Artificial intelligence, or AI, has been in the news a lot recently. Read about it below and then let us know your opinion in the comments.
What is AI?
AI is a computer's ability to do tasks that are normally done by humans, such as learning, planning and creating new things. Siri, Google Assistant and Amazon Alexa are all based on AI, as are online translators, customer service chatbots and self-driving cars.
What is ChatGPT?
ChatGPT is an AI chatbot. It can chat with users and give very detailed and complex answers to their questions. It can write poems, songs and essays, generate ideas and suggestions, and remember what was said earlier in the conversation.
However, there are concerns as well. AI can give incorrect answers, and it sometimes invents information but presents it as a fact. This may facilitate the creation and spread of fake news and make it hard for people to know what is actually true. Also, an AI produces its answers based on other data that it has learned from. If that data contains racist, sexist or discriminatory ideas, the AI may repeat them. Another concern is that since ChatGPT is fast and easy to use, companies may prefer it over human employees. Some say that this will allow humans to focus on higher-level and more creative jobs, but others fear that it could replace human workers.
How have AI and ChatGPT been used?
Here are some real examples.
- A judge in Colombia used ChatGPT to help him to make a judgment. He argued that ChatGPT can help the legal system to process cases faster.
- ChatGPT wrote a song in the style of the singer Nick Cave. But when Nick Cave saw the song, he said 'I don't much like it.'
- Students are using ChatGPT to do research, write their homework and get feedback on it. Some universities have banned ChatGPT. Others have allowed it, as long as students credit it as a source.
- The covers of Vogue Singapore magazine and Vogue Brazil's digital edition in March 2023 were created by AI. They showed virtual models, who do not actually exist.
What do you think?
- What are your views on ChatGPT? Have you tried it?
- Do you welcome AI? Or are you worried about it?
- Do you think AI will affect your job?
Hello everyone! I'm worried that people can degrade and will stop to rise.
Hi everyone, I would like to share my recent experience with AI at my work. As a highschool teacher I started at the beginning of this year showing all my partners what ChatGPT could do. I encouraged every teacher to include ChatGPT in their routines and try not to avoid its usage, because students will definitely use it in their homeworks. So I thought at the beginning of this year that it would be easier for everyone if we all start working with something that sooner or later will be part of our lives.
I thought that working with our students in finding errors from ChatGPT, or looking for ways of improvements of its productions would enhance their ability to assess texts and improve their writing capabilities.
Finally, since most of our teachers were frightened to use ChatGPT, they banned its usage in class and inevitably students ended up using it hiding their source of information. So at the end we are not able to really identify when an essay or a text is being produced originally or by ChatGPT.
Hope we, as teachers, can continue pushing our students to keep on learning by forcing themselves into new learning experiences.
Glad to share my thoughts and experiences with all of you.
Regards,
Hi pcouto2000,
Thank you for sharing your interesting reflections. As a teacher myself, I can relate to a lot of what you said. I agree that it will be important for us to teach students what ChatGPT can and cannot do, and how to use it properly. Teachers will need to rethink and re-design their language courses and adapt their objectives (to some extent, at least). Therefore, there is a lot of work to do - but on the positive side, it is also exciting to consider the enormous potential of generative AI. For sure there are ways that both students and teachers can use AI to do their jobs better - that is, learning and teaching.
Good luck with it!
Jonathan
LearnEnglish team
The invention of AI in the modern world is very important because of its steed fastness, accuracy and ease but I suggest work or task done by AI should always be checked by humans.
Nafiu Musa Alhassan
I think AI has both advantages and disadvantages. I tested editing photos and it's so amazing. In this case AI is very helpful. But In the future people will be more difficult because AI do jobs easily which are not quite easy for humans.
AI will make life easier for people in many ways, but the "contact us" option on most websites nowadays uses AI, in this case, you are always chatting to a robot. It's not fair, it's dangerous, it's bad, it should be banned.
Marcelo bj from Brazil
As we know, everything is a double-edged weapon. ChatGPT is a facilitator for a lot of people, but we need to be aware of how to use it. I see that it can't totally replace humans. People can take what they need.
I am with the viewpoint that ChatGPT is banned in certain places because people exploit it in a wrong way and stay in the comfort zone don't need to think or take action.
Personally, I take AI as a challenge to be always alert and need to reinvent myself in order not to be knocked out.
I agree with your in all the points you mentioned. Greetings.
Hello I´m Nusly
AI is a amazing if it is uses appropiately. If you enter garbage the result will be garbage. AI is based in previous information like a base date that many companies from several industries use to know tendencies, analize risks in order to take better decisions, but sometime this information is misused by hakers to create fake information, but is a excellent for example in some airports the information is gathering to find persons that made illegal acts in other countries or what about the risk centre we create with our buy or information that we leave to our providers. in our studies too we are leaving all kind of records.
I read some days ago that many companies forbidden their collaboraters share information with ChatGPT due off risk before pointed.
Technology will never be regenerated or be brilliat like human body. In my opinion they are machine that can be used to do some activities, but never compare with a human brian.
Hi everyone,
I mostly agree. One of my worries about AI has two aspects to it. I worry that as we use AI, 1) it will get better and better to the point where we can't imagine doing what it can do and 2) we will forget how to do basic things.
I recently read an article about how the US government had to spend millions and millions of dollars to learn how to produce a material that engineers had developed in the 1960s. After the Cold War ended, production of the material ended, and eventually the people who'd been involved in making it died or forgot. Since it was a top-secret material, the knowledge of how to produce it was completely lost!
That's an extreme case, and in one way, I'm not unhappy that knowledge used to produce weapons was lost, but I worry about more mundane things. I often notice how my teenage students can't do simple arithmetical operations in their heads anymore, or shop assistants who don't know how to calculate change for cash transactions.
I don't think these simple things are in danger of being lost right now, but the fact that such simple things aren't be learned well is definitely sobering!
What do you think?
Best wishes
Kirk
LearnEnglish team
Hi Kirk,
Thanks for your question. I agree with you.
We can't imagine what progress AI will make, and forgetting how to do basic things is a real concern.
For teenage students, doing simple arithmetical operations is essential to train the brain as well, and this incapacity is a significant loss.
AI will turn human potential into mechanical work.
It would be useful to find a limit of that transformation.
What is the team's opinion on this?
A.I affects negatively educational system , it makes homework meaningless , students essays and writings doubtful .Moreover , nowadays poem, novel,researches , pièces of théâtre, and painting will be doubtfull. The question is how to verify is the job human or artificiel ?
Hi Naiym Casa,
I think that's a very good question! I know that there are some tools already available to detect AI-generated writing, but I'm not sure if their results are accurate at the moment. I guess it will become more important for students to show not just their final product (e.g., their homework) but also the process that they followed to reach it (e.g. their notes and planning)!
Jonathan
LearnEnglish team
I think the ChatGPT is a bit technology advance, but I am not worried about because several people like to interact with other human people and I don't think AI affects my job because where I live we are fare way from AI.
I have never tried chat gpt but I have read articles about it. The fact that it can write songs, draw pictures, and become creative is amazing. But at the same time, it is threatening many aspects of life. Now, art is no longer a reflection of culture or hope or dream, but created by AI algorithm. Not only that, i started to wonder how students can learn, when they can just ask the AI to do it for them? It is very difficult not to be worried about it, however progress usually can't be halted. I am sure we will figure out a way to live with AI side by side.
Hi topsydyla,
It's a good point! But I think some students will value the learning process itself. Although Chat GPT can produce great results, you don't have to go through all the steps of learning when you use it, so I think some students will actually avoid using it if they really want to learn! What do you think?
Jonathan
LearnEnglish team
I agree
Hello,
Despite being favorable to IT progress, this topic is more complex, especially for the ability of AI to do tasks that are normally done by humans.
Beyond concerns about AI's incorrect work, its improvement over time could be the real possibility of replacing human beings. This is the most worry for the future.
For sure, on the one side, IT progressive development has positive effects and is useful for doing mechanical tasks; on the other side, it could become dangerous for us to be replaced by machines.
What is the team’s view on this?
Hi User_1,
Do you mean humans being replaced as workers? In the work context, I am hopeful that although AI will replace some tasks, humans will still do jobs better overall. For example, AI might help teachers to plan lessons or write reports, or assist them by working as teaching assistants in class, but human teachers will still do a better job of teaching the class overall and maintaining good relationships with students, parents and colleagues.
That's my hope!
Jonathan
LearnEnglish team
Hi Jonathan,
Thanks for your reply.
I do not mean workers being replaced by AI, but the AI's progress could perform more tasks with negative effects on humans.
If it is true human teachers will still do a better job of teaching the class, at the same time there are several online courses where the instructors are being replaced by AI removing that essential human aspect of learning.
Don’t you think that is bad for learning?
Hi User_1,
What kind of tasks with negative effects? Hopefully there won't be too many of them 😬
I think that something will be lost, yes ... I'm not sure how well AI can handle things such as empathy, sensitivity to moods and emotions and the sense of connection with another human. Human teachers should be better at those things, especially in the stages of education where the aim is partly to socialise students (e.g. primary school). However, I can imagine AI doing a great job in teaching things that are more technical and factual, such as teaching computer users how to use a piece of software, for example. I'd be willing to learn that from AI.
Jonathan
LearnEnglish team
Hi Jonathan,
Thanks for your comment.
I was referring to the ever more progressive replacement of AI on human tasks.
For example: the gradual swap of human teachers, even though I do not think that can ever become a full exchange.
I agree with you about learning from AI the use of software: I'd be willing to do it too.
I think that students will be lazier than before AI's appearance, so searching for information in books or by net-search could be useful to best know and fix new facts and information. The key skill I believe we must improve in our students is critical thinking! Not accepting what AI gives them without any analysis or questioning.
I think chat gpt is going to be an awesome thing in our lives. It can create a lot of texts, songs, poems, codes, and maybe more in the future. No, I haven't tried it yet because it's unavailable in my country. I welcome AI, but I have to be careful with it to not let it go against me. Yes, sure it will affect my job and get tasks done faster.
Hi Ali Sabry,
Its potential is amazing and I think it will make my job easier too! But I agree that we should learn how to use it in beneficial and healthy ways.
Jonathan
LearnEnglish team