Chat GPT. We all know his name. A glorious king in the eyes of people with a gpa under 1.000. For a few years now, AI has been quickly and rapidly evolving from simple text based conversations to full on, real time camera analysis with the most recent build for Chat-GPT 4o. With its advancement in camera analysis, it’s already practically perfected its text based analysis. You can probably imagine how easy it must be to get an extremely well written essay in under a minute with such an advanced model. So then, how does it work? What is it exactly? And why is using it in the way to cheat our ways into getting an A+ not…a good idea? Let’s quickly dive into what Chat-GPT is, why it’s such a problem, and how exactly can students use it effectively.
What is Chat-GPT?
Chat-GPT is a comprehensive machine learning module that uses Artificial Intelligence to learn from a set of data. You’re basically giving a machine a ton of books to flip through, newspapers to read, articles to analyze and images to look at. OpenAI is teaching a machine from the ground up about…well, everything. Math, science, biology, English, testing, marriage counseling, dating advice, college applications, the law, current news…it goes on and on. That’s the training part. The actual way it talks to you is different. It uses something called “Generative Pre-trained Transformer”. “Generative” means it’s actively generating text. The “Pre-trained” means that it’s already learned information and isn’t actively learning. “Transformer” means it’s transforming data into generative text. So to put it short, Chat-GPT is being fed a lot of information about quite literally everything, that information is then put through a training module, and then GPT learns how to spit it back out in the form of useful text. Ta da! That’s Chat-GPT for you.
Drawbacks
Although this sounds like a perfect formula…it isn’t. First of all, accuracy is lowered. We’re not actively feeding Chat-GPT new information. That’s why it’s called “pre-trained”. Everything it knows is up to April of 2023. After this year’s election, it won’t know who won. Though it’ll likely be aware of when the next election will be based on the date. This is because Chat-GPT is fed basic information like today’s date. Unfortunately, it’s not fed data on time.
Second of all, it can’t comprehend like us humans can. We read text and can sometimes understand the tone of voice simply by context. Chat-GPT, however, may not get the same hint. If it reads a part of a book you sent without providing enough information about the characters or previous interactions, it may not be aware of things like tension in the voicelines. Fortunately however, it’s highly likely that Chat-GPT was already fed information about the book you’re talking about if it’s available publicly online. If it’s already analyzed the book, then it’ll likely know what happened before or after.
Wrong ways to use Chat-GPT
Alright well let’s think of the obvious: Chat-GPT is an extremely intelligent and comprehensive writer. Unless you’re writing about an extremely modern topic, Chat-GPT knows exactly what to write about “How the results of the civil war affected modern racism today”. So if you ask it for an essay, it’ll give it to you. Obviously don’t do this. Not only is it plagiarism, but getting caught is so easy. Even if you ask for “Subtle human mistakes and errors in text” an AI detector can figure out that it’s made by AI.
So not only is it extremely easy to get caught, but it also just isn’t morally right. Copying is considered plagiarism (even if it’s made by AI!) and it can cause confusion.
Right ways to use Chat-GPT!
So what are some right ways to use chat GPT? Well Chat-GPT actually has a lot more good uses than wrong. Chat-GPT’s purpose is not to replace intelligence but to assist it. So what good ways can you use Chat-GPT without being morally wrong or breaking the rules? Well, let’s start with something simple: like grammar!
Grammar fixing
Chat-GPT is able to fix your grammar mistakes. If you’re writing a comprehensive argumentative essay and grammar is half the grade, maybe you can get some help from Chat-GPT!
Just like that, Chat-GPT has told me the errors in the sentence and fixed them for me. This could be good practice and examples of correct grammar to fix your own! Grammar can just generally be an annoying and tedious task. But with Chat-GPT, it can be simplified and can be easier to understand. Trust me, I struggle with grammar too.
Quotes
Ever been given an assignment to find a good quote in an article or something on what someone said? Obviously searching the internet for this information isn’t too hard, but it can be time consuming. So let’s just skip the easy but tedious to easy and fast. Ask Chat-GPT for a quote on something from a trusted source and it’ll be quick to give you a good answer! You can also always ask for other quotes from different sources so you can find just the right quote.
It even gives you the sources! How useful is that? Chat GPT is able to actively search its database and websites online to gather information. (Disclaimer: Please check if the sites are trusty first. For ex: Wikipedia isn’t considered a trusted source. But anything ending in .edu, .org, .gov is. For ex: the EPE listed here is trusted.)
What else can Chat-GPT do? Well it can also give you comprehensive explanations on how to do problems like math! If you ask Chat-GPT to help you solve a physics problem, it’ll give it to you with step by step instructions on how to solve it! If you ever need help with a problem like that, it’s the best.
Conclusion
Open-AI’s crazy innovation involving artificial intelligence is an amazing feat. Except the way some people use it can be morally incorrect and hard to detect. So let’s all try to normalize using Chat-GPT in a more correct manner. Chat-GPT is supposed to assist in learning and isn’t supposed to be a complete replacement for human intelligence. It’s supposed to help you. Not replace you. The way you use Chat-GPT and AI can greatly enhance the way you write, solve and figure out educational problems. But using them immorally is wrong. Following the steps above can ensure that you learn from the mistakes you make, solve problems with assistance, all without breaking the rules or human moral code.
