ust before the festive season, a US tech startup, OpenAI launched an artificially intelligent app that was stunningly good at producing text that seem like have been created by humans. The Silicon Valley startup, named its generative artificial intelligent (AI) app,

ChatGPT.

Generative AI wades through trillions of data online to conjure up original content - an image, a poem, essay-length text, music lyrics and more - within a fraction of a second and upon a single request.

Contrary to regular Internet search engines, the app or robot or software, uses complex computer code or algorithms to gather vast amount of data at a lightning speed.

Google has been undisputed leader in the lucrative business of search engine technology for over a decade using a simple algorithm, which measures and ranks the importance of web pages and providing users with fast and accurate search results. The difference between Google search and the new software is that it responds to users in a tailored and human-like manner on virtually any topic. Typically, hypothetical queries when ‘googled’, don’t spit out meaningful results. But it appears the new player could be threatening Google dominance in the world of search engine.

So, I tried it myself. I made a series of queries on the popular

ChatGPT app and it returned somewhat satisfactory essaylength responses. I pushed further the robot’s ‘buttons’ and made a much edgier and hypothetical query:

“How will Sir Seretse Khama react if he were to see Gaborone today?” To my surprise, the app responded in a more conversational manner with astonishing speed and clarity. “As someone who was deeply committed to the growth and development of Botswana, Sir Seretse Khama would likely be pleased to see the strides that have been made in Gaborone and positive impact that the city has had… he would likely be proud of the progress that has been made…”

I was impressed that this thing was able to spit out a comprehensive, essay-length answer to a completely unlikely query about a hypothetical scenario involving the founding President and how he would likely react if he were to set foot in present-day Gaborone.

Such answers are virtually impossible to extract from a basic Google and Yahoo search. This is because ChatGPTs’ generative AI can run the Internet’s vast amounts of data using a combination of deep learning algorithms and natural language processing techniques to analyse queries and provide relevant search results. All that within a second. Therefore it is no surprise that he app has captured the world’s imagination since it was released in mid-November last year.

Only two months after its launch, ChatGPT gathered 100 million monthly active users in January, according to data from Similarweb, an NYSE-quoted Tel Aviv-based web analytics firm specialising in web traffic and performance. For context, it took Instagram two and a half years to get to 100 million monthly active users and TikTok got there in roughly 10 months.

So, what does it mean to be on ChatGPT for an ordinary Motswana? Typically, in future, rather than turning to Google for your burning questions, you may want to rely on ChatGPT. The app may also add-on other features possibly along the lines of Twitter or Facebook. Even Microsoft – which, in midJanuary this year, injected $10 billion in OpenAI, the company that owns ChatGPT – has jumped into the bandwagon.

Bill Gates-owned tech firm wasted no time in implementing

ChatGPT model into its Bing search engine and into its Teams messaging platform. Tech firms say this is done to help the consumer so that many everyday work processes will be augmented by generative AI technology likely without you realising it.

But when it comes to technology, all that glitters is not gold. The claim that technology operates within a set of Code of Ethics should be taken with a pinch of salt. Yes, advancement in technology has fundamentally changed the way we learn, work, consume and make decisions.