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Time flies—another year has passed since ChatGPT’s release.
Happy birthday, ChatGPT! 🎉
While it hasn’t changed significantly, I’ve made bold decisions in my own life.
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Podcast of this article generated by NotebookLM
Two Years with ChatGPT_ Reflections and Insights.wav
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_QvVcq_Og7g
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It’s been only two years since the end of the COVID-19 tragedy. Back then, moving to Canada was just a plan. From strict lockdowns to the tragic fire in Ürümqi, from nationwide protests to the lifting of restrictions—all that happened just two years ago. Three days after the “white paper” protests, ChatGPT was released, and it changed my life. I’ll remember that time forever, if I stay conscious enough.
The change from 2023 to 2024 wasn’t as surprising to me as the shift from 2022 to 2023. But this year has been big for me. I left my decent job in Beijing and moved to Ottawa. By interacting more with ChatGPT, I found the courage and confidence to make this move. ChatGPT encouraged me to take this path, and its support has made me more optimistic about the future.
Now, I feel it’s meaningful to write down my thoughts, just like I did a year ago (here is last year’s reflection). I hope to keep this series going in the years to come. This time, I’m writing in English and using ChatGPT to help me proofread.
Over the past year, I’ve felt a bit of contradiction.
On one hand, I’m excited whenever I scroll my Twitter timeline. The flood of news, demos, and talks about AI always amazes me.
On the other hand, there hasn’t been a groundbreaking new foundational model since GPT-4’s release in March 2023—over 20 months ago. Everything I’ve seen since, including o1-preview and Claude 3.5 Sonnet, hasn’t gone beyond GPT-4 or reached a significantly higher level.
I don’t doubt the trajectory of AI development, but I can’t help feeling that progress hasn’t been as fast as I personally expected. Of course, Rome wasn’t built in a day.
As Daniel Gross pointed out, even if development were to pause today, there are still countless fascinating use cases to explore for a long time.
It’s true we haven’t seen another leap like the jump from GPT-3.5 to GPT-4. Let’s wait and see what happens in 2025 and the coming year. As Sam Altman and Dario Amodei have predicted, we might reach AGI—or at least very powerful AI—during the next Trump presidency.