GPT-3 can mine a company’s knowledge base and provide customers with a bespoke answer instead of canned, prewritten dialogue.
By Christopher Null, Workflow contributor
Last June, OpenAI, the San Francisco–based nonprofit, released the world’s most powerful natural language processing model to date. Known as GPT-3, it can automatically complete a statement, respond to questions, or generate lines of code based on a few simple commands, and can do so with more human-like realism than any previous AI-based language program.
The technology is still in private beta, but initial enthusiasm has been strong. (The acronym stands for Generative Pre-trained Transformer 3.) Developers have already produced more than 300 applications using the model’s API, including programs to help gather material for legal briefs, provide more relevant search results, answer customer-service questions, and create simple websites.
Commercial applications remain limited for now, but that’s expected to change as GPT-3’s advanced ability to use everyday language accelerates automation across the enterprise. The application could enhance a wide range of business operations, from analyzing, digesting, or translating the content in documents to producing marketing, sales, or other text-based materials.
“I think GPT-3 will have a significant and lasting impact on NLU [natural language understanding] technologies,” says Bryan Healey, CTO of Aiera, a company that produces financial-news digests. “But we’re still in early days for this technology.”