On Monday, OpenAI began making ChatGPT available to users without accounts. It describes the move as part of its mission to “make tools like ChatGPT widely available so people can experience the benefits of artificial intelligence.” It also provides the company with more training data (for those who don’t opt out) , and may prompt more users to create accounts and subscribe for premium GPT-4 access instead of the older GPT-3.5 model that free users get.
I tested Instant Access, and as advertised, it allowed me to start a new GPT-3.5 thread without any login information. The chatbot’s standard “How can I help you today?” screen appears with optional buttons to register or log in. While I saw it today, OpenAI says it’s gradually rolling out access, so check back later if you don’t see the option yet.
OpenAI said it added additional protections for users without accounts, including blocking more categories of prompts and image generation than logged-in users. When asked for more information about which new categories it blocks, an OpenAI spokesperson told me that when developing the feature, it considered how logged-out GPT-3.5 users might introduce new threats.
The spokesperson added that the team responsible for detecting and preventing abuse of AI models has been involved in the creation of new features and will adapt accordingly when unexpected threats arise. Of course, it will still block all operations it performs for logged in users, as detailed in its auditing API.
You can choose to exit the prompted data training when not logged in. To do this, click the little question mark to the right of the text box, then select “Settings” and turn off the “Improve models for everyone” switch.
OpenAI says that more than 100 million people in 185 countries use ChatGPT every week. These are staggering numbers for a service launched by a company that many people had not heard of two years ago. Today’s move adds to those numbers by giving those hesitant to create an account an incentive to try out this world-changing chatbot.
