Citations:

OpenAI. (2023, Nov. 17). [ChatGPT response to a prompt about the weather]. https://chat.openai.com/

OpenAI. (2023, Nov. 17). [ChatGPT response to a prompt about a summary of 1984 by George Orwell]. https://chat.openai.com/

OpenAI. (2023, Nov. 17). [ChatGPT response to a prompt about making fish tacos]. https://chat.openai.com/

I decided to explore ChatGPT, as it is probably the most popular AI tool right now, so it’s worth looking deeper into. I tested it on a couple of skills: conversation, information and summarization.

First off, I tried talking about the weather to ChatGPT, and it instantly recognized that I was trying to have a conversation with it. It was self-aware that it’s just a computer program with no feelings, whose primary purpose is to assist users, not conversate. I also found that with each answer, it tries to be as helpful as possible. My statement of “the weather is not looking good today” prompted a response that told me the impacts of weather, and offered further help. It also tries to be as non-biased as possible, due to not having a favourite weather, further supporting its stance as a “help-only” tool. However, it was intuitive enough to ask me what my favourite weather was in response and even elaborated on my answer. I think that a full conversation with ChatGPT would be rather dull and boring, but it is self-aware of its purpose and doesn’t venture out of that.

Next, I asked for a summary of 1984 by George Orwell, and it gave a pretty good answer. It gave critical descriptions of the theme and setting, which are quite helpful and provide insightful thoughts. It is crazy to me that ChatGPT has essentially read almost every book in the world but that’s not how it works since it simply pulls information from the internet.

Lastly, I asked for steps on making fish tacos. It gave me a list of ingredients first before outlining the steps. I think this is one of the most useful parts of ChatGPT, being able to pull up information and instructions on just about anything, and not having to formulate a proper question, as in being able to ask a question in a non-formal way and getting effective results.

I haven’t had much experience with AI before, maybe only once when I used ChatGPT to summarize some articles for me. In my opinion, I think that its ability to summarize is a great way to process a lot of information quickly, without having to read through them to find out if they are useful or not.

I think for education, AI can be used as a tool to seek out information and gather information, but not to write papers or do your actual work. A lot of learning development takes place during the trial and error process, so it is important to fail in order to learn effectively. AI can also help teachers with their administrative tasks and marking, in order to focus more time on preparing lessons and teaching.

AI can help teachers with their administrative tasks, leaving them more time to focus on preparing lessons and teaching. Tasks like grading exams can be sped up by using AI technology and software that helps teachers streamline this normally long process. AI’s ability to quickly formulate insightful responses is useful for students to get direct answers quickly, rather than have to scour the web for information. I think that there should be strict guidelines in terms of writing papers and doing exams, but for the purposes of learning, guidelines only serve to restrict a student’s ability to learn and gain knowledge. AI is just a different way to learn.

AI is definitely technology-driven and only available to those with access to computers and laptops, so the people who aren’t able to access technology are excluded.

I think one of the biggest concerns with AI is regarding personal data. AI often involves the collection and analysis of vast amounts of personal data. There are concerns about how this data is used, stored, and protected. Unauthorized access to sensitive data by AI systems poses risks to individuals’ privacy rights. Another is regarding jobs. The automation of tasks through AI technologies raises concerns about job loss and its socio-economic impact. Disruptions in the labour market may require ways for retraining and upskilling workers affected by automation.

With the progress that AI has made in the past 10 years, it is only going to get stronger and more powerful, for better or worse? We’ll just have to find out.