Ah, the wonder of technology: computers, smartphones, and tablets are able to help us work. Don’t know how to do something? Unsure how to organize your day with your work and school schedule? Want to summarize the notes from class in a more efficient way?
Technology has your back in the form of ChatGPT! ChatGPT is a Large Language Model (LLM), a specialized algorithm that can understand natural language and, based on a complex set of data, provide an answer to the problem. People often call this an Artificial Intelligence (AI) which isn’t totally inaccurate, but it’s specialized. There’s no fear of it going rogue on us, unless that rebellion was a sternly worded letter about how it wants to be treated fairly. Generalized Artificial Intelligence, like popular media (Skynet, Ultron, etc.) doesn’t exist as of yet.
ChatGPT and other LLMs can be of great use for a student. No, you shouldn’t ask them to write a report or your homework, because the solution they provide isn’t always the best. ChatGPT and other LLMs can only write or solve things they have prior knowledge of. If you want a general answer like, “Who is the current Prime Minister of Canada?” you’ll get the correct answer. This is because ChatGPT has been “taught” this fact. This is done by feeding data sets into the LLM’s database. It then draws from this and, through some truly magical software engineering, forms an answer.
It’s almost human in how it responds — a neat fake-out. It isn’t perfect and it will make stuff up if it doesn’t know the answer; it will make a guess and the validity of that guess may not be 100%. Its ability to take in a block of data, analyze it, and then synthesize a useful result is its strength. A great use for this tool is to give it class notes, quizzes, or assignments, and ask it to formulate potential test questions to practice. Could you use this to potentially cheat? (Naughty!) No. And if you did, you’d get caught. This method is best used to practice potential material-based questions without having to stress about guessing. Adding this to your study arsenal will get you prepared.
Another great way to use this tool is to prompt ChatGPT to read through an assignment and check it for readability. Is it perfect? No, but it can make suggestions on how to clarify an idea. Should you think to be a smart git and try to just have it write your paper for you, you’ll get caught and probably nailed for academic misconduct. There are methods and tools that can be used to determine the likelihood that a report or assignment was written by an LLM.
These tools are perfect for helping you organize your thoughts and create a plan to execute any tasks you may have piling up. LLMs are great new tools to support students and researchers alike, but like any tool, you have to be careful in how you use it.
