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.
