Technology has revolutionized businesses in myriad ways in the past 35 years, and with machine learning applications such as ChatGPT, this trend is set to continue…and education and businesses will continue to reap the benefits.
It’s important to acknowledge that ChatGPT has the potential to disrupt certain industries and impact job markets. However, it's also important to recognize that Artificial Intelligence is not a replacement for human creativity and critical thinking. It can assist and enhance human capabilities, but it cannot fully replace them.
It’s important to address concerns about the potential negative impact of AI on education and job markets, but it’s also important to explore the potential benefits of AI in these areas. For example, ChatGPT can assist educators in lesson planning and help students in areas such as writing and research.
Text by: Anastasia Spyropoulou
The point is that Artificial Intelligence cannot be and should not be stopped. Instead, we should be aware of the technological advancements that are sweeping our world and develop safeguards to adopt them responsibly. There is already software to help teachers identify whether their students are plagiarizing their essays from ChatGPT. Educators thought that Google, Wikipedia, and the internet itself would ruin education, but they did not.
ChatGPT won’t be able to replace a teacher in a classroom; however, it can certainly help them to prepare. Education professionals spend nearly 50 percent of their working hours on things like lesson planning which is a process that ChatGPT can perform in seconds.
My own experience from using ChatGPT
I teach English to a group of adult mixed-ability learners. Their age ranges from 40 to 67 years. They all did English when they were at school but they have lost most of the language. The focus of the course is to develop speaking skills. I decided not to use a coursebook at this stage of their learning since I didn’t know what each individual’s level was. Every week I produce my own material and continuously adjust my teaching style and content to suit my students’ needs and interests.
In the first session, we revised how to introduce ourselves. Here comes the amazing ChatGPT. I asked this application to write a lesson plan. The lesson plan was ready in a couple of minutes. It was simple, it only taught the basics but it was a good guide. I enriched it by asking my students to give more information about themselves like:
- Their age (to practice numbers)
- Their job (to practice professions)
- Their marital status (to practice relevant vocabulary)
- Their email (to practice the alphabet)
ChatGPT also gave me a list of all the key words as well as a number of gap-filling exercises for vocabulary practice. I had everything I needed in no more than ten minutes. It would normally take me two hours to prepare a lesson from scratch.
ChatGPT is not omniscient or smart enough to replace humans yet, but it can be creative, and its answers can sound downright authoritative.
What are the best qualities of ChatGPT?
- Ability to Understand and Respond to a Wide Range of Language Inputs.
- Answer Questions.
- Alternative to Google Search
- Useful for Education or Training Purposes
ChatGPT has an incredible capacity to perform different kinds of writing with more significant implications than might be initially apparent. The use of AI in writing can greatly increase the productivity of businesses in a variety of industries. By utilizing AI’s ability to quickly and accurately generate written content, businesses can save time and resources, allowing them to focus on other important tasks. This is particularly beneficial for marketing and advertising, consulting, and finance, where high-quality written materials are essential for communicating with clients and stakeholders.
Additionally, AI can be useful for industries such as journalism and publishing, where it can help generate articles and other written content with speed and accuracy. Overall, the use of AI in writing will greatly benefit businesses by allowing them to produce more written materials in less time.
ChatGPT can write a reasonable course syllabus, class assignments, grading criteria, and even lecture notes that could be potentially useful with some editing. You can ask it to describe how we know dinosaurs had a civilization, and it will happily make up a whole set of facts explaining, quite convincingly, exactly that. It is no replacement for Google. It literally does not know what it doesn’t know, because it is, in fact, not an entity at all, but rather a complex algorithm generating meaningful sentences.
AI is not perfect and still has limitations. While it can generate meaningful sentences and responses, it's not capable of fully understanding context and nuance. Additionally, AI still requires human oversight and editing to ensure accuracy and quality.
Overall, the key is to approach AI with an open mind and recognize its potential benefits and limitations. It’s important to continue developing safeguards and responsible practices for the integration of AI into various industries and fields.
ChatGPT will surely threaten some jobs. Machines can now do tasks that could only be done by highly trained humans. Some valuable skills are no longer useful, and new skills will take their place. And no one really knows what any of this means yet. And keep in mind: This is just one of many models like this that are in the works, from both companies we know, like Google, and others we may not.
Integrating AI into our work -and our lives- will bring sweeping changes. Right now, we’re just scratching the surface of what those might be.
Here is a chat I had with ChatGPT
- Could you give me the answer key to the above exercise?
I apologize for any confusion, but the exercise I provided is a fill-in-the-blank prompt that is designed for you to fill in the gaps with your own responses based on your plans for the weekend.
There are no specific or correct answers for this exercise, as the responses will vary from person to person depending on their plans and preferences.
I hope this clarifies things. Let me know if you have any other questions or if there is anything else I can help you with.
- Thank you!
You're welcome! If you have any more questions or if there’s anything else I can assist you with, feel free to ask.
