system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
ELI5:how do the chips on credit cards provide extra security?

That is their purpose right, to be more secure than before. Additionally, how come sometimes a pin is not required? Without a pin, anyone can use it.
gpt
Magnetic stripes are easily duplicated. The information on them is unencrypted and the machines to duplicate them quite cheap.  

A chip on card is basically a unique encryption key. The reader has an active conversation with the chip to verify the authenticity of the card. Pin not being required has been done largely to reduce the resistance to adoption. It is an additional layer of security that should be used but its absence does not lower it to the simple pinless magstripe transaction as the difficulty of reproducing or emulating an individual cards chip is prohibitive.