[#]: subject: "HuggingChat is the First Open Source ChatGPT Alternative That Anyone Can Use"
[#]: via: "https://news.itsfoss.com/huggingchat-chatgpt/"
[#]: author: "Sourav Rudra https://news.itsfoss.com/author/sourav/"
[#]: collector: "lkxed"
[#]: translator: " "
[#]: reviewer: " "
[#]: publisher: " "
[#]: url: " "

HuggingChat is the First Open Source ChatGPT Alternative That Anyone Can Use
======

Forget ChatGPT. Focus on HuggingChat, the open-source project.

![huggingchat][1]

The wave of new AI chatbots is not stopping anytime soon; another contender has jumped into the ring with ChatGPT.

Released recently, it's called '**HuggingChat**.' The main focus of this chatbot is to provide a more **transparent**, **inclusive,** and **accountable****alternative to ChatGPT**.

Don't get me wrong, HuggingChat is not the first open-source alternative to ChatGPT. We have covered open-source projects challenging ChatGPT.

⭐ However, **HugginChat seems to be the first one available to access as a platform that appears similar to ChatGPT**.

So, you are not using just a demo, you are already using what it is supposed to look and behave like - only the backend will get an upgrade as you test/use it.

Let's see what HuggingChat is all about.

**What is it:** So, basically in its current state, HuggingChat acts as a user interface that facilitates interaction with the **Open Assistant-powered back-end** allowing for chatbot functionality.

> 📋 [Open Assistant][2] is a project that aims to provide the masses with a feasible chat-based large language model (LLM).

![huggingchat screenshot][3]

HuggingChat is powered by Open Assistant's latest [LLaMA-based model][4] which is said to be one of the best open-source chat models available in the market right now.

But there's a catch to that model's usage in HuggingChat.

You see, the [LLaMA model][5] is the work of **Meta AI**, and they have restricted any commercial use of their model.

So, the LLaMA model will be used for now, and the **developers intend to add support for more models** in the future, paving the way for varying usage scenarios and even enterprise use cases.

Besides that, the chatbot is running in what the folks over at [Hugging Face][6] (the creators of HuggingChat) call '[Space][7]'. The inference backend is also running [text-generation-inference][8] on their Inference API infrastructure.

They have also open-sourced the user interface of HuggingChat. You can take a [look][9] here.

**Does it work?**

Well, sort of.

As it is in a **very early development stage (version 0)**, a few key features are missing, such as saving the conversation over a browser restart or when switching browsers.

Then there are familiar “_Too much traffic, try again later_” errors that pop up while running chat commands.

When I could run a command, I asked HuggingChat about its back end. It provided me with decent info about itself.

![huggingchat screenshot][10]

So, wrapping up.

Hugging Chat is not yet close to the levels of ChatGPT, but **alternatives like these are the need of the hour; we** all know what happens when one service dominates a specific niche.

[OpenChatKit][11] or [Dolly][12] can be some other options that you can look at.

But for now, all we can do is wait. These open-source alternatives will need some time, but someday they might be on par with ChatGPT or even better; who knows? 😲

**Want to try it?**

You can take HuggingChat for a run by visiting the [chat page][13]; also look at the code that makes it run on the [official website][14].

[HuggingChat][15]

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

via: https://news.itsfoss.com/huggingchat-chatgpt/

作者：[Sourav Rudra][a]
选题：[lkxed][b]
译者：[译者ID](https://github.com/译者ID)
校对：[校对者ID](https://github.com/校对者ID)

本文由 [LCTT](https://github.com/LCTT/TranslateProject) 原创编译，[Linux中国](https://linux.cn/) 荣誉推出

[a]: https://news.itsfoss.com/author/sourav/
[b]: https://github.com/lkxed/
[1]: https://news.itsfoss.com/content/images/size/w1304/2023/04/huggingchat-opensource-chatgpt-alt.jpg
[2]: https://open-assistant.io/?ref=news.itsfoss.com
[3]: https://news.itsfoss.com/content/images/2023/04/HuggingChat.jpg
[4]: https://huggingface.co/OpenAssistant/oasst-sft-6-llama-30b-xor?ref=news.itsfoss.com
[5]: https://ai.facebook.com/blog/large-language-model-llama-meta-ai/?ref=news.itsfoss.com
[6]: https://huggingface.co/?ref=news.itsfoss.com
[7]: https://huggingface.co/docs/hub/spaces-overview?ref=news.itsfoss.com
[8]: https://github.com/huggingface/text-generation-inference?ref=news.itsfoss.com
[9]: https://huggingface.co/spaces/huggingchat/chat-ui/tree/main?ref=news.itsfoss.com
[10]: https://news.itsfoss.com/content/images/2023/04/HuggingChat_2.png
[11]: https://news.itsfoss.com/open-source-chatgpt/
[12]: https://news.itsfoss.com/open-source-model-dolly/
[13]: https://huggingface.co/chat/?ref=news.itsfoss.com
[14]: https://huggingface.co/spaces?ref=news.itsfoss.com
[15]: https://huggingface.co/chat?ref=news.itsfoss.com