{"id":28717,"date":"2023-02-07T01:57:21","date_gmt":"2023-02-07T01:57:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.cos.net.au\/c\/?p=28717"},"modified":"2023-05-25T00:49:13","modified_gmt":"2023-05-25T00:49:13","slug":"chatgpt-and-ai-in-education","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cos.net.au\/c\/cospedia\/education\/chatgpt-and-ai-in-education","title":{"rendered":"ChatGPT\u2014What is It and What Do AI Tools Mean for Education?"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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If you could use a tool to remove all the complexities of writing research papers, presentations, or reports, you\u2019d jump at the opportunity, right? Released in December, ChatGPT caused headlines due to its unexpected proficiency in creating texts of all types, in a few seconds, based on any input from a user.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>

The unexpected power of ChatGPT has generated a lot of interest and worry, especially in the areas of marketing, programming, and academia, in relation to both the replacement of jobs and the quality of work produced; however, the consensus is still that human expertise is needed to verify and improve on what is essentially AI\u2019s approximation of what a satisfactory piece of work looks like.<\/span>\u00a0
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But what if humans have not yet had the chance to develop this expertise? The use of AI tools by students has become a concern for both schools and universities, causing them to rethink their approach to assessments<\/span> and teaching and learning in general.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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What is ChatGPT and how does it work? <\/h2>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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GPT-3 (Generative Pre-Trained Transformer), is the third iteration of the open-source language model developed by the company <\/span>OpenAI<\/span>. The chatbot interface, called ChatGPT, is built to receive inputs and give answers, so you can ask it detailed questions, request specific information (along with the desired formatting), or have an in-depth conversation.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>

Unlike the chatbots we regularly interact with on the web that spit out pre-programmed answers along narrow parameters, ChatGPT is\u2014as referred to above\u2014a Large Language Model (LLM). The LLM is able to produce impressive text as it has been trained using <\/span>deep learning<\/span><\/i>, a form of machine learning that allows a computer to make connections between vast amounts of information in a similar way to the human brain.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>

ChatGPT is far from the only <\/span>AI chatbot<\/span> out there; there are many different tools<\/span> that are already being marketed as virtual assistants, marketing content wizards, or virtual friends. Then there are the ones with huge institutional backing such as Chinchilla, developed by DeepMind, and LaMDA, developed by Google. The latter made news last year as a Google AI engineer was put on leave after describing the chatbot as sentient<\/span>.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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So what makes ChatGPT special? <\/h3>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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ChatGPT<\/span> has made such waves for two main reasons. Firstly, <\/span>it <\/span>is the most advanced tool yet<\/span>,<\/span> owing to the fact that it has<\/span> been trained on a bigger dataset than<\/span> its competitors<\/span>\u2014<\/span>175 billion parameters, (described as values a learning algorithm can change independently as it learns<\/span><\/span>)<\/span> and<\/span> 570 gigabytes of text<\/span><\/span>. For comparison<\/span>,<\/span> LaMDA<\/span> has 137 billion parameters<\/span>,<\/span> and GPT<\/span>–<\/span>2, th<\/span>e last iteration from <\/span>OpenAI<\/span> released in 2019, has just 1.5 billion parameters<\/span><\/span>. This shows the huge <\/span>leap that the technology has taken in<\/span> such a short period of time. <\/span>Secondly, the <\/span>ChatGPT<\/span> trial, released to the public in November, <\/span>picked up 1 million users in its first five days<\/span><\/span>, <\/span>who first <\/span>marvelled<\/span> at the chatbot and then began<\/span> quickly<\/span> incorporating it into their work.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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What are the fears around AI writing?<\/h2>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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We have long accepted that <\/span>artificial intelligence<\/span> will replace most manual jobs, but we believed the technology was a long way from getting rid of so-called <\/span>knowledge workers<\/span><\/i>.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>

While some have put raised alarm bells, claiming that AI will have a significant impact on the job market<\/span>, others have taken a more moderate view, suggesting we can use it to be more efficient and produce better quality work while utilising our knowledge and uniquely human qualities to greater effect.<\/span><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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ChatGPT and Australian education<\/h2>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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A key part of integrating AI chatbots (in their current state) is to make sure that we can discern quality information from convincing lies. To be able to do this, we need to draw on our hard-won skills and subject expertise in a given area; but how can this be ensured if chatbots are being used in place of encoding information and demonstrating knowledge? This is the particular issue that is arising in <\/span>Australian schools<\/span> and universities, as students have been using ChatGPT to do assignments and cheat on exams.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>

The fact that ChatGPT has been used by students to create original work that evades plagiarism filters<\/span>\u00a0has meant that universities have had to redesign how they run and structure assessments; in some cases, returning to pen-and-paper examinations. This is a necessary step, considering that the AI model has the potential to pass US medical licensing exams<\/span>\u00a0on behalf of a student who does not have the requisite knowledge.<\/span><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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Incorporating AI within the classroom<\/h2>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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With technology you can\u2019t put the genie back in the bottle, so what can we do? Considering we have a tool with such wide-ranging applications, we can learn to make it work for us. As Toby Walsh, Scientia professor of artificial intelligence at the University of New South Wales pointed out when interviewed by the Guardian<\/span>, \u201c…did calculators destroy numeracy?\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>

While rightfully putting in place policies to reduce instances where students could use chatbots instead of demonstrating knowledge on their own, we can also provide students and teachers with the tools to augment their learning by harnessing <\/span>AI chat<\/span>.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>

ChatGPT can be used to:<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>