OpenAI's chief scientist, Ilya Sutskever, has admitted that he initially had doubts about the quality of the chatbot ChatGPT. In an interview with MIT Technology Review, Sutskever revealed that he was unimpressed by the chatbot's inability to provide accurate answers to factual questions. He even expressed concerns that people would find it boring. However, he was taken by surprise when ChatGPT gained explosive popularity, amassing 100 million users just two months after its launch.
Sutskever described the initial experience of using ChatGPT as a "spiritual experience" that hooked people due to its convenience and the sense that the computer seemed to understand. This first-time experience seems to have been the main draw for users, rather than the accuracy of the answers provided.
The success of ChatGPT caught OpenAI off guard as well. OpenAI president and cofounder Greg Brockman revealed that the company's staff did not consider the chatbot particularly useful and were surprised by its sudden popularity. In fact, OpenAI was reportedly unsure about when to release ChatGPT and had been working on alternative models before ultimately deciding to launch it.
The widespread adoption of ChatGPT has sparked a global AI gold rush, with tech companies rushing to develop their own chatbot models. OpenAI itself has been taken aback by the chatbot's success. At the time of writing, OpenAI has not responded to a request for comment on this matter.
In summary, OpenAI's chief scientist initially had doubts about the quality of ChatGPT, but its convenience and ability to provide a sense of understanding to users quickly made it popular. The unexpected success of ChatGPT has led to a global surge in AI development, and even OpenAI itself was surprised by the chatbot's popularity.