It might have flown under the radar slightly, but users are reporting they’ve been granted access to a secret ChatGPT model. We’re going to be going over everything we know about how to get access to GPT-4 Alpha.
ChatGPT and AI have been dominating tech news for nearly a year now. Following on from the launch of GPT-4, OpenAI’s chatbot has not stopped growing in features, plugins and usability. Now, it has a new one. GPT-4 Alpha is a ‘confidential’ feature that not many people are yet aware of.
What is GPT-4 Alpha?
This image was sourced via the OpenAI user forums. The original poster is not even a ChatGPT Plus subscriber, though they’ve been gifted GPT-4 Alpha, which includes “all tools.” This means web browsing, DALL-E 3, Advanced Data Analysis, and more. It would make it infinitely easier to create Disney AI posters and similar thanks to the module cross-overs. Alongside that, the original poster claims to have not even signed up for the Alpha, making it even more strange that they were gifted it.
By the looks of things, there are several GPT-powered products out there linked to Alpha: Wolfram Alpha and Public’s Alpha. It should be noted that neither of these is actually associated with the GPT-4 Alpha that many users are toying around with.
GPT-4 Alpha is a version of the GPT-4 LLM available within ChatGPT. Compared to other GPT models available at the moment, the ‘Alpha’ model integrates all available tools into one UI. This means that you no longer have to create a new chat if you’re looking to upload an image while using DALL-E 3, and you’re going to be able to use web-browsing alongside other models.
A potentially game-changing use case for what looks to be the next step in the GPT-4 model roadmap is integrating web-browsing to the Advanced Data Analysis tool. This could let users scrape information from all over the web and then plug it into what used to be known as the Code Interpreter. Online businesses and data analysts will have whole new strategies for their workflows too.
It’s important to note that those who have access to GPT-4 Alpha have reported that you need to specify to ChatGPT whether you want it to access the internet, DALL-E 3, plugins and more.
GPT-4 Alpha has a 2048 token limit, apparently
According to people who have reported their access, GPT-4 Alpha has a 2048 token limit, despite some hoping it might be upgraded to 32K. Interestingly, though, a 2048 token limit is actually a downgrade from the 8,000 tokens that GPT-4 has.
Users who have access to GPT-4 Alpha have only briefly tested this by asking the Alpha model what its token limit is. If this is the case, it’s likely that it’s only limited to 2048 as it’s still an experimental feature. However, the expanded features and usability might contribute to any technical limitations that need to be imposed.
How to get access to GPT-4 Alpha
Unfortunately, it seems as though you have to get lucky to be granted access to the ChatGPT GPT-4 Alpha model, and there’s nothing you can really do to make your own luck here.
Many of the users who have found out they have access to GPT-4 Alpha have noted that they did so on free accounts. I have multiple email addresses, one of which I pay for Premium, and another is a free ChatGPT account. I wasn’t granted access on either, unfortunately, so it really seems like it’s a luck of the draw type thing.
There doesn’t seem to be a waitlist for GPT-4 Alpha
Unlike what we saw with GPT-4 and other ChatGPT features that have been rolled out, there’s no waitlist for GPT-4 Alpha. It seems as though there’s only a random chance you could be selected.
It’s important to note that there’s no way for experimental features to be rolled out to everyone at once – they are experimental, of course.
GPT-4 Alpha might be the next step to achieving AGI
GPT-4 Alpha does not have any indications of achieving AGI (artificial general intelligence), though it certainly looks like it’s going to be an important step along the way. Combining all of the plugins into one ‘chatbot’ will seriously change the usability and functions of the AI, and should these integrations be carried forward to GPT-5, it certainly looks likely.
In other AI news – we’ve covered how to sign up and access Grok from xAI (Elon Musk’s truth-seeking-universe-decrypting chatbot.) Alongside that, we’ve also taken a look at how to fix Microsoft Copilot from not showing up on Windows 11.
