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Where Does ChatGPT Get Its Knowledge? The Untold Story of Data That Built an AI

Ashu Jha
4 min readJan 2, 2025

Imagine sitting in a room with the smartest person you’ve ever met. They know every book you’ve read, every article you’ve skimmed, and every Reddit debate you’ve laughed at. They don’t just know facts — they understand how you think. That’s ChatGPT. But here’s the question: where did it learn all of this?

The answer isn’t magic — it’s data. A lot of it. But it’s not just what ChatGPT was trained on; it’s how. And that story might surprise you.

The Treasure Hunt for Knowledge

What does an AI need to become super smart? Think of it like a treasure hunt. OpenAI, the creators of ChatGPT, went on a mission to gather as much knowledge as possible. They scoured the digital and physical world for information, finding treasures in places we all recognize:

  • Books: Famous novels, books in the public domain, and even technical manuals were used to teach ChatGPT about language, storytelling, and facts.
  • Websites: Wikipedia, blogs, forums, and even those funny Reddit threads all contributed to ChatGPT’s understanding of the world.
  • Open Data Sources: Massive collections of web pages, such as Common Crawl, gave ChatGPT a wide range of perspectives and knowledge.

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Ashu Jha
Ashu Jha

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