ChatGPT was initially launched in November 2022 and grew its user base to 100 million people by March 2023. That’s quite literally the journey of 0-1,000,000,000 in less than five months! In terms of growth, this AI-powered chatbot has left even the most popular social media platforms behind. And all this has happened without the bot even possessing a dedicated mobile app, which is all the more surprising.
If, in this smartphone-dominated world, a platform can grow at this rate without an app, there’s no telling how large of a boost launching an app will give it.
Perhaps one of the major reasons that have contributed to the exponential growth of ChatGPT is the uncanny resemblance to humane conversations, unlike any other AI invention ever before. As of March 11th, its improved version – the GPT-4 – has also been launched for paid subscribers.
However, in today’s blog, our focus will not be on the pros of ChatGPT but on its cons instead. If you’ve ever gone to ChatGPT to resolve your queries but returned empty-handed, we’re here to help you figure out why it happened. Ready to get started?
ChatGPT Not Answering My Question? Here’s why
We understand that you’re here to decode why ChatGPT couldn’t answer a certain question you asked it. After all, is that not its whole job? To answer people’s questions? Essentially, yes, it is.
However, no matter how efficient it might prove to be, you must remember that at the end of the day, it is just a machine; a tool made by humans that learns from humans to be able to talk like humans. There has to be room for errors in the process.
Our job today is to help you pinpoint this error’s source so that you can get an answer to the why part of your question. Having researched thoroughly, we have narrowed it down to four potential reasons ChatGPT did not answer your query.
Below, we’ll explore them one by one. Keep reading!
Reason #1: It could be a technical error
The most common error that the ChatGPT users have repeatedly been getting lately is this one:
An error occurred. If this persists, please contact us through our help center at help.openai.com.
When you enter your question in ChatGPT and get this message as a response (written under a red box), take it to mean that it’s a technical error on the platform.
This error is generated at the internal servers of ChatGPT, most likely because the chatbot is receiving way too many concurrent prompts from users.
In other words, because too many users are raising queries to the chatbot at once, its memory and storage can’t handle responding to them all simultaneously. Simply put, high user traffic on the website could be the main culprit behind this error.
So, what can you do to fix it? Well, the easiest path for you here is to wait it out. Shut your ChatGPT tab, and come back again later. Of course, if you’ve been facing the same issue on several consecutive revisits, you could reach out to help.openai.com as the message suggested.
But considering the constant influx of new users to the platform, this is the most common reason behind users not finding their answers on ChatGPT.
Reason #2: Is your query too long?
Have you ever tried asking ChatGPT a very long question? If you have, you’d have noticed how it takes a significantly long time to start typing your answer.
In some of these cases, the time taken by it to formulate and provide your answer can stretch just long enough to lead to a network error. Some of these errors also display a Failed to load message on your screen.
If these are the errors you faced, it could be a sign for you to take another look at your question and see if you could make it shorter and crisper in any way. If you can, get to it right away!
After all, you never know; a shorter question could just lead you to a straightforward answer faster.
Reason #3: Is your query grammatically correct? (The issue of contextual misunderstanding)
Another common error due to which ChatGPT might’ve failed to answer your query is of contextual misunderstanding.
Now, you must keep in mind that ChatGPT, like any other chatbot, is designed to comprehend the context of a question or a query and provide an appropriate response.
What do you think would happen if it fails to understand the context of what you’re asking? It certainly wouldn’t be able to come up with an answer.
But how did this contextual misunderstanding even take place? It could have been due to a grammatical, punctuational, or syntax error in your question.
To ensure that contextual misunderstanding isn’t preventing ChatGPT from answering your query, all you need to do is to give it another read. Make sure every word is placed appropriately and makes complete sense.
Reason #4: Maybe your query is beyond its knowledge base
For all its extended scope, ChatGPT also has its own limitations. One such limitation is that its data training was concluded in September 2021. This means that of any event or affair that took – or will take – place after that, ChatGPT will have little-to-no knowledge.
So, if you’re asking the chatbot a question that’s time relevant and occurred after September 2021, chances are it won’t be able to respond accurately.
The limitations of ChatGPT
As long as we’re on the subject of limitations, ChatGPT has several of them. One we’ve already discussed above – which was also a potential reason behind the error you faced.
Before we take your leave, we’d like to familiarize you to two more of them. If you’re a regular ChatGPT user, they’re bound to come in handy at some point. Check them out below!
Artificial Hallucination
You must know what hallucination means. It’s a state where what one thinks they experience isn’t really happening. Artificial hallucination is somewhat similar; only it happens with AI-powered tools and machines instead of real human beings.
It is a process where an AI provides a confident response that goes against its data training. While such an error isn’t common to all machines, it does occur frequently in large language models, such as your ChatGPT.
Therefore, if you’ve been trusting every word that comes out of ChatGPT’s chat box blindly, you might need to rethink some of your decisions.
Algorithmic bias
Because ChatGPT was trained by training data, it is acquired what is clinically termed Algorithmic bias.
It refers to a condition wherein the AI model adopts biases due to the under-representation or marginalization of certain groups or events present in the data they train from.
Just like before, it means that only a fool would trust every information extracted from ChatGPT to be ultimate and fool-proof.
Wrapping things up
With this, we’re ready to wrap things up. We hope we’ve helped you uncover many truths about ChatGPT that you were unfamiliar with.
With the tool being such a recent launch with a highly overwhelming impact, it’s only natural for its cons to remain hidden until you look closely.
If there are more questions you have about this AI-powered tool, feel free to share them with us in the comments section below!
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