ChatGPT is everywhere, but most people don't truly understand what it is or how it works. This book cuts through the hype to give you a clear, honest picture. You'll learn how ChatGPT is trained on vast text data, how it predicts one word at a time using tokens, and why it sometimes fabricates confident-sounding falsehoods. Discover practical techniques for writing prompts that produce better results, and understand why ChatGPT can be biased, unreliable, or even harmful. Explore real-world uses: writing, summarizing, brainstorming, coding help, and creative projects. We'll cover privacy risks, the environmental cost of large models, and the ethical dilemmas they raise. Each chapter includes 'Try This' exercises to put ideas into action. No math, no code—just clear explanations for everyday readers. By the end, you'll know when to trust ChatGPT and when to be skeptical. Part of The Practical AI Library.
About the author
Ryan Okafor Steele writes for The Practical AI Library.
