2026.02.19

What Is ChatGPT? A Beginner’s Guide to Using It: 10 Practical Tips and Important Precautions

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You’ve probably been hearing “ChatGPT” everywhere lately. If you’re thinking “It sounds impressive, but I don’t really get it,” you’re not alone. But once you dig in, you’ll find it’s actually fascinating! Since its release in November 2022, ChatGPT has undergone dramatic evolution. In this article, we’ll explore the world of ChatGPT together — no complex jargon, just clear and easy explanations, including the latest information as of 2025.

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1. What Exactly Is ChatGPT?

ChatGPT stands for “Chat Generative Pre-trained Transformer.” While the name sounds complicated, in simple terms, it’s an AI that has been trained on an enormous amount of text data — think of it as someone who has read tens of thousands of books. As of 2025, the latest model “GPT-5.2” has been released, significantly outperforming its predecessors GPT-4 and GPT-4o.

The result is an AI that can generate natural, human-like text and answer questions in a way that feels like you’re chatting with a real person. Beyond text, ChatGPT can now also generate and analyze images, hold voice conversations, and even create videos through Sora.

2. What Can ChatGPT Do?

ChatGPT is active across a wide range of fields. Here are some key capabilities:

Customer Support: Automatically answers customer inquiries, reducing workload for support teams.
Content Creation: Helps write blog posts, stories, poetry, and other text content.
Translation: Supports multiple languages for seamless translation.
Summarization: Condenses lengthy texts into concise summaries.
Programming: Generates code and assists with debugging.
Image Generation: Creates original images from text descriptions.
Deep Research: Investigates complex topics and creates detailed reports.
Agent Mode: Automatically executes multi-step tasks like a virtual assistant.
Video Generation (Sora): Creates videos from text prompts — a groundbreaking creative tool.

3. How Does ChatGPT Work?

ChatGPT uses a technology called deep learning — a method that mimics the neural networks of the human brain — to learn from massive amounts of text data. Based on this learning, it uses Natural Language Processing (NLP) to generate human-like text and answer questions. Think of NLP as a translator that enables ChatGPT to understand and speak human language.

4. What Are the Benefits of Using ChatGPT?

Available 24/7: Consult ChatGPT anytime, anywhere.
Instant responses: Get answers to your questions immediately.
Multilingual support: Works with English, Japanese, Chinese, and many more languages.
Objective information: Provides balanced information without emotional bias.

5. What Does the Future of ChatGPT Look Like?

ChatGPT continues to evolve rapidly. Expected developments include more natural conversations that feel increasingly human-like, the ability to understand emotions, and greater personalization that tailors services to each individual user. The ChatGPT of the future may become like a trusted companion that supports us through daily life.

6. Why Not Give ChatGPT a Try?

If ChatGPT has piqued your interest, give it a try! OpenAI offers several pricing plans. The free version lets you experience GPT-5.2’s basic features, and if you need more capabilities, paid plans include Go ($8/month), Plus ($20/month), and Pro ($200/month). You can access ChatGPT directly from OpenAI’s official website.

10 Practical Ways to Use ChatGPT [For Beginners]

Depending on how you use it, ChatGPT can enhance everything from daily life to professional work. Here are ten practical applications anyone can try right away:

Proofreading and editing: Submit your emails or reports to ChatGPT for typo corrections and suggestions for more natural phrasing.
Translation and language learning: Beyond translating text, ask “Explain the grammar in this English sentence” and it becomes a language tutor.
Brainstorming: “Give me 10 blog topic ideas” or “Suggest a presentation structure” — perfect for generating ideas.
Summarization: Paste a long article and say “Summarize this in 3 sentences” for instant key points.
Programming assistance: Describe what you want to achieve in plain language, and ChatGPT will generate the code.
Recipe suggestions: “I have chicken and cabbage in the fridge. Suggest an easy recipe” — and you get meal ideas instantly.
Travel planning: “Plan a 3-night, 4-day trip to Kyoto” yields detailed itineraries including sightseeing spots and transportation.
Meeting minutes: Hand over bullet-point meeting notes and get them formatted into readable minutes.
Excel formula help: “What Excel formula calculates total sales?” — get specific functions with explanations.
Personal advice: Discuss relationship or career concerns for objective perspectives that help organize your thoughts.

Tips for Writing Better Prompts

The quality of ChatGPT’s answers depends heavily on how you phrase your questions (prompts). Master these tips to get dramatically better results:

Assign a Role

Giving ChatGPT a role like “You are a professional editor” or “Answer as a marketing expert” produces responses specialized for that domain.

Be Specific

Instead of “Write a good article,” try “Write an 800-word blog post about dieting for women in their 30s in a casual tone.” The more specific your instructions, the closer the output matches your expectations.

Ask Step by Step

Rather than asking everything at once, build up your conversation gradually: “First give me an overview” → “Elaborate on the second point” → “Provide three specific examples.” This layered approach yields more precise results.

Important Precautions and Limitations of ChatGPT

While ChatGPT is incredibly useful, it’s not infallible. The most important thing to understand is that ChatGPT sometimes produces “convincing lies” — a phenomenon known as “hallucination.” It may confidently present incorrect information as fact. Always verify numerical data and the latest information against original sources.

Also be cautious when entering personal or confidential information into ChatGPT. Your inputs may potentially be used as training data for the AI. Avoid entering company secrets or personally identifiable data. OpenAI provides settings to opt out of data training usage, so use them as needed.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

Is ChatGPT free to use?

Yes, ChatGPT’s basic features are available for free. The free plan provides access to the GPT-4o model. For more advanced features, expanded usage limits, and image generation, there’s the ChatGPT Plus plan at $20/month.

Are ChatGPT’s answers accurate?

ChatGPT’s responses are highly useful as reference information, but they’re not guaranteed to be 100% accurate. For specialized topics, breaking news, and numerical data, we recommend cross-referencing with other reliable sources.

Can I use it in Japanese?

Yes, ChatGPT supports Japanese and can communicate naturally in the language. While accuracy may be slightly lower compared to English in some cases, the quality is more than sufficient for everyday use.

Other AI Chat Tools Worth Knowing

Google Gemini

Developed by Google, Gemini’s strength lies in its integration with Google Search, making it particularly good at providing answers that reflect the latest information. It’s free with a Google account and offers robust integration with Gmail and Google Docs.

Claude (Anthropic)

An AI assistant developed by Anthropic, Claude excels at analyzing long documents and providing thoughtful, detailed responses. It’s well-suited for business document creation and research, with a strong emphasis on safety in its design.

Microsoft Copilot

Microsoft’s AI assistant integrated into Office products. It provides AI assistance directly within Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and other Office apps — ideal for everyday work tasks like “Create a chart from this data” or “Summarize these meeting notes.”

Each of these tools has different strengths. If ChatGPT doesn’t give you the answer you need, trying another tool is a smart strategy. The ability to use multiple AI tools effectively — “AI utilization literacy” — is becoming an essential skill.

The Evolution of ChatGPT: A Brief History

ChatGPT was released by OpenAI in November 2022 and achieved a remarkable milestone of 1 million users in just 5 days. In March 2023, the more powerful GPT-4 launched with significantly improved image understanding and complex reasoning capabilities. In May 2024, GPT-4o was announced, evolving into a multimodal AI capable of seamlessly processing text, voice, and images.

ChatGPT usage is expanding rapidly in Japan as well. According to Japan’s Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications’ “Information and Communications White Paper (2024 edition),” Japan’s generative AI usage rate is approximately 27%, still lower than the US rate of approximately 69%, but adoption in business settings is accelerating. Multiple municipalities including Yokosuka City and Kobe City have adopted ChatGPT for operational efficiency, increasing public sector use cases.

Conclusion: Step Into the Future with ChatGPT

ChatGPT is a free AI assistant available to everyone, with the potential to significantly transform our daily lives and work. Its applications are remarkably broad — from writing and translation to brainstorming and programming.

Of course, it’s important not to blindly trust AI answers and to think critically yourself. ChatGPT is ultimately a “super-capable assistant” — the final judgment should always be yours. If you haven’t tried it yet, search “What can ChatGPT do?” today and give it a go. You’re sure to discover something new.

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