ChatGPT Celebrates 1st Anniversary of Release

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Facts

  • Nov. 30 marks the one-year anniversary of the public release of OpenAI's ChatGPT, with the generative language system now containing more than 100M active users and the company's value reaching up to a $90B valuation.1
  • In August this year, OpenAI claimed in a blog post that 80% of Fortune 500 companies now use ChatGPT. Posting on social media platform X, previously known as Twitter, the recently-fired and recently-rehired OpenAI CEO Sam Altman remarked 'what a year it's been.'2
  • OpenAI was founded in 2015 by Altman and Elon Musk — before the owner of social media platform X, previously known as Twitter, stepped back from the company in 2018. The company was founded with the stated goal of 'advanc[ing] digital intelligence' in a manner 'likely to benefit humanity as a whole.'3
  • OpenAI released GPT-3.5 as well as InstructGPT earlier in 2022 — with the latter being an updated version of the 2020 GPT-3. Until a September 2023 update, the generative language system could only access training data taken before September 2021.4
  • February this year also saw both Google launch its own rival generative artificial intelligence (AI) named Bard, as well as Microsoft investing $10B into OpenAI and integrating its technology into both Bing and Microsoft Teams.5
  • Speaking in a blog post following his return to the company earlier this month, Altman claimed that he had 'never been more excited about the future' and felt excited about the 'probability of success for achieving our mission.'6

Sources: 1Observer (NY), 2The Economic Times, 3The Indian Express, 4Techopedia, 5Sky News and 6NDTV.

Narratives

  • Narrative A, as provided by The Week. The progress that ChatGPT has made as we celebrate its anniversary is only the tip of the iceberg, with the potential waiting to be unlocked exponentially broader than current imagination allows. No matter how successful generative language seems now, this is just the beginning of a new AI future.
  • Narrative B, as provided by St Albans & Harpenden Review. While language models have already changed our global landscape, ChatGPT's anniversary serves as a timely reminder of how, if used with bad intent, AI could have long-lasting effects on the world. With cybersecurity becoming ever more important, the power of AI is already being anxiously felt. With the next generation of AI expected to arrive in 2024, there is genuine worry over what may be achieved if placed in the wrong hands.

Predictions