ChatGPT Is Powerful — and Can Wreak Havoc If You Don't Know Its 5 Fatal Flaws There's no denying that ChatGPT is powerful. It should, however, be used with an awareness of its limitations to maximize its potential.
By John Rampton Edited by Mark Klekas
Opinions expressed by BIZ Experiences contributors are their own.
You probably already know that ChatGPT is OpenAI's powerful large language model (LLM). Since its release in 2021, it's taken the world by storm. In fact, ChatGPT has become the fastest-growing app in history.
It's easy to see why. Natural language processing makes the AI chatbot sound just like a real person. You can ask it questions, and it can help you with tasks like:
- Writing emails, essays, and code
- Composing blog posts or creative writing
- Creating custom resumes
- Providing explanations for complex subjects
- Making sense of math problems
- Writing engaging scripts for videos
- Website design
- Assigning or assessing new tasks
ChatGPT, however, has some significant shortcomings as well. Specifically, it has five fatal flaws, which we will discuss in this blog post.
1. Inaccuracy and susceptibility to bias.
Among ChatGPT's biggest concerns is accuracy. This dataset contains errors and biases, which is why ChatGPT is trained on a vast array of text and code. Due to this, ChatGPT sometimes outputs inaccurate results.
One study found that out of 512 questions, 259 (52%) of ChatGPT's answers were incorrect, and only 248 (48%) were correct. In addition, 77% of the answers contained excessive verbosity. Because of this, ChatGPT will likely make mistakes regarding facts and figures.
Additionally, ChatGPT was trained on text up until September 2021. Due to this, ChatGPT doesn't have a good understanding of current events. As a result, its outputs can be inaccurate or outdated.
It has also been found that ChatGPT generated content with inaccuracies or biases on sensitive subjects, like politics and race. Because ChatGPT's creators and users are likely to have biases, its training data may reflect that.
With that said, if you intend to use ChatGPT's generated text, be sure to fact-check it first.
2. Lack of understanding of context.
Despite being trained on a large dataset of text and code, ChatGPT can't grasp context in the way that a human can. This can result in nonsensical or irrelevant text sometimes.
ChatGPT, for instance, might start talking about the history of exercise or the types of exercise that exist if you ask it to write a blog post about the benefits of exercise. Moreover, it might include irrelevant information, like the names of famous athletes or the latest fitness trends.
3. Difficulty generating long-form content.
ChatGPT has a character limit of 4,096 characters, equal to approximately 800 words. But, a word's length determines how many words you can submit to ChatGPT. As a result, it isn't suitable for long-form content, such as blogs, articles, or essays.
For long-form content, you'll need to separate the content and generate it separately using ChatGPT.
Related: The Top 3 Do's and Don'ts of Integrating ChatGPT into Your Business
4. Plagiarism concerns.
As a result of ChatGPT, plagiarism concerns have also been raised. Considering that ChatGPT was trained on a huge dataset of text and code, it is likely to generate content that is similar to that already available.
For example, ChatGPT may copy and paste text from other websites without attribution when asked to write a blog post about a specific topic. Copyright infringement and other legal issues can arise as a result.
5. Security and privacy concerns.
The ChatGPT project is still under development, and its use is subject to some privacy and security concerns. ChatGPT, for instance, has been reported to generate malware and scams. In addition, users can provide personal information via ChatGPT.
Security researchers at Avast reported that hackers actively use ChatGPT to generate malware and social engineering attacks.
As a result of artificial intelligence, cybercriminals can now create lures and carry out phishing attacks and scams on victims. As a result, AI serves as a writing assistant for all types of texts - emails, social media posts, e-shop reviews, SMS scams, etc.
AI also helps make social scams look more authentic by removing traditional phishing red flags like broken language and weird addressing. It surprised the researchers that ChatGPT reduced the amount won when they asked it to make a lottery scam email more convincing.
How to mitigate ChatGPT's shortcomings.
While ChatGPT may have some shortcomings, it can still be helpful in various situations. As with any productivity tool, it is crucial to be aware of its limitations and to take precautions to mitigate them. The following tips will help:
- Make sure your prompts are clear and specific. It is more likely that ChatGPT will generate accurate and relevant text if you provide more specific prompts.
- Start with ChatGPT, not with a finished product. Any text generated by ChatGPT should be reviewed and edited carefully before being used.
- Verify the accuracy of the text with other tools. To verify the accuracy of text, you can use several online tools.
Additional thoughts.
Additionally to the five fatal flaws mentioned above, ChatGPT has a few other disadvantages:
- ChatGPT cannot replace human judgment. Before publishing the output produced by ChatGPT, a human should proofread and edit it.
- It is possible to generate harmful content using ChatGPT. Content generated using ChatGPT can be detrimental, such as hate speech and misinformation. You should be aware of the potential consequences of using ChatGPT and be careful how you use it.
- The ChatGPT project is currently in development. It's a new technology that's still getting better. To use ChatGPT best, users should be aware of the limitations and willing to try different approaches.
Related: Here's How CEOs and Millionaires Use ChatGPT for a Productivity Boost
Conclusion
Although ChatGPT is a powerful tool, it should be used with an awareness of its limitations. These tips will help you mitigate ChatGPT's limitations to create high-quality texts.
