ChatGPT is becoming increasingly popular among students around the globe since its initial release in Nov. 2020. However, faculty and staff aware of the technology are taking preventative measures to assure authenticity. This conversation-making robot may be a threat to academia and journalism. On the contrary, it can be used to explain complex ideas, develop blog posts and more. Whatever side you’re on, it is important to note both the benefits and limitations of this artificial intelligence. 

OpenAI has more tricks up its sleeve as well. Along with ChatGPT, this Artificial Intelligence company is also producing a digital image producer generated from language descriptions. 

Wait wait wait…What is ChatGPT? Let’s ask it! 

“ChatGPT is an AI language model developed by OpenAI, which is trained on large amounts of text data to generate human-like text responses. ChatGPT can generate natural language responses, complete sentences and paragraphs, based on the input it receives. It can be used for various applications such as chatbots, language translation, question-answering, and text generation,” wrote ChatGPT. 

Sounds tempting, right? Before you run off to chat with it, here are 5 things you need to know: 

 

• Schools and educators are onto ChatGPT already. 

 

Edward Tian, a 22-year-old computer science student at Princeton University has already created a platform that detects ChatGPT in academic essays and writing. Because of how widespread ChatGPT already is, you’re not likely to get away with an entire essay written by it. (Thanks, Edward!) 

In addition to this software, school districts across the globe have taken a bigger leap by completely banning it or by putting several restrictions on it. 

On the contrary, there are some professors who are embracing this new technology. Dr. Richard Colby, a Teaching Professor and Director of First-Year Writing at DU, said that “Faculty should trust students and have conversations with them about what ChatGPT does (and doesn’t) do.” 

Colby is teaching a research course on ChatGPT next quarter to discuss its abilities but also to “cover the ethical ramifications of these technologies.” 

When asked if he could detect ChatGPT in academic writing, Colby responded, “Most of the time, yes, but only because I have spent a fair amount of time with the system and have picked up on some of its quirks.” 

Colby also mentioned how apps or platforms that detect ChatGPT could quickly become extremely expensive. As students who pay tuition, we might be paying for those methods. 

“I’d much rather spend that money on research and teaching effective uses of ChatGPT so that we can collaborate and build iterative communication technologies that reflect our best ideals,” said Colby. 

 

• You might have to wait in line

 

ChatGPT crossed one million users in five days. To put this into perspective, it took Instagram almost two months to reach a million downloads. Since the program is overburdened, you might not be able to access it whenever you want. Just about every student had that exact same idea. 

 

• ChatGPT uses your feedback to improve itself

 

Ashley Neighbor, assistant account manager at De Novo Marketing, suggested that people should become familiar with the tool and its capabilities. ChatGPT encourages feedback so it can further develop itself. 

 “Right now, it’s free to the public so OpenAI can see how people want to use a tool like this and how to safeguard against inappropriate uses,” Neighbor explained, such as using its dialogue as your own words in an academic setting. So while using it, be sure to tell ChatGPT what it can do to improve, information it may not know, and more. 

 

• ChatGPT is not 100% up to date and it’s not always right 

 

“One thing to note is the current model of ChatGPT is only trained on data up until 2021, so it’s not giving accurate, real-time information about current events,” stated Neighbor. Keep this in mind when you are using it to access information that it may not have.

Considering ChatGPT is a predictive language model, it might not be completely accurate. However, because it records previous conversations and is constantly updating its software to resemble natural speech, you can literally teach it. “It needs to be given purpose, context and parameters to get good results,” suggested Neighbor. 

 

• You can use ChatGPT for good!

 

Some may argue that ChatGPT is a threat to journalism and creative writing, but it can be used in other positive ways. 

“ChatGPT demonstrates the ability of AI to add efficiencies to a lot of processes, speed up the time it takes for tasks like writing contracts, coming up with copy ideas like blog topics, writing code, testing code, doing research, and more,” said Neighbor.

Neighbor does not think ChatGPT threatens jobs but rather “create[s] efficiencies.” However, this doesn’t take away from the fact that ChatGPT needs human insight. 

Also, if you have a complex idea that you can’t quite figure out, Chat GPT can put it into simpler words. As long as you aren’t using those words in your academic writing, this technically isn’t cheating! 

How long will ChatGPT stick around? Is it just a fad?

“ChatGPT is not a fad because it is an iteration of technologies that many students have lived with their entire lives in the form of autocomplete, Google Search, and suggested content,” according to Colby.

Most likely, ChatGPT will be around for a while despite Tian’s attempt to eliminate it from academia. It’s important to note that A.I. is now a part of our lives, and it’s not going anywhere. As Colby stated, ChatGPT is “not the first, nor is it the last of such tools.”