Back in 2023, I was learning for the IELTS exam (a certificate for English language proficiency). In my country Vietnam, there’s a myriad of language training centers providing IELTS preparation courses. If you want to have a teacher from these centers to guide you through the exam preparation process, you would have to pay a hefty amount. Determined to get a good score without having to spend a lot of money, I embarked on a self-learning journey. I was confident in achieving my goal. After all, Google gives you all the materials for free; all you need to do is put in the effort to learn. What could be so hard about it, right?
It turned out to be not that simple. Out of the 4 tested skills (listening, reading, speaking, writing), I was particularly bad at writing. And I soon realized, trying to self-study writing was not remotely easy. I would often find myself stuck for hours just trying to write a 250-word academic essay. The hardest part was to find a way to get feedbacks on my writing. I remember spending hours searching among hundreds of sample essays on Google just to pick out 1 piece of writing that was fairly good. At that point, I really wished that I’d had a teacher, or someone that could give me improvement feedbacks.
In the process of trying to find a way to improve, I came across the idea of using ChatGPT to give me feedbacks on my essay. I had never used it before, so I was curious on how effectively it could perform. I was absolutely amazed. Not only did it give me valuable feedbacks, it also made sample essays for my reference. This may sound like it’s nothing right now, but back then when I was not aware of ChatGPT’s capability, I was in awe. From that point onwards, I started to use ChatGPT in every aspect of my self-learning journey. I asked it to grade my work, provide feedbacks, create samples, summarize theories,… ChatGPT became my personal teacher, and helped me to eventually get a really good score (with my writing score as the most improved one). All I had to pay was a 20$ subscription. Compared to the average fee of 1,000$ charged by training centers, that is a 98% cost reduction!
Besides ChatGPT, I also used NotionAI to generate additional samples as an extra source of reference. Currently, being a Master’s student in BIM, I’m exploring more AI tools and incorporate more of them in my learning and daily life. It is undeniable that AI will continue to transform the way we learn, for both better and for worse. AI could help us quickly gather, filter and summarize crucial information, with highly-tailored answers that suit our need. If we utilize it to enhance our learning and brainstorming process, AI could make us become proficient in an area faster than ever.
However, GAI also poses a great threat to our thinking ability. Over-reliance on using AI for everything could lead us to gradually lose our cognitive ability. We will become lazy people, who are lazy to think. Therefore, the question is not “Should we use AI?” anymore, but “How should we use it effectively?”. The answer to this question will likely shape the future of human kind.
I really like how you explain in this blog post what happened to you during studying for your exam and how ChatGPT became a virtual teacher for you. I definitely have been in similar situations where I had to use ChatGPT to help me with studying or improving my writing skills. I believe that the fact that we can replace costly tutors makes learning more accessible to people and I think that is one of the benefits that we get from AI.