Just like the internet revolutionized global connectivity in the 1990s, another tool has transformed our lives: ChatGPT.
But hold on, its successor, GPT-4, is here to take things to a whole new level. OpenAI’s GPT-4 promises exciting possibilities for ecommerce businesses.
Are you curious about what it is, how to leverage it, and whether it comes at a cost? In this article, we'll dive into these questions. We’ll also reveal the incredible capabilities of GPT-4 in the ecommerce domain.
Let's get started!
What is GPT-4?
GPT-4 is the fourth of the Generative Pre-trained Transformer (GPT) language model series developed by OpenAI. It was released on March 14, 2023.
This new generation is a real game-changer because it can understand and generate content from images and text. That means it's not just a language whiz but also a visual thinker!
Compared to its older versions, GPT-4 is an absolute powerhouse. It can handle up to 32,000 tokens, which are basic units to compute the text length.
Approximately 0.75 words make one token, so 32,000 tokens are roughly equivalent to 24,000 words — impressive, right?
This boost in capacity allows it to generate more complex and nuanced text. It can even tackle tricky tasks like answering exam questions that come with diagrams.
Even though GPT-4 is still a work in progress, it has already shown off its skills in some pretty cool applications.
For example, the language learning app, Duolingo, has added two new features supported by GPT-4: Explain My Answer and Roleplay.
And let's not forget DALL-E 2, the image generation model that uses GPT-4 to create realistic images based on text descriptions.
The other applications which use GPT-4 include Bing — Microsoft's chatbot, GitHub Copilot, and Stripe.
You can access GPT-4 in the following two ways:
- ChatGPT Plus. This premium version of the ChatGPT chatbot can hold more natural and engaging conversations. It is available for a monthly subscription of $20. However, there's currently a limit of 25 prompts every three to four hours.
- OpenAI API. OpenAI API allows developers to integrate GPT-4 into their own applications. Access to the API is currently on a waitlist.
Key features and improvements in GPT-4 compared to previous models
Compared to its predecessor, GPT-3.5, GPT-4 brings many exciting features and improvements, such as increased accuracy, reduced biases, and improved contextual understanding.
Let's take a closer look at the key areas where GPT-4 shines in comparison to previous versions:
1. Multimodal
The most exciting change in GPT-4 is that it's multimodal! That means it can handle both images and text as inputs.
So, whether you want to describe an image with text or ask it questions about diagrams, GPT-4 has got you covered.
It can generate captions, classify images, and analyze them. It's like having an AI buddy who's both a wordsmith and an art critic.
2. Increased parameters
One major change is the increase in the number of parameters, which are the learnable components of the model. GPT-3 had 175 billion parameters, which was already huge, but GPT-4 takes it to another level.
While the exact number is a mystery, people estimate it to be between one and one hundred trillion. That's a mind-boggling leap!
So, what does all this parameter stuff mean? Well, it makes GPT-4 a content-generating genius.
It can generate a broader range of diverse and relevant text. And with better training methods, it learns from even more sources, resulting in more accurate results.
3. Reduced bias
Remember the issue of biases in AI models? GPT-4 tackles that head-on by minimizing offensive and discriminatory content.
So if you ask GPT-4 to give inputs on controversial questions, it’ll most likely ignore it.
4. Better context understanding
GPT-4 understands the context of your inputs like a pro, resulting in more relevant and coherent responses.
You experience a more natural interaction experience with GPT-4 compared to ChatGPT.
5. Better memory
GPT-4 can process over 24,000 words, eight times that of the ChatGPT model.
This makes GPT-4 perfect for long-form content creation, extended conversations, and diving deep into document search and analysis.
6. More creative
GPT-4 is better at generating, editing, and collaborating with you on creative and technical writing tasks.
GPT-4 can be your creative partner in various writing tasks, including composing songs, writing screenplays, and adapting to your distinct writing style.
7. More intelligent
GPT-4 is way smarter than its earlier versions. It has improved reasoning abilities that outperform its predecessors and score higher on various tests.
GPT-4 aced the LSATs (Law School Admission Test) and performed exceptionally well on the Bar (Uniform Bar Exam), scoring in the 90th percentile.
In comparison, GPT-3 struggled, scoring in the bottom 40% for the LSATs and a mere 10% on the Bar.
How GPT-4 benefits ecommerce businesses
GPT-4 does everything ChatGPT does, but better. It can help you save time by automating tasks, improving customer support, and generating long-form content.
Let's explore some practical ways GPT-4 can help your online store:
- Blogging. You can boost your organic traffic by using GPT-4 to create high-quality, long-form content at scale. With its ability to process detailed prompts of up to 25,000 words and understand the context more effectively, GPT-4 makes it easy to create engaging blog posts that flow naturally.
Want to learn more? Check out our article ‘13 Best AI Copywriting Tools for Dropshipping (Free & Paid)’ to explore tools that use GPT-3.5 and GPT-4 to craft compelling content within seconds.
- Coding. GPT-4 is superior, more intelligent, and outperforms ChatGPT in basic computer programming. You can submit coding tasks in various programming languages and receive ready-made solutions.
- Code debugging. Simply provide the relevant documentation, and GPT-4 will help fix the errors and suggest improvements.
- Marketing. GPT-4 is great at analyzing information and online behavior. It can offer valuable insights into your marketing strategies, helping you make data-driven decisions and providing recommendations to improve your online sales and upselling efforts.
- Customer service. GPT-4 is better at addressing queries related to products, returns and refunds, shipping, and more. With improved accuracy, GPT-4 ensures customers receive accurate and helpful information.
- Tax compliance. Submitting complex tax documentation is made easier with GPT-4. It provides explanations and step-by-step walkthroughs and performs tax calculations to determine liabilities and generate necessary reports, helping you navigate the complexities of tax compliance.
- Summarization. GPT-4 can summarize detailed documents such as supplier contracts, allowing you to quickly grasp essential information without spending excessive time reading lengthy texts.
- Documentation support. If you need to compare multiple documents or pieces of content, GPT-4 can help identify similarities or differences, making it easier to manage and organize your documentation.
Note: If you're curious about the specific ways to use ChatGPT for your ecommerce store, you can check out our article Dropshipping With ChatGPT: 18 Ways It Can Help Your Store.
Now, people have used GPT-4 in some amazing ways. Let's explore these examples and discover how you can apply them to your online store.
During a live stream, OpenAI CTO Greg Brockman drew a rough sketch of a website that generates jokes on paper. He then took a photo of the sketch and uploaded it to GPT-4.
And guess what? GPT-4 instantly generated the code for a fully functional website that matched the original drawing.
Next, an AI engineer showed GPT-4 a picture of the inside of a refrigerator and asked it to come up with a meal using the ingredients.
How cool is that!
So how can you use this for your online store? Well, one way is to analyze images of your competitors' products using GPT-4. This can give you valuable insights into what they're doing right.
These two examples highlight the potential of GPT-4 to enhance your online store. If you discover more ways to utilize GPT-4, feel free to share them in the comments section at the end of this article.
GPT-4 challenges for ecommerce businesses
Despite its impressive capabilities, GPT-4 isn't perfect.
Let's talk about the challenges of GPT-4 for ecommerce businesses so you can understand how to work around them and make the most of this impressive AI technology.
These are some of the biggest challenges:
- Plagiarism. GPT-4 tends to plagiarize things occasionally. So it can be challenging to trace the sources of information used by AI models, making it harder to cite correctly.
- Hallucinations. GPT-4 has been known to produce outputs that include information not found in the training data or contradict the user's prompt.
- Slow. Users have complained that the output time of GPT-4 is slower than ChatGPT.
- Bias. GPT-4's training involves large datasets from the internet and human feedback for fine-tuning. However, bias can creep in from the training data and during refinement.
- Quality. Users complained that output starts degrading after the first or second 25-prompt limit.
- Expensive. GPT-4 is almost 30 times more expensive than ChatGPT. This may not be a problem for regular users, but integrating GPT-4 into your system may become a problem. The pricing for ChatGPT starts at $0.0015 per 750 words for prompt requests and $0.002 for outputs. On the other hand, the pricing for GPT-4 starts at $0.03 per 750 words for input and $0.06 per 750 words for a complete response.
- Limited capacity. GPT-4 is currently accessible for ChatGPT Plus users with a daily prompt limit. Developers can also integrate GPT-4 using the OpenAI API, but there's a waitlist, and not everyone has access to it at the moment.
Can you integrate GPT-4 with your online store?
You can integrate GPT-4 with your online store using OpenAI's API, but you should know that it's in the beta phase.
So you can apply for access to Open AI by filling up a form with your and your company's information. Once accepted, you'll receive an email inviting you to use GPT-4 beta.
Can you use GPT-4 for free?
You can use GPT-4 for free by using Microsoft's Bing Chat.
Bing AI is powered by OpenAI's GPT-4 model, known as Prometheus, and can produce images from simple prompts, cite sources for information, and be more personable than other AI chatbots.
Here's how you can use GPT-4 for free on Bing:
- Go to Microsoft Edge and log into your Microsoft account.
- If you're on Bing.com, click the 'Chat' icon.
- Type in your query and choose either a 'Creative,' 'Balanced,' or 'Precise' conversational style.
In the following image, we asked Bing to create a picture of a dog wearing a yellow t-shirt.
How do you prepare for the future of AI in ecommerce?
Here's how you can prepare for AI as an ecommerce store owner:
- Stay in the know. Keep up with the latest AI advancements in ecommerce. Read industry news, attend conferences, and join online communities to stay informed about how AI can benefit your business.
- Spot opportunities. Look for areas in your business where AI can make a difference. Think about customer service, personalization, inventory management, content creation, and marketing.
- Check AI tools. Look for reputable companies that offer AI features that suit your needs. Consider factors like ease of integration, scalability, cost, and customer support. However, be careful not to use too many AI tools at once, as it can easily overwhelm you.
- Start small. Don't try to implement AI across your entire ecommerce operation all at once. Implement AI gradually by running small-scale pilot projects. This lets you test the waters and gather feedback.
- Train your team. Help your employees adapt to AI by providing training and upskilling opportunities. Teach them about AI tools and how they can use AI to improve processes and productivity.
Future outlook: What to expect from GPT-5?
Let's talk about what we can expect from GPT-5.
First, GPT-5 will be more reliable because it will have less hallucination than GPT-4 by at least 10%. GPT-4 is already 40% better at giving factual responses than GPT-3.5, so GPT-5 will be even more trustworthy.
But here's the interesting part: GPT-5 will truly be multimodal!
It'll handle not only images and text but also audio and videos. Imagine how more interactive and engaging conversations will be with these added capabilities.
And it doesn't stop there – GPT-5 will have more extended memory, allowing it to remember your persona and history for years. So it'll feel like chatting with an AI friend who knows you inside out.
Moreover, GPT-5 will understand context even better, making conversations more meaningful and tailored to your needs. It'll pick up on emotions and respond appropriately, almost like a human.
So, when will GPT-5 be released?
Siqi Chen, the CEO of Runway, tweeted on March 27, suggesting that GPT-5 would finish training in December.
But soon after that, Sam Altman clarified things at an MIT event in April. He stated that the tweet was inaccurate and that GPT-5 is not in the training pipeline for the foreseeable future. So, we'll have to wait a bit longer for the arrival of GPT-5.
However, he did mention that OpenAI is working on improving GPT-4. Plus, there are also rumors that an intermediate version called GPT-4.5 might be released in September or October.
GPT-4 for ecommerce FAQs
Here are some commonly asked questions about GPT-4:
When was GPT-4 launched?
The official launch date of GPT-4 was March 13, 2023. Users can now subscribe and gain access to the GPT-4 tool by opting for a paid subscription.
What is special about GPT-4?
GPT-4 can understand and work with images and videos. It can also handle more text with up to 24,000 words of context instead of 3,000 words like its predecessor.
Summary
Before we go to the conclusion, we've created a quick summary of this article for you, so you can easily remember it:
- GPT-4 can accept images and text inputs.
- GPT-4 can handle eight times more input than ChatGPT, based on GPT-3.5 for free users.
- You can access GPT-4 through ChatGPT Plus and the OpenAI API.
- Key features of GPT-4 include increased parameters, multimodal capability, reduced biases, a better understanding of context, improved memory, increased creativity, and higher intelligence.
- GPT-4 excels at producing coherent and engaging long-form blogs compared to ChatGPT.
- GPT-4 has various other ecommerce applications, including coding, code debugging, tax compliance, and summarization tasks.
Final thoughts on GPT-4
In a nutshell, GPT-4 is a revolutionary tool for ecommerce! It can make online shopping more personal, efficient, and enjoyable.
With AI technology advancing rapidly, we have an opportunity to achieve remarkable things with less effort.
Just remember to stay curious but also be cautious. AI is here to stay, but it's crucial to have humans in the loop to double-check and ensure everything is on the right track.
Embrace the possibilities, but keep that human touch for success in the digital world!
Let us know in the comments below how you're using AI for your ecommerce store or your thoughts on how AI will impact the ecommerce industry.
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