GPT-4 Turbo for Beginners: A C# Developer's Introduction
Unleashing the Power of AI: Your Gateway to Mastering GPT-4 Turbo with C#
Disclaimer: The provided code is intended for educational and personal use only. Misuse of the code for other purposes is not endorsed. It is crucial to maintain the confidentiality of your OpenAI API keys. Sharing them publicly can lead to unauthorized access and potential misuse. Please handle your keys responsibly.
🕰️ Reading time: about 8 minutes
🎧 Speaking time: about 12 minutes
Exciting Expansion to Patreon!
P.S. - I have some exciting news to share with you all! I'm expanding our community with a new venture on Patreon (https://www.patreon.com/TheAIObserver), where I'll be offering more in-depth and research-driven content, including a series titled "The Psychology of Human-AI Interactions." Don't worry – our journey on Substack continues with the insightful content you love. Stay tuned for a detailed announcement soon about how you can join this new chapter!
Best, Nat ❤
When dawn paints the sky with gold on Tuesdays, we'll embark on a journey through the digital realm, where code weaves the fabric of tomorrow's dreams. Together, we'll unravel the mysteries of algorithms, letting each line of code be our guide through the labyrinth of artificial intelligence. Our rendezvous, cloaked in the serenity of the day, will be a sanctuary where curiosity meets creation, and where the elegance of programming language dances with the possibilities of tomorrow. Join me in this algorithmic odyssey, as we unlock the secrets of AI, one poetic code snippet at a time.
What is GPT-4 Turbo?
Think about using high-tech AI in a better and easier way than ever before - that's the promise of GPT-4 Turbo. As we embark on this journey, let’s uncover the myriad of benefits this cutting-edge model offers. Developed by the innovative team at OpenAI, GPT-4 Turbo represents a significant leap forward in AI capabilities. Boasting an updated knowledge cutoff of April 2023, this model introduces an impressive 128k context window – the equivalent of considering 300 pages of text in a single prompt. What's more, it achieves this with a cost efficiency that is unmatched: input tokens are 3X cheaper and output tokens 2X cheaper compared to the original GPT-4 model, allowing for expansive interactions with a maximum of 4096 output tokens.
EXPLAINER:
The term “context window” in relation to GPT-4 Turbo refers to the amount of information the model can consider at once when generating a response. A “128k context window” means the model can process up to 128,000 tokens from the input prompt and its own generated responses. This is roughly equivalent to 300 pages of text, enabling the model to maintain a more coherent and contextually relevant conversation over a longer period.
The applications of GPT-4 Turbo span a diverse range of fields, making it a powerful tool for in-depth data analysis, creative content creation, and much more. Here’s a glimpse into its versatility:
Natural Language Understanding and Generation: GPT-4 Turbo excels in understanding and generating both natural language and code, making it ideal for drafting emails, writing articles, creating conversational agents, tutoring, language translation, and simulating characters for video games.
Game Design: The model's sophisticated language processing capabilities can be leveraged in game development, from generating complex game narratives to structuring and executing adventure games.
Creative Applications: Thanks to its multimodal abilities, which allow for text and image inputs and outputs, GPT-4 Turbo is perfectly suited for tasks requiring a blend of visual and textual creativity. This includes image and text generation, interactive chatbots, and complex problem-solving tasks.
Integration and Automation: Its compatibility with various platforms and applications makes GPT-4 Turbo a valuable asset for automating tasks, for example, streamlining workflows in Google Docs.
The possibilities with GPT-4 Turbo are vast and continually expanding, offering tailored solutions for specific use cases and industries. Dive into the world of GPT-4 Turbo to revolutionize your AI projects and unlock new frontiers in innovation and creativity.
🧙♂️ NAT'S NUGGETS
Meta-Prompts: Ask GPT-4 Turbo about the best ways to interact with it. For instance, "What are some advanced methods to get more detailed responses from you?" This can sometimes yield new strategies directly from the AI's "perspective."
Getting Started with the ChatGPT API in C#: A Beginner’s Guide
Let’s embark together on an exciting coding adventure! Open your Visual Studio and get ready to play your first sharp étude with OpenAI's Chat Completion API. This guide will walk you through the basics of interacting with the ChatGPT model using C#, ensuring a smooth and informative experience even for beginners.
EXPLAINER:
The Chat Completion API is a top-tier tool, crafted for optimal engagement with the GPT-3.5-Turbo and GPT-4 models. This API is not only the preferred method for accessing these advanced models but also the exclusive gateway to the latest GPT-4 model. It's tailored to provide a more streamlined and efficient way to harness the power of these AI models, making it an essential tool in your AI programming toolkit.
STEP 1
Open your Visual Studio and select ‘Create a new project’
STEP 2
Choose ‘Console app’ and click on ‘Next’
STEP 3
Name your project and solution in the following window and click on ‘Next’
STEP 4
Choose the desired framework and click on ‘Create’.
TIP 💡 Choosing the right framework ensures compatibility and optimal performance for your application.
For this demo, I’ve used .NET 6 for the following reasons:
Cross-platform Compatibility
Performance and Scalability
Long-Term Support
STEP 5
Now that we’ve finished with some initial setup, it’s time to write our first piece of code. First, we need to include what are called ‘using directives’.
EXPLAINER:
‘Using directives’ in C# allow us to use system classes without typing out their full names.
Here is the list of ‘using directives’ we’ll need to make our code function:
using System;
using System.Net.Http;
using System.Text;
using System.Threading.Tasks;
using Newtonsoft.Json; //Requires NuGet 2.12 or higher
STEP 6
Now, it’s time to define our core variables:
// Initialize a singleton HttpClient instance for making HTTP requests
static readonly HttpClient client = new HttpClient();
static readonly string apiKey = "API-KEY"; // Your personal API key for accessing GPT-4 Turbo (replace with the actual key)
// Endpoint URL for the GPT-4 Turbo Chat Completion API
static readonly string apiEndpoint = "https://api.openai.com/v1/chat/completions";
In this code, client, apiKey, and apiEndpoint are declared as ‘static readonly’. This means that these variables are shared across all instances of the class and their values are assigned at runtime and do not change afterwards.
DID YOU KNOW? 🤔
p(doom) is a new term standing for "probability of doom". This metric ranges from zero to 100, gauging the likelihood that AI could lead to a catastrophic scenario for humankind. Initially introduced half-jokingly on tech message boards, "p(doom)" has since gained traction and is now used more broadly to encapsulate varying degrees of concern or skepticism regarding AI's potential risks.
What’s your p(doom) score?
💡 This is particularly useful when you have data that doesn’t change and you want to prevent any accidental modifications while the program is running. For example, an API key or endpoint URL, which is typically set once and does not change, can be declared as ‘static readonly’.
STEP 7
Now, we’ve reached the point where we need to request data from the model using the following code:
// Asynchronous method to get a response from GPT-4 Turbo using a given prompt
static async Task<string> GetGPT4Response(string prompt)
{
// Prepare the request data with the model and user's message
var requestData = new
{
model = "gpt-4-1106-preview", //the model name in the API
messages = new[] { new { role = "user", content = prompt } }
};
// Serialize the request data to JSON format
var requestContent = new StringContent(JsonConvert.SerializeObject(requestData), Encoding.UTF8, "application/json");
// Send a POST request to the API endpoint and await the response
var response = await client.PostAsync(apiEndpoint, requestContent);
// Ensure a successful response status code
response.EnsureSuccessStatusCode();
// Read and return the content of the response as a string
var responseContent = await response.Content.ReadAsStringAsync();
// Deserialize the JSON response to a dynamic object and extract the relevant content
dynamic jsonResponse = JsonConvert.DeserializeObject(responseContent);
return jsonResponse.choices[0].message.content;
}
STEP 8
Finally, we need to set the authorization header for all requests:
static async Task Main(string[] args)
{
// Set the authorization header for all requests
client.DefaultRequestHeaders.Add("Authorization", "Bearer " + apiKey);
Console.WriteLine("Chat with GPT-4 Turbo:");
while (true)
{
Console.Write("You: "); //you can replace this with your name
string userInput = Console.ReadLine();
string botResponse = await GetGPT4Response(userInput);
Console.WriteLine("GPT-4 Turbo: " + botResponse);
}
}
And… we’ve successfully connected to the model! 🥳
NOTA BENE:
🤓 For error handling, we can use the traditional Try-Catch Blocks:
try
{
// Our existing code for preparing and sending the request
}
catch (HttpRequestException httpEx)
{
// Handle network-related errors (e.g., connection issues, timeouts)
Console.WriteLine("An error occurred while sending the request: " + httpEx.Message);
return "Error: Unable to connect to the API.";
}
catch (Exception ex)
{
// Handle general exceptions
Console.WriteLine("An error occurred: " + ex.Message);
return "Error: An unexpected error occurred.";
}
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CTRL + END
Through these 8 simple yet enlightening steps, we have embarked on a journey akin to a modern-day Alice's Wonderland – a realm brimming with wonders yet not without its challenges. As you venture further into the world of interacting with artificial intelligence through APIs, it's crucial to tread thoughtfully, always mindful of the ethical norms and impacts of our digital creations. This adventure is just the beginning, a doorway to endless possibilities where your imagination and responsibility are your most trusted companions.
My thoughts upon reading this:
GPT-4 Turbo for Beginners.. - "Yay, that's me!"
...C# Developer's Introduction - "Aaaaand I'm out!"
Even though much of this sails well over my non-coding head, I do appreciate the useful, hands-on format.
Well done Nat!
Nice one, Nat!
I noticed you have started a Patreon. I would be interested in learning about your decision behind choosing it and what your future plans are with it. Given that I've been facing numerous problems with payments, I have been looking for alternatives. I've used buymeacoffee.com, which is ok for one time payments, but we lose on the community feature provided by Substack memberships and exclusive benefits for people supporting our work.