Google issues warning to anyone who has used ChatGPT

The AI chatbot has proven hugely popular since it was launched, with users being able to interact with the AI in a conversational way.

However, Google boss Prabhakar Raghavan has issued a warning to those interacting with ChatGPT.

Speaking to German newspaper Welt Am Sonntag on Saturday, he said: “This type of artificial intelligence we're talking about can sometimes lead to something we call hallucination.

"This is then expressed in such a way that a machine delivers a convincing but completely fictitious answer.

"The huge language models behind this technology make it impossible for humans to monitor every conceivable behaviour of the system.

"But we want to test it on a large enough scale that in the end we're happy with the metrics we use to check the factuality of the responses.”

He added: “We are considering how we can integrate these options into our search functions, especially for questions to which there is not just a single answer.

"Of course, we feel the urgency, but we also feel the great responsibility. We hold ourselves to a very high standard.

“And it is also my goal to be a leader in chatbots in terms of the integrity of the information but also the responsibilities we take.

"This is the only way we will be able to keep the trust of the public.”

What is ChatGPT?

First launched late last year, ChatGPT has become an online sensation because of its ability to hold natural conversations but also to generate speeches, songs and essays.

In the most basic terms, ChatGPT is a conversational AI-powered chatbot designed to answer questions and respond to queries in text form in a way that sounds natural and human.

Built by US firm OpenAI, it uses information from the internet to carry out requests and has been trained on back-and-forth conversations so it is capable of understanding follow-up questions, admitting its own mistakes and limitations and rejecting inappropriate requests.

Why has it become so popular?

Although chatbot technology like this is not new, ChatGPT is rare in that it was made widely available for the public to use and experiment with.

As a result, it was quickly being used to fulfil unusual and very specific requests – such as writing a song in the style of a specific pop star about a subject currently in the news – with often impressively accurate results that were shared online.

Word of the bot’s ability to create long, detailed answers on often niche subjects quickly spread, sparking debates around the power, usefulness and potential dangers of such technology, while also catching the attention of many people because they were encountering this type of software for the first time.