So How Does It Work?

ChatGPT works with something called "tokens." Think of them as syllables for a word.

Imagine you have a sentence written down on a piece of paper. Now, let's say you want to break down that sentence into smaller parts to understand it better. One way to do that is by dividing the sentence into its syllables.

Similarly, tokens in ChatGPT serve a similar purpose. Instead of breaking down spoken words into syllables, ChatGPT breaks down written text into tokens.

When you chat with ChatGPT, it responds in a special way.

1. It starts by replying with just one token, like a word or a part of a word, similar to a syllable.

2. Then, it looks back at the entire conversation, including what it has previously said (or uttered). This helps ChatGPT understand the context and decide what to say next.

3. It continues this process, adding more tokens, one at a time, to gradually build a complete word then a full sentence.

So, it's like having a conversation where ChatGPT utters 1 syllable, considers the conversation history with that 1 new syllable, adds another syllable, considers the conversation history again but this time with those 2 new syllables, and it keeps going on like this until it combined enough syllables (tokens) to have a coherent answer!