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Elon Musk proclaims 'scary good' ChatGPT will end homework; New York City schools ban the cutting-edge artificial intelligence tool that could challenge Google
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Elon Musk proclaims 'scary good' ChatGPT will end homework; New York City schools ban the cutting-edge artificial intelligence tool that could challenge Google

A new artificial intelligence tool ChatGPT is raising the eyebrows of people across all spectrums of life — from Elon Musk to New York City teachers to Google executives. Some see the cutting-edge AI technology as a godsend for humanity, while others warn that this new AI program will lead to academic dishonesty.

What is ChatGPT?

ChatGPT is an artificial intelligence program that can produce text on demand. ChatGPT is an acronym that stands for "generative pre-trained transformer." ChatGPT rolled out on Nov. 30 and has already started a buzz.

The chatbot offers a myriad of possible uses. The AI tool can create fictional stories, news articles, movie scripts, essays, public relations press releases, songs, write code, and much more within a few seconds. The tool can provide information or answer questions within the blink of an eye and without the need for internet. The interface can hold conversations with people. The scary or intriguing aspect is that ChatGPT can sound like a real human being.

ChatGPT was created by the San Francisco-based startup OpenAI — known previously for its neural network called DALL-E, which creates images from text captions. OpenAI was founded in 2015 by Elon Musk and Sam Altman.

Schools ban ChatGPT as Elon Musk warns that AI tool will end homework

This week, New York City's Department of Education announced that it was banning ChatGPT because of the possibility of students cheating.

Jenna Lyle — a spokesperson for the department — said the new chatbot technology could have "negative impacts on student learning."

"While the tool may be able to provide quick and easy answers to questions, it does not build critical-thinking and problem-solving skills, which are essential for academic and lifelong success," Lyle told NBC News.

Twitter CEO Elon Musk is impressed, but leery of the powerful AI tool.

Musk tweeted on Dec. 3, "ChatGPT is scary good. We are not far from dangerously strong AI."

Musk reacted to schools banning ChatGPT by saying, "It’s a new world. Goodbye homework!"

ChatGPT could help Bing challenge Google

Microsoft is optimistic that ChatGPT can finally narrow the vast gap between its Bing search engine and Google.

Microsoft invested $1 billion in OpenAI in 2019. The agreement included a deal to include ChatGPT technology into the Bing search engine, according to the Information. Microsoft expects to integrate ChatGPT capabilities into the Bing search engine before the end of March.

Microsoft is betting that the new AI tech will help Bing attain more than 9% of the total search engine traffic. Google search dominates with 84% of search engine traffic.

Last month, Altman admitted, "ChatGPT is incredibly limited, but good enough at some things to create a misleading impression of greatness. It's a mistake to be relying on it for anything important right now. It's a preview of progress; we have lots of work to do on robustness and truthfulness. Fun creative inspiration; great! Reliance for factual queries; not such a good idea. We will work hard to improve!"

The Wall Street Journal reported that OpenAI is in talks to sell $300 million in shares in a tender offer to Thrive Capital and Founders Fund. That would provide OpenAI with a valuation of approximately $29 billion and double the company's current value.

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