ChatGPT is a chatbot from OpenAI that has recently taken the world by storm. There's now a new app that lets you use it on your Mac. Here's how to get started.
OpenAI launched ChatGPT in November, based on the company's GPT-3 machine learning models. Companies like Microsoft have integrated it, while others - including Google - fear it. There are various applications for answering questions and generating texts. Now a new application has appeared that brings it to the Mac menu bar. MacGPT was developed by Jordi Bruin and is available as a free macOS app. But anyone can contribute to support the developer. Once a user logs in with their OpenAI credentials, they can click the icon in the menu bar to start a conversation. It is also possible to assign a keyboard shortcut to activate MacGPT without a mouse or trackpad.
How to use ChatGPT on Mac with MacGPT
Before we get started. MacGPT is available for macOS versions Monterey and Ventura.
- Visits Bruins website on Gumroad.
- Enter 0 in the price field to download it for free – but we actually recommend a small donation.
- Click on “I want this” and the 3.1 MB download will start immediately.
- Double-click the zip file in your Downloads folder and drag the app into the Applications folder.
A Web tab in the app allows you to log in with your OpenAI credentials. Visit the OpenAI website to sign up for a free account. The Native tab allows you to access ChatGPT using the API credentials found in your OpenAI account's user settings. The MacGPT app says this provides faster responses and a smoother experience. After logging in, the application displays prompts directly from OpenAI. These prompts remind users that this is currently a research preview and that some of the information generated may be false, misleading, offensive, or biased.
ChatGPT: Depending on the question, some results may take more time
ChatGPT provides several sample prompts to get you started. For example:
Explain quantum computers in simple terms” or “Do you have any creative ideas for a 10-year-old’s birthday party?
As soon as a question or sentence is entered, ChatGPT generates a response. Depending on the question, some results may take longer than others. If it takes too long, there's a button to stop the response. At the bottom of the response, there are buttons to like or reject the answer. OpenAI added this option so users can provide feedback on ChatGPT's responses in case it "hallucinates," i.e., provides an answer that is incorrect or not supported by the training data. Additionally, MacGPT and the ChatGPT website save conversations in a history for users to access again. ChatGPT can also be accessed via the OpenAI website and is functionally identical to MacGPT, but has no special features. (Photo by Iryna Imago / Bigstockphoto)
