What is ChatGPT And How ChatGPT Works?
ChatGPT is a conversational AI model developed by OpenAI that is capable of generating human-like responses to natural language queries.
The model is a Large Language Model (LLM) that uses the transformer architecture to process input data and generate output sequences.
This article will delve into the technical workings of ChatGPT, from the basics of LLMs and transformers to the specific innovations that make ChatGPT unique.
So, without wasting any time let’s get started.
What is ChatGPT?

OpenAI, a leading research organisation that focuses on developing cutting-edge artificial intelligence (AI) technologies, made ChatGPT, which is a large-scale language model.
Using cutting-edge deep learning techniques, the model was trained on a huge amount of text from the internet and other places. This helped it learn the patterns and structure of human language.
A group of researchers and engineers at OpenAI, including Sam Altman, Greg Brockman, Ilya Sutskever, Wojciech Zaremba, and others, put together the ChatGPT model.
The model was made as part of OpenAI’s larger goal to make AI systems that are safe and helpful and can help solve some of the world’s biggest problems.
The first version of ChatGPT came out in June 2018. It was called GPT-1. Several other versions came after it, such as the GPT-2 and GPT-3, which are more advanced and powerful. With more than 175 billion parameters, GPT-3, which came out in June 2020, is one of the largest and most powerful language models in use today.
Over the past ten years, progress in deep learning and natural language processing (NLP) made it possible for ChatGPT to be made.
Researchers have been able to train large-scale language models on huge amounts of data thanks to these technologies. This has led to major advances in the field of AI.
ChatGPT can be used for a lot of different things, like understanding natural language, translating languages, making chatbots, and making content.
It can also be used to make text that sounds like it was written by a person.
This includes news articles, stories, and poems. Its ability to understand and create language that sounds like human speech could change a lot of industries and make it easier for us to use computers and other digital devices.
Before we move on to how ChatGPT works, lets first understand LLM’s and Transformers.
Large Language Models
Large Language Models (LLMs) are machine learning models used in Natural Language Processing that can infer relationships between words within a large dataset.
LLMs have gained popularity in recent years due to advances in computational power, which enable larger input datasets and parameter spaces. The most basic form of training for LLMs involves predicting a word in a sequence of words.
There are two common techniques for this:
- Next-token prediction
- Masked language modeling
Next-token prediction involves predicting the next word in a sequence given the context of the previous words.

Masked language modeling involves masking out a word in a sequence and predicting what the masked word is based on the context of the other words.

These techniques are typically deployed through a Long-Short-Term-Memory (LSTM) model.
However, LSTMs have limitations.
They process input data individually and sequentially. The model is unable to value some of the surrounding words more than others. In response to these issues, the transformer architecture was introduced.
Transformers and Self-Attention

Transformers are a type of neural network architecture that can process all input data simultaneously.
The model uses a self-attention mechanism to give varying weight to different parts of the input data in relation to any position of the language sequence.
Self-attention enables the processing of significantly larger datasets and allows for more complex relationships between words.
Generative Pre-training Transformer (GPT) models use the transformer architecture and have an encoder to process the input sequence and a decoder to generate the output sequence.
Both the encoder and decoder have a multi-head self-attention mechanism that allows the model to differentially weight parts of the sequence to infer meaning and context.
The self-attention mechanism works by converting tokens (pieces of text) into vectors that represent the importance of the token in the input sequence.
The multi-head attention mechanism used by GPT iterates the self-attention mechanism several times, each time generating a new linear projection of the query, key, and value vectors.
This enables the model to grasp sub-meanings and more complex relationships within the input data.
Explained: How ChatGPT Works?

To understand how ChatGPT works, we need to break down the process step by step.
Step 1: Training Data
ChatGPT is trained on a massive amount of text data, such as books, articles, and web pages. This training data is used to teach the model how to understand and generate human-like responses to a wide range of input.
Step 2: Preprocessing
Before the training data can be fed into the model, it needs to be preprocessed to ensure that it’s in a format that the model can understand.
This involves tasks such as tokenization, where each word in the text is broken down into a separate “token,” and encoding, where each token is represented as a numerical value that the model can work with.
Step 3:Training
Once the data has been preprocessed, it can be fed into the model for training. During training, the model adjusts its internal parameters to better fit the patterns and structure of the text data it’s being fed.
This is done through a process called backpropagation, where the model learns from its mistakes and makes incremental improvements over time.
Step 4: Inference
After the model has been trained, it can be used for inference, which is the process of generating responses to natural language input.
When a user enters text into ChatGPT, the model uses its internal parameters to generate a response that it believes is most likely to be human-like.
Step 5: Evaluation
To ensure that the responses generated by ChatGPT are of high quality, the model is regularly evaluated using various metrics and tests.
This helps to identify areas where the model may be making mistakes or struggling to generate accurate responses, which can then be used to improve the model’s performance over time.
Well, the above explanation is just a very simpler one. Let’s now dive deep into ChatGPT’s background processing and how it generates data which we all see on the front-end.
How ChatGPT Generates Response?
The GPT model has already been trained on a large collection of text data, such as Wikipedia, books, and web pages.
During the pre-training phase, the model learns to predict the next word in a sentence based on the words that came before it.
This is called modelling language. The GPT model learns to understand the statistical patterns and subtleties of human language by being trained on a huge amount of data.
Once the model has been pre-trained, it can be fine-tuned for a specific task, like a chatbot conversation. In the process of fine-tuning, the model is trained on a smaller set of conversations that are relevant to the chatbot’s domain.
During the fine-tuning process, the parameters of the model are changed to make the chatbot produce text that is more relevant to its domain.
The GPT model is used to make a chatbot, which has two main steps:
1. Input processing

The user’s input is processed by the chatbot to extract the intent of the user’s message. The intent represents the user’s desired action or information.
The input processing step typically involves tokenizing the user’s message into a sequence of words, mapping the words to their corresponding vectors, and passing the vectors through a neural network to predict the intent.
2. Response generation

Once the intent is identified, the GPT model generates a response based on the intent and the context of the conversation.
The response generation step involves using the GPT model to generate a sequence of words that follow the context of the conversation and are relevant to the user’s intent. The response generation step typically involves sampling from the GPT model’s probability distribution over the next word given the previous words.
Once the intent is known, the GPT model comes up with a response based on the intent and the rest of the conversation.
In the step of making a response, the GPT model is used to come up with a string of words that make sense in the context of the conversation and are relevant to what the user wants.
In most cases, the response generation step involves taking a sample from the GPT model’s probability distribution for the next word based on the words that have already been said.
The GPT model creates text one word at a time based on the words that came before it. The output of the model is turned into a probability distribution over the vocabulary with the help of a softmax function. The next word is chosen based on the probability distribution, which is then fed back into the model as input.
The GPT model is made to make text that makes sense and uses correct grammar. But the model isn’t perfect and sometimes gives answers that don’t make sense or are off topic.
To deal with this, chatbot developers can do things like filter out inappropriate answers, use user feedback to make the model better, or use rules-based logic to control the model’s output.
ChatGPT and Reinforcement Learning from Human Feedback
ChatGPT is a spinoff of InstructGPT, which introduced a novel approach to incorporating human feedback into the training process.
The technique is called Reinforcement Learning from Human Feedback (RLHF). RLHF enables the model to learn from human feedback in real-time, which improves the model’s ability to align with user intentions and produce helpful and accurate responses.
RLHF works by presenting the user’s input and the model’s response to a human operator who can provide feedback on the quality of the response.
The feedback is then used to update the model’s parameters, improving the model’s ability to generate accurate responses in the future.
ChatGPT also includes additional innovations, such as a dialogue manager that ensures coherence between responses and a sentiment classifier that filters out toxic or offensive content.
These innovations make ChatGPT one of the most advanced conversational AI models available today.
What ChatGPT Can Do?
As by now, you might have got an idea of how ChatGPT actually works. The one question that’s asked often is what ChatGPT is capable of?

So, here’s a list of all the things ChatGPT can do:
- Text generation: ChatGPT can generate human-like text by predicting the most probable next word or sentence based on the input text. This is particularly useful in applications such as chatbots, content generation, and summarization.
- Language translation: ChatGPT can translate text from one language to another by generating a sequence of words in the target language that best convey the meaning of the input text. This is commonly used in online translation services.
- Sentiment analysis: ChatGPT can analyze the sentiment of a piece of text, determining whether it expresses positive, negative, or neutral sentiment. This is useful in applications such as social media monitoring and customer feedback analysis.
- Question answering: ChatGPT can answer questions posed in natural language by generating a response based on its knowledge of the topic. This is particularly useful in applications such as virtual assistants and search engines.
- Text classification: ChatGPT can classify text into predefined categories based on its content. This is useful in applications such as spam filtering, news categorization, and sentiment analysis.
- Named entity recognition: ChatGPT can identify and classify named entities (such as people, organizations, and locations) in a piece of text. This is useful in applications such as information extraction and entity linking.
- Chatbot development: ChatGPT can be used to develop chatbots that can engage in natural language conversations with users. This is particularly useful in customer service and support applications.
- Text summarization: ChatGPT can summarize long pieces of text by generating a shorter version that captures the main points. This is useful in applications such as news article summarization and document summarization.
There are more cool things that you can do on ChatGPT like coding, fixing bugs, writing poems or songs, and even writing essays or books, that too in any style you want. But in order to tell ChatGPT what you want it to do for you, you need to know about prompts.
Let’s discuss what are prompts in ChatGPT and why are they important.
What are Prompts in ChatGPT?
ChatGPT prompts are crucial for generating useful and relevant outcomes from the language model. A prompt is a statement or a question that is provided to ChatGPT, which the model then uses to generate a response.
The importance of prompt engineering lies in crafting prompts that are specific, clear, and unambiguous so that ChatGPT can produce accurate and relevant outputs.
Prompt engineering involves designing, creating, and evaluating prompts for conversational AI models.

The main goal of prompt engineering is to create high-quality, informative, and engaging prompts that can elicit relevant and accurate responses from ChatGPT.
The design of a prompt is critical in guiding the model towards the desired output.
The prompt should be carefully constructed to provide the necessary information that ChatGPT needs to generate an accurate and relevant response. It is essential to understand the way ChatGPT is trained to create a well-crafted prompt.
The model is trained using zero-shot, one-shot, and few-shot learning, which enables it to recognize and classify new objects or concepts with limited or no training examples.
Zero-shot learning refers to ChatGPT’s ability to recognize and classify new objects or concepts it has never seen before, relying on its understanding of related concepts.
For instance, a zero-shot learning model trained on different dog breeds might be able to classify a new breed it has never seen before based on its understanding of the attributes of dog breeds.
One-shot learning, on the other hand, refers to ChatGPT’s ability to recognize and classify new objects or concepts with only one training example.
For example, a one-shot learning model could be trained to identify an individual’s face based on a single image.
Few-shot learning refers to ChatGPT’s ability to recognize and classify new objects or concepts with a small number of training examples.
For instance, a few-shot learning model could be trained to identify different types of fruits with only a few training examples of each type.
Check this guide on prompt engineering: How To Write Better ChatGPT Prompts To Get Better Results?
One of the benefits of prompt engineering is that it enables us to modify ChatGPT’s responses.
For example, if ChatGPT generates a dumb response, we can modify the prompt to provide a more informative question or statement to guide the model towards the desired output.
Prompt engineering also allows us to train ChatGPT to respond to specific questions or prompts. For instance, we can use one-shot or few-shot learning to provide examples of the outcome we want in the prompt. This helps ChatGPT generate more accurate and relevant responses.
Now You Know How ChatGPT Works!
ChatGPT is a powerful tool that can assist with a wide range of tasks, from answering questions to generating text.
However, to get the best results, it’s important to understand how the model works and how to use prompts effectively. Prompt engineering, including zero-shot, one-shot, and few-shot learning, can help to improve the quality of responses and ensure that the model is working as intended.
While ChatGPT is just one aspect of artificial intelligence, it represents an exciting development in natural language processing, and as such, understanding how it works can be a valuable skill for anyone interested in AI and its applications.
If you want to learn more about prompts you can check out some best resources on our website: