In the glorious history of artificial intelligence (AI), the Generative Pre-trained Transformer (GPT) family of models has undoubtedly demonstrated amazing progress. Since OpenAI launched the first GPT-1 in 2018, the GPT series has undergone significant evolution to form more powerful and diverse generative AI systems. This article will take a deep dive into the major breakthroughs of each generation of models and how they are shaping the future of information technology and AI today.
The concept of generative pre-training (GP) is not new in the field of machine learning and was used in semi-supervised learning in the early days. This process is initially pre-trained using an unlabeled dataset and then trained using a labeled dataset for classification. Researchers have used a variety of methods, from hidden Markov models (HMMs) to autoencoders, to try to produce and compress data and pave the way for future applications.
In 2017, Google published a study on "Attention is All About Self", which laid the foundation for subsequent generative language models. Subsequently, OpenAI launched GPT-1 in 2018, which marked the rise of generative pre-trained models based on the transformer architecture and began to provide diverse and vivid text generation capabilities.
GPT-3, launched by OpenAI in 2020, went a step further, expanding the scale of model parameters to 1.75 trillion, demonstrating significant language understanding and generation capabilities. At this stage, OpenAI proposed the concept of "InstructGPT", a series of models designed specifically for following instructions, increasing the accuracy of communicating with users.
Since then, the development of the GPT family has continued to move forward, with promotions like GPT-4 being entirely based on strengthening previous models.
The base model, as the name suggests, is an AI model trained on large-scale data. The diversity of such models enables them to be applied to various downstream tasks. For example, OpenAI's GPT series, the latest GPT-4 is widely recognized by the market for its powerful power and flexibility. With the launch of GPT-4, the model not only excels in language processing, but also supports multimodal capabilities and is able to process text and images simultaneously.
Through careful adjustment and reshaping, the basic GPT model can develop task-specific models for specific fields, such as EinsteinGPT, BloombergGPT, etc. These models are not limited to text generation, but also help the industry improve work efficiency.
With the emergence of specialized models, AI is increasingly being used in a variety of industries, from finance to medicine.
The development of multimodality allows the GPT model to further broaden its scope of application. For example, Microsoft's "Visual ChatGPT" combines the understanding of text and images to provide users with a richer interactive experience.
As the term "GPT" becomes popular, OpenAI also faces challenges in maintaining its brand. Recently, OpenAI has begun to emphasize that the name should be regarded as its exclusive trademark and to supervise the use of the term by others, which shows that in the field of AI, the boundary between brand and technology is becoming increasingly blurred.
Although standardization and trademark protection go beyond the technology itself, the brand influence behind it cannot be ignored. In the future, with the continuous advancement of AI technology, what new meaning will this term be given?
How will the future GPT model affect our lives and work?