ChatGPT: A Tool with Great Potential but Some Limitations — Why You Shouldn’t Always Rely on Its Answers and Trust Its Responses

Showkath Naseem
7 min readMar 6, 2023

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Although OpenAI and its state-of-the-art language models like GPT-4 are generating a lot of excitement, there are also concerns about their potential impact on the world. With their rapid progress in NLP, some people worry that OpenAI could pose a threat.

It’s worth remembering that these models are not perfect and can still exhibit issues like social biases, false information, harmful advice. Additionally, they face technical challenges such as adversarial prompts and buggy code. The latest version of GPT-4 is no exception, and it’s critical that OpenAI continue to inspect and improve these technologies to ensure they are used responsibly and ethically.

ChatGPT-4 Limitations and Risks

https://openai.com/research/gpt-4

Mitigations: ChatGPT-4 incorporates additional safety measures during training to reduce harmful outputs, and adherence to ethical and legal standards is expected.

https://openai.com/policies/usage-policies

The primary focus of this blog post is to highlight the significance of exercising caution when relying on the responses generated by ChatGPT, emphasizing its limitations and potential impact on critical decision-making processes.

Introduction:

ChatGPT is a powerful tool that generates responses and provides information on a wide range of topics. However, it is essential to understand that ChatGPT has its limitations and can occasionally provide inaccurate or misleading information. This blog post will discuss the importance of being cautious when using ChatGPT and offer tips for ensuring that readers have a good takeaway.

  • The Capabilities and Limitations of ChatGPT
  • Importance of Exercising Caution and Critical Evaluation
  • Impact of Misusing ChatGPT on Customer Relationships and Business Reputation
  • Example: The Discrepancy in ChatGPT’s Responses about SAP BTP.

The Capabilities and Limitations of ChatGPT

ChatGPT is a powerful tool that can produce high-quality responses to a wide variety of questions and prompts but has limitations that affect its accuracy and reliability. Its responses may lack nuance or complexity, be influenced by biases in its training data, and may not be relevant or appropriate for the intended audience. It may also generate offensive or biased content, so it’s important to exercise caution and critically evaluate its responses. Some key limitations to keep in mind when using ChatGPT include:

  • ChatGPT may occasionally generate incorrect or misleading information and produce offensive or biased content. It is not intended to give advice.
  • ChatGPT’s responses may lack nuance or complexity in certain situations, particularly when dealing with abstract concepts or emotional intelligence.
  • ChatGPT’s responses may be influenced by biases or limitations in its training data, such as underrepresentation of certain demographics or perspectives.
  • ChatGPT may struggle to accurately interpret and respond to questions that contain multiple layers or require a deeper understanding of the subject matter.
  • ChatGPT’s responses may not always be relevant or appropriate for the intended audience, particularly in cases where cultural or social context is important.
  • ChatGPT may generate offensive or biased content, which can be damaging to the reputation of the individual or organization using it.

Pricing

ChatGPT’s cost is based on the number of tokens used for both input and output.

ChatGPT Pricing: A Complete Guide to ChatGPT Cost Estimation and Price Optimization

Importance of Exercising Caution and Critical Evaluation

As a result, we should exercise caution and avoid relying solely on its answers, particularly when it comes to important decisions, such as feedback on products or software. While ChatGPT is a powerful tool for generating responses and providing information, it may still generate incorrect and unreliable results, discrepancy statements, or wrong answers. Therefore, it is always a good practice to critically evaluate the responses and information provided by ChatGPT and not to rely solely on the results without verifying them through other reliable sources. It is also important to note that ChatGPT’s responses are based on its training data and may be influenced by biases or limitations in the data. It is essential to consider the context and limitations of ChatGPT’s responses and to exercise caution when making decisions based on its outputs.

Impact of Misusing ChatGPT on Customer Relationships and Business Reputation

Misusing ChatGPT can lead to incorrect or misleading information being shared with customers, damaging their trust and relationship with the business. ChatGPT’s responses may not always align with the values or messaging of the business, leading to brand damage and a damaged reputation. Businesses may lose sales and revenue if ChatGPT provides inaccurate information about products or services. Using ChatGPT to generate offensive or biased content can lead to negative public perception and harm the business’s reputation.

Example: The Discrepancy in ChatGPT’s Responses about SAP Business Technology Platform (BTP)

when asking ChatGPT about the limitations of SAP BTP, there was a discrepancy in the responses. Initially, ChatGPT mentioned that organizations heavily reliant on SAP BTP may be locked into the SAP ecosystem, limiting their ability to use other tools and services. However, the true potential of SAP BTP lies in its ability to be deployed across multiple cloud providers, providing greater flexibility and avoiding the risk of vendor lock-in. This is just one example of how ChatGPT may give false positive responses.

I tried to post two different questions

“What are the limitations of SAP BTP when it comes to open-source ecosystem & integration with open-source technologies and third-party tools and services?”

or

“Can you tell me more about the challenges or limitations that organizations may face when integrating SAP BTP with open-source technologies ,open-source ecosystem ,external systems integration and other third-party tools and services?”

Example : false positive response of ChatGPT
Example : false positive response of ChatGPT
Example : false positive response of ChatGPT

SAP BTP (Business Technology Platform) is a cloud-based platform that provides a range of services for building and running enterprise applications. Like many cloud platforms, SAP BTP is designed to provide a wide range of services and tools to make it easier for organizations to build and deploy applications quickly and efficiently.

The true potential of SAP BTP lies in its ability to be deployed across multiple cloud providers, providing greater flexibility and avoiding the risk of vendor lock-in.

Regarding vendor lock-in and interoperability, SAP BTP provides a variety of open standards-based APIs and tools that enable integration with other third-party tools and services. This means that organizations can use other tools and services outside of the SAP ecosystem and integrate them with SAP BTP. For example, SAP BTP provides integration with popular cloud providers such as AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud, as well as support for open-source technologies such as Kubernetes and Docker.

Overall, while SAP BTP does offer a range of open standards-based APIs and tools for interoperability, organizations should carefully evaluate their needs and assess the level of vendor lock-in and interoperability they require before committing to using SAP BTP services.

You can read more about BTP here

Other Real-world examples of the negative impact of misusing NLP Models

There have been instances where the misuse of AI language models like ChatGPT has caused real-world consequences. For example:

In 2020, OpenAI, the creators of ChatGPT, chose not to release a larger, more powerful version of the model due to concerns about its potential misuse. The company cited the risk of using the model to generate fake news, impersonate individuals, or produce harmful content.

https://openai.com/research/better-language-models

In 2016, Microsoft launched an AI chatbot named “Tay” on Twitter, which was designed to learn from and engage with users. However, within 24 hours, Tay was shut down after it started posting offensive and inappropriate tweets.

These examples highlight the importance of responsible use of AI language models like ChatGPT to prevent unintended consequences and protect both individuals and businesses.

Summary

In summary, ChatGPT is a powerful tool that provides valuable insights and information. However, it is essential to recognize its limitations and exercise caution when using it. By critically evaluating its responses, considering its context and limitations, and verifying its results through other reliable sources, readers can ensure that they have a good takeaway from using ChatGPT.

You can read more about BTP here

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About me : https://www.linkedin.com/in/showkath/

Disclaimer: The views expressed in this blog post are my own and do not represent the views or opinions of my employer.

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Showkath Naseem

IT Professional with Expertise in SAP Cloud Technologies, Full Stack Development, Architect , Technical Evangelism,QA & Technical Writing. Focus on SAP BTP