Editorial
OpenAI, the artificial intelligence company and research lab that enabled users to generate impressive images and art from text with DALL-E and DALL-E 2, has now introduced ChatGPT, a new chatbot technology that just might revolutionize the way we get information, write articles and create code.
And everyone seems to be asking it questions.
According to the OpenAI, ChatGPT interacts in a conversational way. It answers questions (including follow-up questions), admits mistakes, challenges incorrect premises and rejects inappropriate requests. It's also capable of writing articles and blog posts.
OpenAI founders Elon Musk, Sam Altman and other investors each pledged $1 billion to create the company in 2016 as a non-profit research center that would openly collaborate with other researchers. Musk left in 2018 to focus on SpaceX and Tesla — and in 2019 OpenAI became a for-profit company.
What Is ChatGPT?
Want to know the best uses for low/no code? Or make an HTTP request in Javascript? Or maybe you’re curious if ChatGPT thinks time travel is possible — it doesn’t, I already asked. And FYI, it also does not believe that robots will ever conquer the human race.
But whatever your question, to proceed, you just type it into the text box provided and hit enter, and within seconds an answer will appear. Some answers take longer than others to populate. No list of search results. No snippets. No sponsored ads. Just an immediate answer to your inquiry.
In a post to the OpenAI Blog, company officials explain that ChatGPT was trained using Reinforcement Learning from Human Feedback (RLHF) in which human AI trainers provided conversations in which they played both sides — the user and an AI assistant — with trainers given access to model-written suggestions to help them compose their responses.
ChatGPT launched Nov. 30, and within five days, the company reported it already had more than 1 million users.
According to the site, ChatGPT has several capabilities:
- It can remember what a user said earlier in the conversation
- It allows follow-up corrections
- It is trained to decline inappropriate requests
Among its listed limitations, the creators admit to the following:
- It may occasionally generate incorrect information
- It may occasionally produce harmful instructions or biased content
- It has limited knowledge of world and events after 2021 (when asked, it did know that in 2022, the US President is Joe Biden).
Related Article: 5 Benefits That Chatbots Can Bring to Your Customer Experience
Not Everyone Is Enjoying the AI Playground
This week, Stack Overflow, a public forum for developers, announced a temporary ban on the use of ChatGPT for content due to the large volume of ChatGPT-generated answers they’ve received — reportedly because all they need to be fact-checked by a human being.
“The primary problem is that while the answers which ChatGPT produces have a high rate of being incorrect, they typically look like they might be good and the answers are very easy to produce,” company officials said in a statement. “There are also many people trying out ChatGPT to create answers, without the expertise or willingness to verify that the answer is correct prior to posting." Meanwhile, Musk, one of OpenAI’s original founders, announced Twitter would “pause” ChatGPT, explaining he made the decision after becoming aware that OpenAI had access to the platform's database for training. He felt the need to further study the company's “governance structure & revenue plans going forward.”How to Sign Up for ChatGPT
The ChatGPT general purpose chatbot prototype is now available as a free online research preview — and creating an account is simple.
- Go to the sign-up page
- With a Google or Microsoft account, you can create a log-in or enter a valid email address
- Enter a valid phone number
- Enter the code you receive via text on the registration page — and voila account created
Before you are released onto the playground (the box where you enter your query), a pop-up lets you know the preview is free as a beta. You’re also informed that despite certain safeguards in place, “the system may occasionally generate incorrect or misleading information and produce offensive or biased content." And, strangely enough “it is not intended to give advice.”
Another pop-up warns that conversations may be reviewed by trainers — so don’t input any sensitive information. Finally a plea for user feedback is made before you are finally in the playground.
So, let's play!
Related Article: How You Can Win With AI and Customer Experience
Putting ChatGPT to the Test
Across Twitter, several marketers have been testing out the capabilities of ChatGPT, including Zain Kahn, head of marketing at Prequel.
The most impressive part: This is just the beginning! We're only seeing the first iteration of a technology that is likely going to improve by many orders of magnitude in the coming years. It might replace you. Or it might end up 10x ing your productivity. Too early to tell.
— Zain Kahn (@heykahn) December 5, 2022
Always up for a bit of fun, we decided to give ChatGPT a try. We submitted three CX-related queries into the AI engine.
We chose to ask the following questions.
- How do you build a Voice of the Customer plan?
- Who should lead customer experience in an organization?
- What's the foundation of a strong customer experience strategy?
So here goes…
Question No. 1: How Do You Build a Voice of the Customer Plan?
ChatGPT:
To build a Voice of the Customer (VoC) plan, you will need to follow a few key steps. Here's a general outline of the process you can follow:
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- Define your customer segments: Identify the different groups of customers that you want to focus on and understand their needs, preferences and pain points.
- Develop a VoC strategy: Identify the specific goals and objectives of your VoC plan and determine how you will collect and analyze customer feedback.
- Collect customer feedback: There are many different ways to collect customer feedback including surveys, focus groups, and customer interviews. Choose the methods that are most appropriate for your business and customer segments.
- Analyze the feedback: Once you have collected customer feedback, you will need to analyze it to identify trends and patterns. This can be done using a variety of tools and techniques such as statistical analysis, customer journey mapping and sentiment analysis.
- Develop action plans: Based on the insights you gain from analyzing customer feedback, develop action plans to address any issues or opportunities that are identified. These plans should be Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant and time bound. (SMART).
- Implement the action plans: Put your plans into action and make sure they are being implemented effectively. Monitor the results and make any necessary adjustments.
- Evaluate the results: Regularly evaluate the effectiveness of your VoC plan and make any necessary changes or adjustments. This will help you continuously improve your customer experience and drive business success.
Our Take:
We give this answer an “A” – it’s a correct and fairly detailed response. A recent CMSWire article on VOC echoed many of the same guidelines including, collecting customer feedback, analyzing it for trends and patterns and utilizing actionable insights.
Question No. 2: Who Should Lead Customer Experience in an Organization?
ChatGPT:
In an organization, customer experience should be led by someone who has a deep understanding of the needs and expectations of the organization's customers. This person should also have the ability to develop and implement strategies that will improve the overall customer experience. Ideally, this individual would have experience in customer service, marketing and or product development, as well as a strong understanding of the organization's overall business goals and objectives.
Our Take:
Short and sweet, we give this response a “C”. While factually correct, it fails to attribute any specific roles to the task — instead offering a generalized statement. We recently reported on Who Should Lead Customer Experience Efforts in Your Organization? and our sources said CX is the CMO’s game, followed by an involved CEO. Barring those options, the job should pass to any executive(s) across traditional organizational silos who believes in CX.
Question No. 3: What’s the Foundation of a Strong Customer Experience Strategy?
ChatGPT:
A strong customer experience strategy is built on a foundation of understanding the needs and wants of your customers. This involves collecting and analyzing data on customer behavior, preferences and feedback and using that information to create personalized and engaging experiences for each customer. Additionally, having a clear understanding of your brand values and making sure that they are reflected in every interaction with customers is also crucial for creating a strong customer experience strategy.
Our Take:
Again, a short response, but since we only asked for a foundation, it works — we give it an “B.” Our response to the question was more detailed — but this one works as a brief explainer.
Final Grade for ChatGPT in Customer Experience Circles: B
Overall, in response to our questions, we give ChatGPT a "B" — above average— for its accurate, factually-correct responses to our questions. Perhaps after receiving such a detailed answer to the first question, we expected the other two answers to be as comprehensive.
There is a "Try Again" feature that allows you to resubmit the same question and receive a subtly different answer. All-in-all, it's a new tech that's certainly worth checking out — and one CX and marketing professionals should definitely have on their radar.
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