AI Open Guide
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1In one sentence

ChatGPT is a computer program you talk to in plain words, and it talks back: it answers questions, writes for you, reads your files, makes pictures and helps you think.

2New words

  • AI — short for "artificial intelligence". A program that learned from a huge amount of text how to understand and write language. It is not a person and has no feelings, but it is very good with words.
  • ChatGPT — the name of the AI made by a company called OpenAI. The "GPT" part is just the family name of the technology under the hood.
  • Prompt — the message you type. Every question, request or instruction is a prompt.
  • Chat — one conversation, from your first message to your last. You can have as many chats as you like, and they are saved in a list on the left.

3Why you would want it

Think of the moments when you wish a patient, well-read helper was sitting next to you: writing an awkward email, understanding a long contract, planning a trip, learning something new, or sorting out a messy idea. ChatGPT is that helper, available any time, and it never gets tired of questions. It is also the best-known AI tool, so when a friend says "ask the AI", this is often what they mean.

4Try it now

  1. Open your web browser and go to chatgpt.com.
  2. You can type without an account, but make one with your email so your chats are saved.
  3. You will see a mostly empty page with a box in the middle or at the bottom. That box is where you type.
  4. Type exactly this: Explain in 5 simple lines what you can do for someone who has never used you before.
  5. Press Enter.

5What you will see

First, the empty page with the message box and a small "+" button beside it:

The empty ChatGPT page with the message box
The empty ChatGPT page with the message box

A few seconds after you press Enter, five short lines in friendly, plain words:

ChatGPT's five-line first answer
ChatGPT's five-line first answer

Notice that it writes like a person, not like a search engine, and that you can simply reply to it as if you were texting a friend.

6Watch out

  • ChatGPT sounds confident even when it is wrong. For anything important (a date, a price, a law, a medical fact), check it somewhere else too. Chapter 1.17 shows you how.
  • On the free plan you may see a small "sponsored" box under some answers. That is an advertisement, not part of the answer.

7Go further

Reply to its answer with: Now give me one example of each, for a person who runs a small bakery. Watch how it adapts. Then read Chapter 1.2 to see all the places you can use ChatGPT.

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Where ChatGPT lives