ChatGPT: Early Adopters, Teething Issues and the Way Forward

Abstract

From one-way communication to two-way communication, text-based to multimedia, unencrypted to end-to-end encrypted chats, computer, computer-to-human chats have evolved over the years to more sophisticated chatbots, mimicking natural human language based on predefined algorithms. ChatGPT is one of the most recent of such tools and, due to its capabilities has grown tremendously in use. Despite the numerous benefits of ChatGPT, some users have raised numerous concerns about its usage. The purpose of this study was to investigate the underlying determinants contributing to the effective adoption of ChatGPT, elicit from users the challenges to the use of ChatGPT, and make recommendations to developers and users on how to sustain ChatGPT. Questionnaires, face-to-face interviews, and focus group discussions were used to collect data for discussion. The study revealed very high acceptance rates of the chat tool stemming from its initial wildfire spread of over 1 million users within 5 days of launch to the 85% acceptance or perception among users that ChatGPT has the potential to improve how they perform their own daily professional and personal tasks.  Although 90% of users claimed to find the tool relatively easy to understand, navigate and use they also pointed out areas that need upgrading such as inclusion of multimedia and more accessibility features.