Earlier this year, OpenAI launched GPT-4—a new iteration of the GPT series language models developed by the company. GPT-4 is supposedly ten times more advanced when compared to GPT-3.5. The latter is currently used by ChatGPT on its free platform, whereas GPT-4 can be accessed by purchasing a ChatGPT Plus subscription or on free avenues such as Bing Chat. With numerous corporate partners beginning to strike deals with Open AI for its new language model, GPT-4 looks impressive and is a certain improvement over GPT-3 and GPT-3.5. As the company expands the scope of its language models, it’s important to draw comparisons between GPT-4 and its predecessor to understand what makes them different. OpenAI is clearly in an advantageous position as Microsoft pushes for greater integration with Bing before the launch of GPT-4 to larger audiences. As rivalries emerge with companies like Google, OpenAI seems to be leveraging its early mover advantage and experience gained from the deployment and response to older models.
With a larger number of parameters, guardrails, security measures, and processing capabilities, GPT-4 will soon nudge out its older counterpart. Features like image comprehension and multimodal input have already made the newest GPT iteration broader in scope compared to extant ChatGPT capabilities. The differences in the two iterations aren’t limited to parameters either and go right down to the design of these models’ architecture, leading to distinctness in their responses. Key contrasts in GPT-3.5 and 4 are discussed in the sections that follow.
GPT-3.5 vs. GPT-4: What Sets Them Apart?
GPT-4 is over ten times more advanced than GPT-3.5.
GPT-3.5 was impressive in its capabilities to emulate human-like language. Its AI writing capabilities were especially impressive and created much concern among academicians who cited academic integrity. The GPT-3.5 model was based on 175 billion parameters and could process up to 4,000 tokens of information. On the other hand, GPT-4 is far more extensive in its data set and comprises over 1 trillion parameters. Its better processing capabilities also enable it to process up to 32,000 tokens. Based on OpenAI’s claims, GPT-4 is 82% less likely to produce harmful information. This brings the newest GPT iteration to a comparable level with safety-oriented chatbots such as Claude. Moreover, GPT-4’s extensive fine-tuning also allows it to detect emotive elements in the text and respond with more caution and empathy. Other companies such as Inflection.ai have also worked on similar tenets and created a “friendly” chatbot that takes into account the users’ dispositions. Hallucinations are also lower, with GPT-4 over 40% more likely to respond to user queries with accurate information. Following complete integration with Bing, ChatGPT—powered by GPT-4, alongside a connection to the internet—will also be able to provide references for its claims and responses.
GPT-4’s linguistic coherence is higher and is less likely to end up making obvious mistakes in its responses. GPT-3 and GPT-3.5 were also limited in their multilingual capabilities; however, GPT-4 is capable of responding accurately to prompts in more than 20 languages including French, Spanish, Russian, German, Mandarin, and more. This extends its scope to a broad range of audiences. Moreover, this proficiency isn’t merely restricted to the languages themselves but also extends to regional and local dialects. GPT-4 elicits considerable nuance and exhibits considerable proficiency in multiple dialects, aiding the widespread intelligibility of user prompts. Also, this positions GPT-4 as a viable tool for language training applications. However, a key similarity between the two is that both GPT-3.5 and GPT-4 have been trained on data going up to September 2021. Although, in certain select modules, GPT-4’s data set does extend beyond the cutoff date.
The Utility of GPT-4 and Its Enhanced Capabilities
GPT-4 might be useful for several highly-specific applications.
The new iteration in the GPT series comes with a bunch of useful attributes that might position it as a perfect tool for several key applications. This is evidenced by companies such as Snapchat and Microsoft using the GPT series language models for their chatbots. While the former still uses GPT-3.5, Microsoft’s Bing Chat integrates GPT-4, albeit to a limited degree. Most importantly, GPT-4 has enhanced programming and coding capabilities that enable programmers to make the most of the chatbot in detecting bugs and in generating limited strings of code. Google, on the other hand, has launched Codey—a coding-specific chatbot that might compete with GPT-4 for users in this niche. OpenAI’s GPT-4 is also much better than GPT-3 and 3.5 at solving complex problems in advanced chemistry, physics, astronomy, and math. In a similar vein, GPT-4 has also cleared key examinations such as the United States Medical Licensing Exam, the United States Bar exam, and the MBA exam from Wharton’s School of Business. This adds credence to the speculations that AI might become a key part of curriculums in healthcare, law, and business.
GPT-4’s multimodality is an added benefit that enhances its capabilities in interpreting and responding to image-based input. GPT-3 and 3.5 turbo, on the other hand, are restricted to text-based inputs and responses. Programmers have also used GPT-4 to generate prompts for image-based generative artificial intelligence programs such as Midjourney and Dall-E. Another key advantage in the latest GPT iteration is the active measures taken to reduce AI bias and limited information. The language model is capable of making quick associations and sources its data from several different reference points. These key developments have placed GPT-4 in a more suitable position to be utilized as a tool in a variety of different sectors. In line with responsible AI tenets, OpenAI continues to incorporate user feedback and concerns into its regular updates to the LLM.
What Lies Ahead for GPT-4 and Its Successors
GPT-4 shows considerable promise and might become the flagship model for OpenAI until the development of more advanced LLMs.
OpenAI is working on consistent advancements to its chatbots and intends on adding key enhancements to its GPT-4 iteration. Apart from the extension of token capacities, GPT-4 might also be enhanced by the integration of useful APIs and new plugins. OpenAI still positions its GPT series as a platform for developers to utilize and develop into various use cases. GPT-4’s capabilities also mean that it is far more capable in key educational tasks, bringing up the question surrounding AI and academic ethics back on the table. However, effective utilization of the LLM by responsible developers might just trigger a revolution in education. AI has already forced a rethink of existing educational systems and practices; further developments like future GPT models might only enhance these possibilities. OpenAI continues to rope in newer clients, with their website having garnered over 1 billion users recently, indicating that their offerings have raked in widespread success.
FAQs
1. How to use GPT-4?
Currently, GPT-4 is available to users that have paid for a ChatGPT+ subscription. If users are not subscribed to a plan, they can get on a waitlist for the GPT-4 API and await access. Other ways to access a free variant of GPT-4 by using alternative chatbots such as Bing Chat or Perplexity.ai that use the GPT-4 model to a limited degree also exist.
2. Is GPT-4 better than GPT-3?
Since GPT-4 has a wider training data set, along with a lower likelihood of responding to harmful requests, GPT-4 is more efficient and specific than its predecessor. Though its cutoff date remains more or less the same as ChatGPT, the extent of information, multilingual capabilities, multimodal features, and an efficient set of guardrails make it a better model overall.
3. Is GPT-4 free to use?
GPT-4 is accessible to users that subscribe to the ChatGPT+ plan which costs $20 per month. However, free variants of the GPT-4 model exist on other platforms and have been integrated into alternative chatbots. OpenAI might end up making the model free to use in the future as a wider release of the model gains traction.
4. What are the number of GPT-4 parameters?
Though the exact number of parameters in GPT-4 is currently unknown, it is widely accepted that it has a data set spanning more than a trillion parameters. This is much larger than GPT-3, which had a set that contained 175 billion parameters, in contrast.