

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When you type a question into ChatGPT, the model processes your text and predicts the most likely next words, then the words after those, building a response one piece at a time. This happens very quickly—usually within seconds. The model assigns probabilities to different word choices based on the patterns it learned. It does not "think" the way humans do; it performs mathematical operations on representations of language.

An important distinction: ChatGPT generates text based on statistical patterns. This means it can sometimes produce confident-sounding but incorrect information, particularly about events, people, or specific facts outside its training data. A study by researchers at Stanford University in 2023 found that ChatGPT's accuracy on factual questions varies significantly by topic, ranging from about 40% to 90% depending on the subject matter. This characteristic is sometimes called "hallucination" in AI terminology—the model generates plausible-sounding but false information.

The training process involves showing the model examples of good and bad responses, then adjusting its internal parameters to improve performance. OpenAI uses a technique called Reinforcement Learning from Human Feedback (RLHF), where human trainers rate different outputs, helping the model learn to produce more helpful and safer responses.

Practical Takeaway: Knowing that ChatGPT generates text based on patterns rather than by looking up facts helps you understand why you should verify important information independently, especially for medical, legal, or financial questions.

Real-World Examples of How People Use ChatGPT

Understanding practical uses helps illustrate both the capabilities and limitations of AI tools. A teacher in Ohio reported using ChatGPT to generate quiz questions on topics she teaches, then manually reviewing and editing them for accuracy. She found this saved her 30-40 minutes per week that she could dedicate to grading student work. This represents a legitimate productivity use where the AI handles part of a task, but human judgment remains essential.

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A small business owner in Texas uses ChatGPT to draft customer service responses. She writes the initial response from the AI, then personalizes it with specific details about the customer's situation before sending it. She estimates this process cuts her email response time in half compared to writing from scratch. This is different from using the AI response directly—human review and customization add accuracy and context that the AI cannot provide.

Students have reported using ChatGPT to explain concepts they do not understand. A high school student described using it to get an explanation of photosynthesis in simpler language than her textbook provided, then reviewing the explanation against her textbook and class notes to verify accuracy. This represents educational use where the AI helps with comprehension, but the student maintains responsibility for learning and verification.

Writers sometimes use ChatGPT to overcome writer's block by generating multiple opening paragraphs, then selecting and heavily revising the most promising one. A blogger reported this approach helped her produce articles 25% faster, though she found the AI-generated content required substantial revision to match her voice and accurate information standards.

Software developers have integrated ChatGPT into workflows for generating boilerplate code or explaining complex programming concepts. According to a 2023 survey by Stack Overflow, 70% of professional developers had experimented with AI coding tools, though most used them to supplement rather than replace their own coding work.

Practical Takeaway: ChatGPT works best as a tool that augments human effort—helping with brainstorming, drafting, or explanation—rather than as a replacement for human judgment, verification, and expertise.

What ChatGPT Cannot Do and Its Important Limitations

ChatGPT cannot access the internet, meaning it cannot tell you today's weather, current news, or real-time stock prices. Its knowledge was last updated in April 2024, so information about events after that date is not included in its training data. If you ask it about an event from 2025, it will not know about it. This is a fundamental limitation of how the model was built, not a feature that will change unless OpenAI retrains it with newer information.

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The model performs poorly on mathematics and precise calculations. When researchers at OpenAI tested ChatGPT on mathematical word problems, its accuracy ranged from 50-75% depending on problem difficulty. For complex multi-step math, the model frequently makes errors. It also performs unreliably with very recent data—if you ask it about something that happened in the last few months, accuracy cannot be guaranteed.

ChatGPT cannot provide personalized medical diagnosis or treatment recommendations. The American Medical Association and the FDA have issued guidance that AI language models should not be used as a substitute for medical professionals. The model can provide general educational information about health topics, but any health concern requires evaluation by a qualified healthcare provider. Similarly, it cannot provide legal advice—an attorney must evaluate your specific legal situation.

The model sometimes produces biased or problematic content despite safeguards. Research by academics at UC Berkeley found that ChatGPT can amplify stereotypes present in its training data. OpenAI acknowledges this limitation and continues working to reduce it, but it remains an issue. Users should approach responses about social, demographic, or sensitive topics with critical awareness.

ChatGPT cannot learn or remember previous conversations. Each new conversation starts fresh—the model does not retain information about past interactions. If you have a multi-part project, you would need to provide the same context and background information in each session.

The model cannot perform actions on your behalf. It cannot send emails, access your files, make purchases, or interact with other websites unless you copy text back and forth. It can help you write a script or email, but it cannot execute that action itself.

Practical Takeaway: Being explicit about limitations helps you use ChatGPT appropriately—for brainstorming, drafting, explanation, and learning—while maintaining human responsibility for accuracy in medical, legal, financial, and other sensitive domains.

Understanding the Free Version Versus Paid Options

OpenAI offers ChatGPT through a free web interface, accessible at openai.com. No payment information is required to use the free version. The free version includes access to ChatGPT-3.5, an earlier version of the model. Users must create an OpenAI account, which requires providing an email address and creating a password. OpenAI's privacy policy indicates they collect data about your usage to improve their services.

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OpenAI also offers ChatGPT Plus, a paid subscription