By Chanyeong Park
ChatGPT is a language model developed by OpenAI that is designed to generate human-like text. It is based on the transformer network architecture and is fine-tuned on a massive dataset of internet text to handle conversational language. The model has many benefits, including its ability to handle out-of-vocabulary words, generate coherent text, and be fine-tuned for specific tasks. However, there are also risks associated with the model, including the potential for the generation of biased or misleading text and the potential for the model to be used for malicious purposes.
The origin of ChatGPT can be traced back to the development of GPT (Generative Pre-trained Transformer) by OpenAI in 2018. Over the years, OpenAI has developed larger models with more advanced capabilities, such as GPT-2 and GPT-3, which have been fine-tuned for specific tasks. ChatGPT is the latest version of GPT-3, fine-tuned specifically for conversational language.
One of the main benefits of ChatGPT is its ability to generate human-like text. This makes it useful for a wide range of natural language processing tasks, such as language translation, text summarization, and question answering. The model's ability to handle out-of-vocabulary words and generate coherent text also makes it useful for text-based applications such as chatbots and virtual assistants.
However, there are also risks associated with ChatGPT. One of the main risks is the potential for the model to generate biased or misleading text. This is because the model is trained on a massive dataset of internet text, which may contain biases and inaccuracies. This can lead to the generation of biased or misleading text, which can have negative consequences for individuals and society.
Another risk associated with ChatGPT is the potential for the model to be used for malicious purposes. The model's ability to generate human-like text can be used to create fake news or impersonate individuals online. This can lead to the spread of misinformation and the erosion of trust in online communication.
In conclusion, ChatGPT is a powerful language model with many benefits, including its ability to generate human-like text and be fine-tuned for specific tasks. However, it is important to consider the potential risks associated with the model, including the potential for biased or misleading text and malicious use, and take steps to mitigate them. OpenAI encourages its users to use the model responsibly and report any misuse of the model.
Would you believe me if I told you that an AI wrote this? I wouldn’t; quite frankly, I still don’t believe it. ChatGPT, ever since it has been dropped, has been a hot topic for people, including my teachers, friends, and parents. So, I tried it, and here is what I asked it to do:
The response to my directions from ChatGPT, surprisingly, was the first 300 words that you have read of this writing. Well, that’s my piece right there! Thanks ChatGPT! I don’t have to do any work! Yahoo! Of course, I am not going to just copy and paste the whole response as the final draft of this piece. I am not that lazy. (Hmm… Is that true, though?)
Anyways, one thing for sure is that you can’t tell immediately that a robot wrote this. Most of the time, especially if you played around with chatbots such as Eliza, AIs give us a response that contains awkward word choices or sentence structures that make you squint while reading. But ChatGPT, it seems like, doesn’t have any of those obvious signs that throw the reader off like the past chatbot or natural language processing models did. The chatbot’s writing seems eerily similar to what a normal human would write. Because of this uncanniness, some teachers are panicking and are having emergency meetings, afraid that their students will use ChatGPT to cheat on their assignments.
However, I think otherwise; I believe the benefits of ChatGPT outweigh its risks in educational contexts.
Firstly, ChatGPT can be a teacher’s best tool. For example, Cherie Shields, a high school English teacher in Oregon, had recently assigned students in one of her classes to use ChatGPT to create outlines for their essays comparing and contrasting two 19th-century short stories that touch on themes of gender and mental health: “The Story of an Hour,” by Kate Chopin, and “The Yellow Wallpaper,” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman. Once the outlines were generated, her students put their laptops away and wrote their essays longhand (Roose). Such activity involves a lot of thinking for the students as they need to assess which information they should synthesize based on the generated outlines and examine the overall structure of the essay to make sure the essay flow is coherent throughout. Even ChatGPT’s flaws—such that its answers may be biased or factually wrong— can stimulate critical thinking among students to rethink about ChatGPT’s answers and make necessary changes.
ChatGPT can also help teachers save time preparing for class. Jon Gold, an eighth-grade history teacher at Moses Brown School, a pre-K through twelveth-grade Quaker school in Providence, R.I., said that he had experimented with using ChatGPT to generate quizzes (Roose). He fed the bot an article about Ukraine, for example, and asked it to generate 10 multiple-choice questions that could be used to test students’ understanding of the article.
It is almost inevitable that tools like ChatGPT will only improve and become an inseparable piece in our society. Then, rather than viewing this sudden shift in technology as a disastrous apocalypse, we should embrace it, and learn how to use them. The adjustments won’t be easy, but who else but the teachers would guide us through this?
References
Roose, K. (2023, January 12). Don't ban chatgpt in schools. teach with it. The New York Times. Retrieved February 5, 2023, from https://www.nytimes.com/2023/01/12/technology/chatgpt-schools-teachers.html
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