What is chat GPT and open.ai? Is it the future?

Thank to Free Pik for the AI image.

By Austen Jones, York Apps · Originally published February 2023 · Rewritten and updated 8 July 2026

Introduction

ChatGPT is an AI chatbot made by OpenAI that answers questions and produces text — and it is now one of several capable “large language model” tools, alongside Anthropic’s Claude, Google’s Gemini and Microsoft’s Copilot. This guide explains, in plain English, what ChatGPT is in 2026, how the main models differ, and the shift that actually matters for business: from AI that answers to AI that acts.

What is ChatGPT?

ChatGPT is a conversational AI built on a large language model — software trained on huge amounts of text to predict and generate natural, human-like writing. You type a request; it produces an answer, a draft, a summary or an explanation. It launched publicly in late 2022 and put generative AI in front of ordinary users for the first time.

Under the bonnet, ChatGPT is made by OpenAI, an AI research company. The name “ChatGPT” refers to the chat product; “GPT” is the family of models that power it, which OpenAI updates regularly.

Who makes it — and what are the alternatives?

ChatGPT is no longer the only serious option. The models most UK businesses will encounter are:

  • ChatGPT (OpenAI) — the best-known general assistant.
  • Claude (Anthropic) — known for careful, long-form reasoning and safety.
  • Gemini (Google) — tightly integrated with Google’s ecosystem.
  • Copilot (Microsoft) — built into Microsoft 365, so it sits where a lot of business work already happens.

They are broadly similar in kind and differ in strengths, price and how they integrate with your existing tools. For business work, the right choice is usually decided by where your data and workflows already live, not by which model tops a leaderboard this month.

What can ChatGPT do — and what can’t it?

It is genuinely useful for drafting, summarising, explaining, translating and brainstorming. It is fast, available around the clock, and good at turning rough input into polished text.

Its limits matter just as much. It can state wrong things confidently (“hallucinate”), it has no real-world common sense, and on its own it only knows what it was trained on plus what you paste in — it cannot see your business’s live data unless you connect it. Those limits are exactly why serious business use needs integration and human review, not just a chat window.

Generative AI vs agentic AI: the shift that matters

The biggest change since ChatGPT launched is not a bigger chatbot — it is the move from generative AI to agentic AI. Generative AI produces an answer when you ask. Agentic AI decides what to do next and takes action towards a goal, using tools and data, under rules you control.

That is where business value is now being created: not in a person copy-pasting into a chat window, but in software that reads, decides and acts on real work. If that is new to you, start with our plain-English guides to what agentic AI is and what an AI agent is.

What this means for your business

ChatGPT is a good place to build familiarity, but the return comes from applying these models to your actual processes — email triage, quoting, document handling, answering questions from your own documents — with your systems connected and a person kept in the loop. That is the work we do: turning general-purpose models into software that does a specific job in your business. See our AI development services for how that works in practice.

Frequently asked questions

Is ChatGPT free?

There is a free tier and paid tiers with access to more capable models and higher limits. For business use, cost is usually driven by API usage inside an application rather than a per-person subscription.

Is ChatGPT safe to use with business data?

It depends how you use it. Pasting sensitive data into a consumer chat window is risky; using models through a properly built, permissioned integration — or a self-hosted model where data must stay in-house — is a different matter. The safeguards are in the integration, not the chatbot.

What is the difference between ChatGPT and OpenAI?

OpenAI is the company; ChatGPT is its chat product. The GPT models that power ChatGPT are also made by OpenAI and can be used inside other software via their API.

Is ChatGPT the same as agentic AI?

No. ChatGPT is mainly generative — it responds when prompted. Agentic AI takes actions towards a goal on its own, under rules and approvals. Agentic systems often use a model like GPT as their reasoning engine, but add planning, tools and action on top.

Further reading: What is agentic AI? · AI agent development · AI development services

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