My daughter, who has had a degree in computer science for 25 years, posted this observation about ChatGPT on Facebook. It's the best description I've seen:
@DrewKadel She’s right. And that being the case, why on earth is anyone using it? If it’s not providing correct information, WTH is the point?
I just saw a post that cites info from ChatGPT about companies doing business in TN. As if it’s an authoritative source…
@kyozou @DrewKadel Well, it is usually correct for questions that are common on the Internet.
Today I pasted it some data definition and asked to implement a simple filtering in Javascript. I could have looked it up in five minutes. But it generated something that worked (with my particular data) in five seconds. I asked a follow-up request "write this in functional style", and it did. I generally know Javascript, but it used an API method that I didn't know about.
And especially when you ask real humans on Stackoverflow your JavaScript question is more likely to result in a toxic response, people have actually found ChatGPT to be more helpful in this regard
https://youtu.be/N7v0yvdkIHg