Discover top guides, trends, tips and expertise from AIO Writers

10 Most Common ChatGPT Limitations

Julia McCoy
Tuesday, 6th Feb 2024
chatgpt limitations

So, you’ve been tinkering with ChatGPT and marveling at its smarts. It’s slick, quick, and often hits the nail right on the head with answers that sound almost human.

But then it stumbles. Hard.

Why?

Well, because ChatGPT has limitations.

In this piece, we’ll dive into why this AI tool isn’t quite ready to take over your job or write your thesis for you just yet.

We’re peeling back the curtain to show you exactly where ChatGPT falters — think common sense errors, outdated info due to lack of internet access, emotional intelligence gaps … the list goes on.

By understanding ChatGPT limitations better, you’ll get why sometimes this AI model seems more like a clever parrot than a true digital mind.

But it’s not all doom and gloom! We also touch on how OpenAI is hustling hard to iron out these wrinkles.

Stick around; it’s going to be enlightening!

Table Of Contents:

What Are The Limitations of ChatGPT?

While ChatGPT is an impressive feat of technology capable of generating responses that range from writing code to composing poetry, it’s not without its boundaries.

Here are the top 10 ChatGPT limitations.

1. Limited Understanding of Context

One significant limitation of ChatGPT is its occasional struggle with context. While adept at generating responses based on vast data sets, it sometimes misinterprets nuanced queries or fails to grasp complex subject matter deeply. This can lead to answers that seem superficial or slightly off-target for more specialized topics.

Consider how AI interprets emotional cues or sarcasm — it doesn’t really ‘get’ them because its training data lacks this depth of human experience. This means generating content that feels genuinely empathetic or correctly uses subtle tones remains out of reach for now.

2. Outdated Information

ChatGPT’s responses are not always up to date. Despite its extensive training on a broad spectrum of sources, the data pool ChatGPT draws from only extends up until January 2022.

Unlike traditional search engines like Google or specialized brand growth tools like BrandWell, which crawl the web continuously to deliver real-time results, ChatGPT operates as a standalone language-processing tool without live access to internet updates.

Recognizing this need for freshness in data, OpenAI introduced an experimental feature for ChatGPT Plus users — a beta system equipped with limited browsing abilities. This development marks a step towards bridging the update gap but comes with its own set of limitations. The system cannot consistently extract text from all websites it visits, making it less reliable for comprehensive research purposes.

3. Creative Limitations

Creativity is another area where users might find ChatGPT lacking. While capable of generating coherent text, true innovation or out-of-the-box thinking remains largely human territory.

In crafting compelling narratives or unique selling propositions (USP) in your content strategy, relying solely on AI may not yield the most engaging results.

4. Lack of Common Sense

One of the ChatGPT limitations we noticed is its lack of common sense. This leads to responses that sometimes don’t quite hit the mark.

Imagine asking someone for directions and they give you a recipe instead!

This gap in logical reasoning affects how well ChatGPT can answer questions or provide accurate advice based solely on text data without real-world interaction or experiences.

5. Biased Answers

One significant limitation of AI language models, including ChatGPT, is inherent biases. This occurs because the data used to train these models isn’t fully representative of global diversity.

A considerable portion of this training data is in English, which skews the model’s understanding and output towards one linguistic group over others. For businesses aiming at global markets or multilingual audiences, this limitation underscores the need for manual oversight when using AI-generated content.

6. Limited Knowledge of Niche Topics

ChatGPT’s journey through the vast world of knowledge is quite remarkable, but when it veers into niche topics, things get a bit tricky.

Imagine trying to become an expert on every obscure hobby, underground music genre, or cutting-edge scientific research out there. That’s kind of what ChatGPT faces.

Think about how much stuff gets talked about online — the popular topics drown out the quieter ones. Niche subjects often don’t get as much airtime because not as many people are chatting or writing about them. So when ChatGPT was learning from all this data before its cutoff date, it didn’t pick up as much on these less-talked-about areas.

And let’s be honest – some topics require more than just facts They need understanding gained from years immersed in a field of expertise. That level of depth can be pretty challenging to replicate by artificial intelligence models – at least for now.

7. Usage Limits

For users of the free version of this large language model, there are ChatGPT limitations regarding how often you can interact with the system.

ChatGPT imposes a cap on the number of prompts you can submit — limiting interactions to 30 messages per hour for those using its basic plan. This limitation is slightly relaxed for ChatGPT Plus users who enjoy a higher but still capped number of messages they can send within an hour. These restrictions ensure fair usage among a vast user base while managing server load effectively.

Besides message frequency limits, each conversation is also restricted to 3000 words in total length. Reaching this limit triggers an error message from the system, indicating that no further input will be processed in that particular session until some content is deleted or a new session begins.

  • Basic Plan Users: Limited to 30 messages per hour
  • Plus Plan Users: Enjoy more generous interaction caps (specifics vary over time)
  • All Users: Each conversation limited to 3000 words

This setup primarily addresses technical necessities — managing long or complex responses requires significant processing power and memory allocation which could otherwise impact overall performance and availability for all users.

8. Accuracy is Not Guaranteed

Another significant challenge faced by ChatGPT users, especially those using the free version for content creation, revolves around accuracy.

One might assume that artificial intelligence would excel in delivering precise information consistently. Yet, this assumption falls short when confronted with reality.

Despite its vast database and learning capabilities, ChatGPT sometimes fumbles on facts. The implications are far-reaching — inaccurate information can harm your brand’s credibility and diminish your website’s ranking potential.

To make sure you are only putting accurate information out there:

  • Evaluate all AI-generated content critically before publication
  • Cross-check facts against reliable sources
  • Edit meticulously to correct any linguistic inaccuracies

9. Incomplete Responses

One of the most common ChatGPT free version limitations is unfinished responses. This hiccup occurs particularly when requesting long texts or complex code snippets — situations where precision and completion are non-negotiable.

Why are these interruptions happening?

First off, there’s the aspect of computational resources — a fancy term for how much computer power is needed to keep our chat going smoothly. The brains behind ChatGPT need to make sure everyone gets their turn without crashing their servers or causing delays. So they put some guardrails in place — including cutting responses short — to ensure everything runs like well-oiled machinery.

Generating lengthy responses also requires diving deeper into language models’ neural networks which takes time. Not all questions need elaborate answers but when they do, balancing between providing comprehensive information while staying within operational limits becomes quite a challenge.

10. Ethical Considerations

Beyond bias, there’s also an ethical dimension to consider when using ChatGPT. Without human-like reasoning or ethics, AI models may inadvertently produce sexist, racist, or homophobic content. These outputs stem from not understanding societal norms or recognizing the harmful implications of certain responses.

  • Lack of ethical judgment: When faced with conflicting information sources, ChatGPT cannot discern which source might be more credible or accurate than another.
  • Fairness and truthfulness: Deciding what is fair or truthful poses another challenge for chatbots since they operate on algorithms rather than moral principles.

This doesn’t mean we should discard using such powerful tools but rather approach them with caution. Integrating human oversight into our processes ensures that our use of AI aligns with ethical standards.

How to Overcome ChatGPT Limitations

Step 1: Fact check. The generative nature of ChatGPT means it’s prone to producing content that might not always be accurate or up-to-date. To combat this, always cross-verify facts and data generated by ChatGPT with reliable sources. For instance, if you’re discussing industry trends or statistics, consult authoritative sites like Statista or specific industry reports to confirm accuracy before publication.

Step 2: Fine tune. ChatGPT’s output may sometimes reflect unintended bias or adopt a tone that doesn’t align with your brand voice. Rigorous fine-tuning by a human editor is essential here — not just for grammar but also for ensuring consistency in voice and removing any inadvertent biases from the text. Tools such as Hemingway Editor can help simplify this process by highlighting complex sentences and suggesting simpler alternatives.

Step 3: Add insights. Enhance AI-generated content by incorporating insights from recent studies or articles relevant to your topic. This adds depth and value beyond what generative AI currently offers.

Step 4: Link to sources. Bolster credibility by linking back to reputable sources whenever mentioning data points or significant claims within your piece.

Step 5: Add news and opinions. Including expert opinions or recent news related to your subject matter can provide fresh perspectives that enrich the overall quality of your content.

These practices can help marketers elevate their content strategy without being overly reliant on ChatGPT material alone.

But what if I told you there’s a better way to produce good content without having to go through these time-consuming steps?

BrandWell: The Safer and Better Alternative to ChatGPT

BrandWell solves all of these ChatGPT limitations with deep research.

Here’s how it works:

  • BrandWell has a deeper real-time crawling process that looks into top-ranking content, news articles, social content, and everything that surrounds a given topic — solving the limited knowledge of ChatGPT.
  • BrandWell is built with multiple LLMs to write the best output — undetectable, humanlike, fluff-free writing that you can customize to your tone of voice so that every blog post sounds just like you and not a robot like ChatGPT.
  • NLP and semantic analysis not only automatically select what keywords and how often to mention them, but also where in the articles they need to appear — part of a suite of incredible SEO tools that ChatGPT can never match.
  • Deep Research allows BrandWell to find actual citations and credible sources for claims, with natural anchor text that automatically links to that source — a feature that not even the most advanced version of ChatGPT can offer.
  • Best of all, BrandWell is set up to eliminate hallucinations — a common flaw of ChatGPT and other general-purpose chatbots.

FAQs – ChatGPT Limitations

What is the downside of ChatGPT?

ChatGPT can miss the mark on common sense, struggles with real-time updates, and doesn’t get emotions.

What does ChatGPT not allow?

It can’t surf the web for fresh info or update its knowledge base in real time.

Is there a limit on using ChatGPT?

Overuse might trigger slowdowns or temporary access issues due to server load.

Conclusion

In essence, keep your expectations realistic when using AI chatbots like ChatGPT. Lean on it for what it does best but stay mindful of its current bounds.

If you’re looking for a ChatGPT alternative that provides more accurate, better, and safer output in real time, BrandWell is an excellent option. This all-in-one brand growth platform can access the Internet 24/7, is purposely trained to write marketing content, and will never share your information with the world.

supercharge your brand growth
Written by Julia McCoy

See more from Julia McCoy
UNLOCK YOUR POTENTIAL

Long Headline that highlights Value Proposition of Lead Magnet

Grab a front row seat to our video masterclasses, interviews, case studies, tutorials, and guides.

Experience the power of BrandWell