ChatGPT is everywhere. Here’s where it came from | MIT Technology Review

OpenAI’s breakout hit was an overnight sensation—but it is built on decades of research.

By Will Douglas HeavenFebruary 8, 2023

STEPHANIE ARNETT/MITTR

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We’ve reached peak ChatGPT. Released in December as a web app by the San Francisco–based firm OpenAI, the chatbot exploded into the mainstream almost overnight. According to some estimates, it is the fastest-growing internet service ever, reaching 100 million users in January, just two months after launch. Through OpenAI’s $10 billion deal with Microsoft, the tech is now being built into Office software and the Bing search engine. Stung into action by its newly awakened onetime rival in the battle for search, Google is fast-tracking the rollout of its own chatbot, LaMDA. Even my family WhatsApp is filled with ChatGPT chat.

But OpenAI’s breakout hit did not come out of nowhere. The chatbot is the most polished iteration to date in a line of large language models going back years. This is how we got here.

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