Is ChatGPT open source? No, here’s why
Why is ChatGPT not open source anymore?
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Are you curious about whether or not ChatGPT is open source? Let’s dive into the answer. ChatGPT, a language model developed by OpenAI, has gained a lot of attention for its number of abilities. However, many people have questioned whether ChatGPT is an open-source application. The answer is that ChatGPT is not open source, as the source code is owned by OpenAI.
The ChatGPT application is built on top of OpenAI’s GPT-3.5 language module, which is also not open source. Although OpenAI was once a non-profit organization that released its projects as open source, they have since become a company that retains ownership of its codebase.
This means that AI developers cannot modify the GPT-3 language module to fit their specific needs or incorporate it into their own projects. However, OpenAI does offer the GPT-3 API, which is a packaged and moderated version of the language model’s capabilities. Developers can use the API to take advantage of GPT-3’s features, although they only have access to documentation and not the original source code.
GPT-2 and GPT-3 are two different large-scale language models, with GPT-3 being the upgraded version of GPT-2. While both models have their own set of unique features, GPT-3 is generally considered to be more advanced, with better accuracy, faster training speed, and the ability to handle more complex tasks. However, despite its success and popularity, GPT-3 is not open source, which has raised questions among some in the tech community including Elon Musk.
ChatGPT, on the other hand, is the latest trained model based on GPT-3.5. This new model was specifically designed to provide a more user-friendly experience for users, and it has been well-received by the public since its release. ChatGPT is available in multiple countries and offers users an incredible free experience but the company shifted to a more profit-focused model.
While OpenAI has been known to be open to sharing technology and open research results through open-source projects, the organization has recently begun to shift towards providing paid services through APIs, in order to ensure core competitiveness and improve profitability.
Why is ChatGPT not open source?
Some may wonder why OpenAI cannot simply follow in the footsteps of Tesla Motors, which released all of its patents in 2014. The reason for this is the enormous computing costs associated with ChatGPT. According to Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, the cost is “eye-watering.” ChatGPT has quickly gained popularity. In just five days after its release, over one million users had already tried out the chatbot. For comparison, Facebook took 10 months, Instagram took 2.5 months, and Apple took 74 days to reach one million users.
The computing cost of ChatGPT can be seen in the image below, which provides a basic idea of the enormous amount required to run this language model and facilitate its millions of users. Given these costs, it is understandable why ChatGPT will not be free in the near future. Instead, OpenAI already launched an upgrade to a premium feature in order to offset the significant expenses associated with its development and operation.
READ NOW: Is Chat GPT Plus worth it?
HuggingChat – open-source version of ChatGPT
Hugging Face have recently launched an open-source alternative to ChatGPT. HuggingChat is the product of a collaboration between Hugging Face and Large-scale Artificial Intelligence Open Network.
For those who have used ChatGPT HuggingChat’s UI will be very familiar and easy to navigate. This software is not yet as powerful as GPT-3.5 or GPT-4 as it is onlyhas around 30 billion perameters, which is fewer than OpenAI’s models. Despite this HuggingChat certainly has great potential particularly because the software is fully open-source and far more customisable than ChatGPT.
Future of open source AI
Elon Musk has recently stated he wishes to return to the AI stage with what he calls a “Maximum Truth-Seeking AI. His initial plans with OpenAI were all about an open-source attempt at counterweighting Google’s AI efforts. Whether or not his new plan will also be created in a similar fashion is too early to say but it looks promising. There are plenty of open-source AI protects currently out there but as the race starts to get intense could this slowly decline?
Did ChatGPT use to be open source?
ChatGPT was intended to be an open-source project in its early days in an effort to counter Google’s AI strides.
Are there any open source alternatives to ChatGPT?
Yes, a few, one of which is StabilityAI, an open source language model.
