appendix-a

Appendix A. Setting up and using ChatGPT

The process of getting set up with ChatGPT is a relatively simple one. First, we create an account with OpenAI which can be done via the login and registration page found here: https://chat.openai.com/auth/login. From there we create our account, focusing on registering for a free account for now.

Knowing whether to buy ChatGPT Plus

It’s likely during the registration process that ChatGPT Plus will be upsold. At the time of writing, ChatGPT Plus costs $20 a month and grants you access to the GPT-4-based version of ChatGPT (as opposed to the free version which uses GPT-3.5-Turbo) along with a collection of plugins and other new features that extend the core prompting features of ChatGPT. We don’t use Plus within this book, but the activities and examples can be used on Plus as well as the free account. However, how ChatGPT responds will likely differ when using Plus.

Once we are registered, we can log in via https://chat.openai.com/ to be presented with the ChatGPT home page, where we can begin to send prompts.

To use ChatGPT, we need to provide it with instructions, or prompts, that we enter into the form at the bottom of the page entitled Send a Message, as shown in figure A.1.

Figure A.1 The ChatGPT message form

Once a prompt is submitted it will appear at the top of the page, a new chat will be added to the history bar on the left, and ChatGPT will respond as in the example shown in figure A.2.

Figure A.2 A prompt and a response