I am really annoyed when I hear other people portraying ChatGPT merely as a cheating tool for lazy students, because it is such an unfair and simply false description of what it really is. What ChatGPT has been for me over the past 2 years is first and foremost a digital tutor. I cannot possibly count the number of instances when this incredible GenAI app helped me understand a certain theory when the definition presented in a class was not enough. ChatGPT has proved to be my empowering tutor also whenever I was preparing for exams and needed to test my knowledge. By prompting the chat to ask me questions related to the material, I was leveraging the technology to learn more efficiently, not to just learn less in overall, as some argue. I have always been treating the OpenAI’s application as a tool which can help me process and acquire new knowledge, by generating customized explanations of complex problems, just like real tutors do. I never use it to simply write things for me, as I see value in knowing how to independently formulate and express my ideas.
However, it is true that my approach to ChatGPT is not universal. Many students take advantage of this and other generative AI applications to free themselves from time consuming writing assignments and gain more leisure time. Thus, the reality is that whether ChatGPT will be used as an empowering tutor or a cheating tool which hinders development of one’s academic skills, depends solely on the user’s intentions. Having said that, I believe that the chat’s adversaries should focus on changing the student’s approach to the system, rather than just try to kill it which I think cannot be done. The generative AI, including ChatGPT is here to stay. Forcing students to abandon it can lead to only counterproductive results. What we can do is to teach people how to use it wisely.
Very nice blog and important for people to read. ChatGPT can indeed help you learn so much tremendously, but in addition, it can also make you learn more and perform at a higher level. You also hear it from many working people. These workers can all no longer do without ChatGPT and it would be a shame if you don’t practise with it during your school and university. When you use it properly, you yourself can greatly increase your output, sometimes completing almost all the responsibilities of an entire team.
Still, it is indeed important that people do not take over the exact work of ChatGPT without thinking. This can indeed cause problems, but I believe that people who do so will automatically cause a big problem one day. ChatGPT still needs a human being to check, improve and interpret everything correctly.
We all, mainly us students, get how ChatGPT can be a powerful tool in our student journey. It gives us great access to information and can also be prompted to play the role of a tutor. I agree on the fact that forcing student to abandon it makes no sense and that the important point to focus on is how students use it. However, even if you avoid using it to generate pure text, I still believe that it can lead to decrease students skills in researching information, or summarizing and taking into account multiple opinions. It also acclimatize students to have a full summary of several sources without checking the accuracy of the sources. The point is of course not to stop using it, but to continue paying attention to all the skills that ChatGPT could take from us if we keep asking him for the same actions. However, I strongly believe that ChatGPT or other AI tools are very powerful for tutoring.