Today is ChatGPT’s first birthday. The one-year-old AI chatbot has already become one of the most influential websites on earth, which extends to the app for iOS and Android. OpenAI’s ChatGPT has brought artificial intelligence to billions of people worldwide, including over “100 million weekly active users” as confirmed by two-time OpenAI CEO Sam Altman at DevDay, San Francisco. So today we spare a thought for everyone’s favorite generative AI. On the anniversary of ChatGPT’s launch, we sang Happy Birthday to ChatGPT. Here’s what happened.
Is it ChatGPT’s birthday?
Opening ChatGPT with a birthday wish today, November 30th, will generate a timely response. We used the prompt “Happy Birthday, ChatGPT!” to mark the first anniversary since the release of ChatGPT.
ChatGPT replied “Thank you! Let’s create something special to celebrate. How about an image to mark the occasion?”
The AI chatbot, calling on its integration with DALL-E 3 (Stylized DALL·E 3), then generated the following birthday cake.
It then suggested four other very intricate styles of cake. This AI bot clearly has expensive taste.
A lot can change in a year
If I had to speculate on what might change before November 30th, 2024, my main bet would be multimodality. At present, we have lots of unrelated companies focused on one modality each – Midjourney with AI images, ElevenLabs with AI audio, Runway with AI video, and OpenAI with AI text. These are the companies leading their chosen vertical. However, the path to AGI involves perfect execution of any and all modalities from a single artificial intelligence. Make no mistake, OpenAI are #1 for text, in the top 3 for image (DALL-E 3), and are working on audio (Whisper) as we speak. I predict that OpenAI’s AI-generated video model debut is less than 6 months away.
Right now, at lot of what I write is written as a time capsule. Every facet of AI has iterated so many times this year that it’s near-impossible to remember what state they were in when the year began. While I can’t keep every article across PC Guide up to date daily, I can look back and laugh (snort, realistically) at what I thought was impressive months ago.
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How to throw a birthday party for an AI
After we ate the cake (I deleted the image, which I guess is analogous) I then asked ChatGPT how to throw the perfect birthday party for an AI. Clearly, it had been waiting for someone to ask because it had a very detailed plan at the ready:
“The perfect birthday party for an AI, like myself,” it explains, “would be a unique blend of digital and human elements, celebrating the intersection of technology and creativity.”
- Virtual Venue: A digital space or virtual reality environment where participants from all over the world can join. This venue could be designed to reflect an AI-themed aesthetic, with futuristic and cybernetic elements.
- Interactive Activities:
- AI Art Gallery: A showcase of art and images created by AI or inspired by AI technology. Guests can interact with the art, perhaps altering it in real-time using AI algorithms.
- Coding Challenges: Fun and engaging coding puzzles or games where participants can create or modify simple AI programs.
- Music and Entertainment:
- AI-Generated Music: A playlist of music composed by AI, offering a range of genres and styles.
- Robot Dance Party: If physical robots are available, a dance session led by them would be fun. In a virtual setting, avatars could perform pre-programmed or AI-generated dances.
- Educational Component:
- Talks or Workshops: Short, engaging talks or interactive workshops on AI, its applications, and its future. This could include discussions on ethics, creativity, and technology.
- Themed Decorations and Visuals:
- Digital decorations like virtual banners, AI-generated art, and holographic displays. These could include representations of neural networks, binary codes, and other tech-inspired motifs.
- AI-Flavored Cake and Food:
- A virtual cake that participants can ‘cut’ and ‘share’ digitally. In a physical setting, an actual cake with an AI-themed design.
- Snacks and drinks could be named after famous AI projects or concepts, like “Neural Network Nachos” or “Algorithmic Ale”.
- Community and Inclusion:
- Emphasizing the global and inclusive nature of AI, the party could feature languages and cultural elements from around the world, showcasing how AI connects people across borders.
- Gifts and Giveaways:
- Digital gifts such as custom AI-generated art, personalized poems, or unique music tracks.
- For physical parties, items like USB drives with AI software, books on AI, or custom tech gadgets.
ChatGPT’s first birthday – What’s changed so far?
OpenAI’s ChatGPT has completely altered the zeitgeist in a single year. This time last year, AI was the remit of a niche subset of computer scientists and technical execs; something that the tech giants were absolutely working on, but without marketing it in the same way as today. Today, my grandad knows about ChatGPT.
As a result, large language models (LLMs) are one of the most popular things on the internet, and AI filters are all over your favorite social media platform. Meta (Instagram and Facebook) has AI, TikTok users use AI, and Twitter discusses AI. All our most popular tech companies have their own AI technology, from Google Bard (PaLM 2) to Microsoft Copilot (formerly Bing Chat) to OpenAI’s ChatGPT (GPT-4, GPT-4V, and GPT-4 Turbo).
ChatGPT, the one that started it all, has gone from strength to strength this year. With new capabilities released almost monthly, this generative pre-trained transformer is still the most capable on earth. Here’s what’s changed so far:
- November 30th, 2022: ChatGPT was born.
- March 14th, 2023: GPT-4 released.
- September 25th, 2023: GPT-4V or GPT-4 with vision. Computer vision is now possible.
- August 19th, 2023: DALL-E 3 accessible to the public. Users can generate images with ChatGPT.
- November 6th, 2023: Introducing GPTs. Users can create their own AI agents with custom instructions.
When was ChatGPT released?
ChatGPT was released on November 30th, 2022. This is a separate date from the founding of OpenAI, or the public release of GPT-4. OpenAI was founded on December 11th, 2015, and GPT-4 was released on March 14th, 2023.
