What is GPT3: The AI That Can Write Like a Human

Generative Pre-trained Transformer 3 (GPT-3) is a language production model that generates text in human-like quality of writing. GPT-3 is based on artificial intelligence (AI), where it uses the technology to write different types of text after receiving simple instructions in the form of a prompt.

Developed by San Francisco-based company OpenAI, GPT-3 is considered one of the most successful works of AI due to its ability to generate prose that seems like it is written by a human. The model is available for public use through OpenAI for different price points.

To assist you in learning what is GPT3 and how it works, here is a quick guide to the text generation model that is taking the writing and tech world by storm.

Key Points

  • GPT-3 is an AI-based text generation model that writes human-like text against a given prompt.
  • GPT-3 uses deep learning and natural language processing (NLP) to model its text generation and produce writings with a natural flow.
  • GPT-3 is available through its developer OpenAI, which distributes the model at different prices.
  • GPT-3 is the third-generation model of GPT-n that offers a faster processing rate and higher quality writing than its predecessors.
  • The GPT-3 model can produce texts of various types and lengths, which makes it a versatile application.

What is GPT3: How Does the AI Text Generation Model Work?

GPT-3 is an AI model that produces text with human-like prose. Based on deep learning and NLP, the model is adept at generating different types of text without making it seem like it is written by a machine.

GPT-3 is a part of the GPT-n series by its developer OpenAI, which works as an independent team of engineers. As the third-generation model in its series, GPT-3 has gone through different phases of development over the course of the past few years.

The GPT-3 model works on a transformer architecture, which allows it to identify the importance of different segments of its input data. At the same time, this model enables GPT-3 to process various parts of input data at once. This makes it more adept at learning the information that it is being trained on as well as processing the data that it needs to produce.

In order to generate human-like text, the GPT-3 model uses a reported 175 billion parameters. This is by far the largest set of parameters used by any AI application of its kind. The closest that any other NLP application has ever gotten to this number is 17 billion parameters, used by Microsoft’s Turing Natural Language Generation (T-NLG).

Additionally, GTP-3 also utilizes different tokens of text references that allow it to predict what the next word in a sentence should be according to a human perspective. This text prediction has been demonstrated in this opening paragraph of The New York Times’ GPT-3 profile, which goes on to detail that GPT-3’s job is to guess what the next word is going to be in a given or generated text, while emulating the language processing capabilities of a human.

But thanks to recent updates, you don’t have to write a block of text yourself to learn what is GPT3 or have the application fill in the blanks later on. Instead, your prompt can simply consist of a single line or a few sentences for GPT-3 to generate the type and length of text that you want. As soon as you give the command, the GPT-3 model gets to work and starts generating text according to its text prediction model.

For instance, if you want a simple slogan for a business, you can ask the GPT-3 model to generate a tagline for the business type. The tagline that GPT-3 returns to you will not only have the grammar and composition of a human writer, but also have the humor, emotion, and intelligence of one.

Similarly, if you want to write a paragraph for a fiction story, you can give a single-sentence prompt to GPT-3 to have the paragraph generated in human-like syntax. This could work in many forms of speech and text, which makes the GPT-3 model stand apart from typical text prediction systems.

How Effective is GPT3 at Generating Text?

GPT-3 is highly effective at generating text with human-like flow of speech, with a firm grasp over grammar, thesaurus, and syntax. This is possible due to the deep learning neural network that the GPT-model is trained on. By using the mindblowing number of 175 billion parameters, GPT-3 is able to determine the writing style in different forms of text and emulate it with razor sharp intelligence.

While this effectiveness is shown throughout the different applications of GPT-3, the extent at which it can work depends on the model of GPT-3 that you are using.

At the time of writing, OpenAI offers GPT-3 through an application programming interface (API) against a commercial license. This commercial license is further segmented into four categories or models. The starter-level category offers an AI model that is the fastest and the cheapest, while the most advanced category model takes a little while to generate the highest quality of text possible through GPT-3.

While learning what is GPT3, it is crucial to remember that it generates its text by utilizing tokens from its training. You can think of these tokens as groups of words in a text. GPT-3 has been trained by approximately 499 billion tokens that include hundreds of billions of words from published books as well as digital media from the internet.

This extensive level of training data makes GPT-3 highly effective at generating text on its own, while making sure that it keeps the human touch in its writing intact. This is also where the model’s deep learning mechanism shines through at how it easily processes and assimilates such a large amount of data and text parameters.

What is GPT-3 Pricing?

OpenAI’s prices for GPT-3 are offered per 1,000 tokens. According to OpenAI, 1,000 tokens equal around 750 words.

At the time of writing, tokens are offered through the following tiers.

  • Level 1, Ada. 1,000 tokens at $0.0004
  • Level 2, Babbage. 1,000 tokens at $0.0005
  • Level 3, Curie. 1,000 tokens at $0.0020
  • Level 4, Davinci. 1,000 tokens at $0.0200

As mentioned earlier, the starter level model is the cheapest to buy and the fastest to generate text against a prompt. But as you continue to upgrade, the tier gets more expensive and the speed gets considerably lower. With that being said, the quality of the generated text becomes considerably higher.

However, even at its lowest level, GPT-3 remains capable of generating text that can fulfill various needs. This includes basic text generation tasks where premium quality is not that much of a concern.

If you have specific or enterprise-level needs for commercial use or research purposes, you can also request OpenAI to obtain more finetuned models of GPT-3. In addition to personalizing your GPT-3 model, this also gives you more flexibility over pricing and makes other options available than the ones listed above.

How to Use GPT-3?

Unlike other AI text generation tools that are often available with their own web-based or front-end interface, GPT-3 is available through an API. This means that in order to use the model, you have to utilize it through programming interfaces.

In order to determine what is GPT3 trying to achieve by closing the commercial rollout of its product like this, you need to hear about the approach from OpenAI’s team itself. According to the OpenAI leadership team that spoke to The New York Times in April 2022, the API rollout is intentionally modeled this way in order to maintain controlled access to a product that could become dangerous in the wrong hands or if it falls completely into public use.

This means that if you are intending to use GPT-3 in your own day-to-day applications, you have to go through the process of obtaining the API, paying for the service, and generating your text through coding instead of a typical graphical user interface (GUI).

This makes GPT-3 a little tricky to use. But once you appreciate where the OpenAI team is coming from, it makes logical sense for the product to be rolled out this way to prevent it from being used to generate misinformation or direct harm to particular groups of people.

Is GPT-3 Worth It?

Thanks to its massive training, extensive parameters, and ongoing improvements, GPT-3 has become one of the most formidable pieces of AI technology currently available in a commercial form.

Whether you look at the 285,000-CPU-powered supercomputer that runs GPT-3 or the ability of the model to generate paragraphs of text through a simple set of instructions, the fact remains that GPT-3 is a marvel of AI technology.

With that being said, paying premium prices for AI text generation where you can get an experienced human writer to craft something from scratch remains a matter of personal preference.

While thinking about this, you may also want to consider that GPT-3 only emulates the intelligence of human writers who developed the texts that the model is trained upon.

If it wasn’t for human intelligence, AI in this wondrous form wouldn’t exist in the first place. This also means that GPT-3 does not have a mind of its own but rather emulates the data and writings that it has been given as a part of its training.

At the end of the day, if you are intrigued to see what is GPT3 and how it works, you can move forward with obtaining access to its API. Otherwise, you can continue waiting until a more commercialized and accessible version is made available for public use.

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Fritz

Our team has been at the forefront of Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning research for more than 15 years and we're using our collective intelligence to help others learn, understand and grow using these new technologies in ethical and sustainable ways.