What is ChatGPT-4? OpenAI’s latest chatbot detailed

Released back in March 2023, ChatGPT-4 is the latest version of OpenAI’s popular (and controversial) chatbot and boasts a host of updates and new features from its predecessor, GPT-3.5.

Read on to learn more about the new features and capabilities of GPT-4 and how you can try the chatbot yourself. 

What is ChatGPT?

Before we get into the specifics of ChatGPT-4, it’s worth mentioning what ChatGPT actually is. Created by AI research and deployment company OpenAI, ChatGPT is a chatbot that is designed to generate conversational text in response to a user prompt.

ChatGPT can be used to answer specific questions, write up essays based on specialist subjects, create travel itineraries and even create code.

You can read more about the ins and outs of ChatGPT in our dedicated explainer via the prior link.

What is ChatGPT-4?

One of the biggest updates with ChatGPT-4 is that it is now able to accept images as prompts, as well as text. Once it receives an image prompt, GPT-4 can generate captions, classifications and analysis.

OpenAI has also partnered with Be My Eyes, which is an app that supports those who are visually impaired and offers GPT-4 to assist in visual accessibility. 

According to OpenAI, GPT-4 is now more reliable than GPT-3.5, and can handle more nuanced instructions and surpasses ChatGPT’s advanced reasoning capabilities. 

GPT-4 promises to be stricter with sensitive and disallowed content. OpenAI says it has decreased the model’s tendency to respond to requests for disallowed or offensive content. In fact, OpenAI claims the model is now 82% less likely to be tricked into sharing off-limit or dangerous material.  

How can I try ChatGPT-4?

Unlike ChatGPT-3.5, ChatGPT-4 is currently only available for paid ChatGPT Plus subscribers. Subscribing to ChatGPT Plus not only gives you access to GPT-4 but also OpenAI’s Dall-E 2 which generates digital images from text prompts.