AI for good
Regular readers might remember my posts about the never-ending idolization of AI. There are many examples of people’s mesmerization by ChatGPT, touting non-existent capabilities.
You also might come across articles, discussing how it will replace people. The ones about lawyers are especially popular. Meanwhile, others are trying to build more AI to combat the use of AI by students in school. Why? Because you know that the only use for AI in school is to do all the work for you. If you’re a student, how dumb do you have to be to not use AI to write your next essay?
That line of thinking is more reflective of the person's own view of the world, but seems like it would be very popular.
I had the lucky opportunity to talk with a student from a university and during our conversation the topic of ChatGPT came up.
I was expecting a description of how they used ChatGPT to 'Write me an essay on the topic of Boredom in an exciting voice at the university level English in 2000 words' as command to ChatGPT. Then they would run what the AI produced through Grammarly to obfuscate typical ChatGPT verbiage. Finally, they’d submit it to their professor and return to the real exciting life with friends. I was proved very wrong.
This is what I learned:
The topic to be studied was The Three Rhetorical Appeals: Ethos, Logos, Pathos. The professor uploaded the classes to YouTube so students could review them afterwards.
This student went to YouTube, and downloaded the transcript of the lecture and entered it into ChatGPT and than used the following commands:
create a study guide for this content
summarize important points from this content
provide questions about this topic
provide answers to this topic with an explanation
provide additional areas of study relevant to this topic
Of course, I was skeptical about the accuracy of the answers, but this student was verifying the answers with notes taken during the lecture.
I watched the video and have to confess, I almost fell asleep a few minutes into it while listening to the professor with the perfect 'Late Night DJ' voice. It was quite obvious that the delivery was not conducive to effective comprehension for this otherwise very interesting topic. I could understand why and how the student might need a bit of technology to overcome a very common human failing of the instructor.
Another tool this student is using is a website where you can upload a screenshot from your textbook and the system generates study flashcards, questions with multiple choices, 'fill the blank' questions and open ended questions to practice the topic.
The recurrent pattern? While the adults are arguing about the end of the world by AI or on LinkedIn they start using the new job title of 'ChatGPT prompt engineer', innovative people use their brain to see how the technology can help them to become smarter. AI won't kill jobs. It will separate faster the smart from the stupid.