ChatGPT

I've been using ChatGPT for some time since I became aware of it back in October '22 (I read about it somewhere in Hacker News) and since it has gone viral somewhere in January '23, the service has been quite bizarre with lots of downtimes and interruptions, probably because a lot of people wanted to try it and experience the 'clever' AI chatbot on their own.

Anyway, on 10 February I got the ChatGPT Plus subscription available to my account (limited invite) but it was of no use to me as the subscription was only available to the US, and limited to a US address and US-issued credit card. I've tried using like 10 different CC from my bank, Revolut, and Wise with a US-based address (shipping forwarder) but all were unsuccessful, so I gave up.

Come the next day, 11 February in the morning, the subscription button disappeared from my account for a while, and I thought I'd missed the early invite and had to wait for the GA (General Availability), but then when checking again sometime in the evening, I was presented with a prompt, "ChatGPT Plus is available in Australia".

However, this hasn't come without a catch! Like my previous experience, now that I'm allowed to select Australia and local addresses, I was still having issues making payments. Stripe just wouldn't accept any of my CC and asked me to change to a debit card, but that too wasn't successful. I was quite frustrated and saw similar issues raised by many on Reddit and OpenAI discord channel. It looks like a bug on the OpenAI end, and from the many reports being lodged, it doesn't look like the issues will be resolved in the near time.

Around 11:00 pm before I went to bed, I tried again to create a new account under the "Organization members" to see if it was something related to my account issue, and then, lo and behold, I was able to subscribe to ChatGPT Plus! I guess my "old" account was the problem, and for whatever reason, the new account doesn't have issues making the payment.

Nevertheless, my immediate experience using the PLUS version was disappointing. I encountered heaps of errors, even worse than using the free version. In fact, I run the free version side by side, and most of my sessions on the PLUS version had at least one error (network error, capacity limit, etc.) which I didn't experience in the free one. I guess a lot of people were flocking to the hyped PLUS version and leaving the free ones under utilised!

For the past few days, I've been using ChatGPT a lot to justify if it's worth continuing my subscription the following month. Unfortunately, it was quite disappointing, at least for now. I tried comparing the answer of the free version against PLUS, and while I had a clear response from PLUS (with the assumption it was up-to-date compared to the free), it was inconsistent. I asked the same question again the next day, and it just throws me the standard "I do not have access to real-time information or news…" rubbish.

Regardless, I still use it to help me with day-to-day stuff, which saves me a lot of time from going through search engine results, and then figuring out how to piece the information together.

Is it convenient? YES! No doubt it is! Would AI like ChatGPT makes people dumber as a result of less using their critical thinking? This is what ChatGPT thinks.

As an AI language model, I am here to assist you and provide you with information to the best of my ability. Interacting with me should not have any effect on your IQ, as intelligence is a complex and multifaceted trait that is not easily impacted by a single activity or experience.

It's important to note that while I can provide you with answers to your questions, my responses are based on my training data and algorithms, and may not always be perfect or complete. Additionally, critical thinking and problem-solving skills are still important for developing a deeper understanding of complex topics, and these skills are not necessarily replaced by using an AI language model.

So, while interacting with me may help you get quick answers to certain questions, it is still important to continue developing your critical thinking and problem-solving skills to become a well-rounded and knowledgeable individual.