How to Use GPT-4 in 2023: A Guide for Beginners

GPT-4 is a powerful artificial intelligence tool that can generate text based on images and text inputs. It is the latest version of OpenAI's GPT series, which has been advancing the field of natural language processing since 2018. GPT-4 can perform a variety of tasks, such as answering questions, writing essays, creating content, and even passing exams. In this article, we will explain what GPT-4 is, how it works, and how you can use it for your own purposes.

What is GPT-4?

GPT-4 stands for Generative Pre-trained Transformer 4. It is a multimodal large language model created by OpenAI, a research organization dedicated to creating and ensuring the safe use of artificial intelligence. GPT-4 was released on March 14, 2023, and is available via API and for ChatGPT Plus users. Microsoft confirmed that versions of Bing using GPT had in fact been using GPT-4 before its official release³.

GPT-4 is a pre-trained model, which means that it has been trained on a massive dataset of text and images from various sources, such as books, websites, social media posts, news articles, etc. It has learned to recognize patterns and relationships among words and images, and can use this knowledge to generate new text based on the input provided to it.

GPT-4 is also a multimodal model, which means that it can accept both image and text inputs, and emit text outputs. For example, you can give GPT-4 an image of a dog and ask it to describe it in words. Or you can give it a sentence and ask it to generate an image that matches it.

How does GPT-4 work?

GPT-4 works by using a neural network architecture called Transformer. A neural network is a collection of artificial neurons that can process information and learn from data. A Transformer is a type of neural network that consists of two main components: an encoder and a decoder.

The encoder takes the input (text or image) and converts it into a sequence of numerical vectors called embeddings. The embeddings capture the meaning and context of each word or pixel in the input.

The decoder takes the embeddings from the encoder and generates new embeddings for each word or pixel in the output. The decoder uses an attention mechanism to focus on relevant parts of the input embeddings while generating the output embeddings.

The output embeddings are then converted back into text or image by using vocabulary or pixel mappings learned during training.

How can you use GPT-4?

You can use GPT-4 for various purposes depending on your needs and goals. Here are some examples:

• Question answering: You can ask GPT-4 any question (fact-based or opinion-based) and get an answer based on its knowledge base.

• Essay writing: You can give GPT-4 a topic or prompt (such as "Write an essay about climate change") and get an essay written by GPT-4.

• Content creation: You can give GPT-4 some keywords or phrases (such as "Write a blog post about AI") and get content generated by GPT-4.

• Exam passing: You can give GPT-4 some exam questions (such as "What are three types of rocks?") and get answers scored by GPT-4.

• Image captioning: You can give GPT-4 an image (such as "A cat sitting on a sofa") and get a caption describing it by GPT-4. 

• Creativity: GPT-4 can generate more original and diverse text than GPT-3.5, which often repeats itself or produces generic responses. GPT-4 can also adapt to different styles and tones of writing, such as formal, informal, humorous, poetic, etc. For example, you can ask GPT-4 to write a poem about love or a joke about politics.

• Longer Context: GPT-4 can handle longer inputs and outputs than GPT-3.5, which has a limit of 2048 tokens (words or characters). GPT-4 can generate up to 25,000 words in a single response, which is equivalent to about 100 pages of text. This allows GPT-4 to produce more comprehensive and coherent texts for longer tasks, such as writing essays, summaries, stories, etc.

How to Access GPT-4?

There are two main ways to access GPT-4: via ChatGPT Plus or via API.

1. ChatGPT Plus: ChatGPT Plus is a subscription service that allows you to chat with GPT-4 directly on your browser or phone. You can ask GPT-4 anything you want and get instant responses. You can also customize your chat settings, such as choosing a personality for GPT-4 (such as friendly, professional, sarcastic), setting a topic (such as sports, movies), and selecting a language (such as English, Spanish). ChatGPT Plus costs $20 per month and offers unlimited chats with GPT-4.

2. API: API stands for Application Programming Interface. It is a way for developers to integrate GPT-4 with their own applications and services. For example, you can use the API to create a chatbot for your website or app that uses GPT-4 as its backend. You can also use the API to access other features of GPT-4 that are not available on ChatGPT Plus, such as image input and output. The API is currently in beta and has a waitlist¹. You can sign up for the waitlist on OpenAI's website.

Conclusion

GPT-4 is an impressive advancement in artificial intelligence that offers many possibilities for users and developers alike. It is more creative, accurate, and capable than its predecessor, GPT-3.5. 

It can handle both text and image inputs and outputs, generate longer and more coherent texts, and adapt to different styles and tones of writing. You can access GPT-4 via ChatGPT Plus or via API, depending on your needs and preferences. GPT-4 is still a work in progress and has some limitations and challenges, such as social biases, factual errors, and ethical concerns. 

However, OpenAI is committed to improving GPT-4 and ensuring its safe and responsible use. If you are interested in trying out GPT-4 for yourself or for your project, you can visit OpenAI's website to learn more.