How did chatgpt explode in popularity when GPT3 has been around for awhile? Did MS have a multibillion budget for this? I see youtubers, tiktokers, and news channels showing off chatgpt but do they really care that much about it or “persuaded” to care.
The easy to use interface has a lot to do with it. And it's easy to create tiktoks showing interactions. Dalle-2/Midjourney etc. had a hit a few months back and this is just building on top of it. The critical mass is that people can show that they can use it to compose emails and basic essays. Like Dalle-2, it never had to be perfect but the wow-factor is there.
UX can be just as important as underlying tech sometimes. I truly think it has to do with simple UX and the viral nature that it enabled than anything else.
The stream was important, makes it feel like the AI is talking to you. Also they’ve clearly put a bunch of effort into training on conversational data so Chatgpt just sounds and feels more human. It even seems to have a personality.
The CEO Sam Altman also says he's perplexed by its popularity. Folks who were in the AI field for a while know what GPT-3 is capable of. IMHO, it's really about the psyche of the people. In the US, things like "chat" seem to kick off and have a big wave like Snapchat etc. Also, the UI/UX of chatGPT made it more accessible to a lot of people
I think GPT3 never had a free release, right? only an API which is mostly paid
Yup, it was an API, but it was free for a small period IIRC