Is ChatGPT open source?

OpenAI started as an open-source beacon of hope, but has since deviated from that path.

Is ChatGPT open-source?

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Are you wondering whether Chat GPT is open source? Well, you’re in the right place. We’ll explain it all below, in this article.

For those who aren’t familiar, Chat GPT is a highly advanced AI chatbot developed by OpenAI. The language model has been making headlines ever since its launch, near the end of last year, for its scarily human-like responses and outstanding capabilities.

After the chatbot became public, many have been wondering whether Chat GPT is open-source. Unfortunately, Chat GPT isn’t.

The language model, GPT-3.5, that the AI bot was built upon is also not open source. In other words, you cannot access or modify the model’s source code.

Interestingly, in the past OpenAI was once a non-profit company that would release its projects and code to the public. However, as time has passed, the company has now made the transition to a “capped-profit” organization. In turn, keeping ownership of their infrastructure.

This change turned heads in the AI community, and it is no surprise. Even Elon Musk, the co-founder and former board member, took to Twitter to share his thoughts.

He claims that OpenAI was all about being “Open” but has now become closed source, “effectively controlled by Microsoft”.

Conversely, the AI firm states the transition was essential to allow them to increase their investments and cover the computing costs due to Chat GPT’s popularity.

What are open-source alternatives to Chat GPT?

Sadly, Chat GPT and GPT-3.5 are closed source. But, what isn’t? Here are a number of open-source alternatives that you can access:

GPT-J

An open-source alternative to OpenAI’s GPT-3 language model. The model contains 6 billion paraments and was released by EleutherAI in 2021.

GPT-NeoX

Another open-source language model was released by EleutherAI. This model is much larger than GPT-J and contains 20 billion parameters.

Final thoughts

It is confirmed – Chat GPT is not open-source! But, all is not lost. There are a bunch of open-source Chat GPT alternatives out there for you to access and modify.

If you found this article useful, why not read Is Chat GPT Plagiarism Free next?