By Adam Meddah
Are you stuck on a project? Can’t wrap your head around a concept? Maybe you’ve got writer’s block? It can be frustrating to hit a roadblock when working on a project, whether it’s for school, work, or a personal endeavour. What if there was a way to get the help you need, whenever you need it?
Here is where ChatGPT comes in. This chatbot developed by OpenAI simulates conversations with human users while providing quick and convenient access to information of any kind. It adapts to what the user says and keeps that information in memory for future questions. This provides a personalized experience for each and every user.
One of the biggest benefits of ChatGPT is its convenience. Regardless of your interests, you can get information on anything. For example, it has helped me find coding issues in my programs and given me ways to fix them. It has helped people write their own movie scripts, book scenes, and has even made video games from scratch! It can give information about numerous different school subjects, help with brainstorming ideas, and can give information specific to your requests. It can give you personalized recommendations based on past chat history as well.
A nice, clear home page (see main photo) with no tedious process before starting to use the service conveys convenience to the user and encourages continuous usage of the service. ChatGPT takes what other chatbots do (ie. “speaks” to you via text when you ask it a question and gives you a brief answer), and improves upon them in almost every single way. ChatGPT makes it easier for the user to communicate and get results while making the service free. This, combined with its new deep learning algorithm to add increased accuracy and fluency to the chatbot, sets it apart from any technology seen before. While this AI is incredibly powerful and poses many advantages, there are also numerous cons that come with usage of this new technology.
The first con: it can become very tempting to use it for everything. Upon discovering a new technology, a common theme among users is to use the technology on a small scale before fully embracing the technology. A user could use ChatGPT for something small such as correcting a sentence before using it to complete an entire project without doing any work. Using ChatGPT to do all the work for you is essentially the same as plagiarizing or cheating instead of studying for a test; you don’t learn anything. Continuous, unnecessary usage of ChatGPT can result in a reduction in your creativity and ability to think outside of the box.
People dependent on technology find that, once left without it, they have a closed mindset. It’s almost like having their brain trapped. They can’t find a way to solve problems nearly as efficiently as before. We see this theme everywhere. Ever since calculators were introduced into the learning curriculum, people have become worse at mentally doing the math themselves. ChatGPT, while being very useful, poses many threats to individual thinking and problem-solving skills. For this reason, it is crucial to use it in moderation.
Another big issue regarding chatbots is that no matter the training they receive, they are bound to give wrong or misleading information — at least sometimes. Chatbots are only as good as the data they have been trained on, and if the data is incomplete or biased, the chatbot’s responses may not accurately reflect reality. ChatGPT only uses data up until 2021 (no current data). This can be detrimental to users aiming to use it for large-scale operations or for creating work that will be evaluated. ChatGPT will not be able to provide the same level of information for a specific subject as a human teacher who has dedicated years to learning and teaching. This is because the algorithm is trained on general data without going too in-depth on each subject. Even if the chatbot has the relevant information, it will not be able to teach it to a human user the same way a human teacher can. This is also good news for experts and specialists as it means that there is no major threat posed to them as of now…
ChatGPT is a powerful and innovative chatbot technology developed by OpenAI that offers a wide range of benefits to users. However, it is important to use ChatGPT and other chatbots in moderation and to be aware of their limitations. While they can be a valuable source of information and assistance, they should not be relied upon to the extent that it hinders critical thinking and problem-solving skills.
To show how capable ChatGPT is, I asked it to write a short article about itself:
“Are you looking for a chatbot that can engage in natural and coherent conversations with users? Look no further than ChatGPT! Developed by OpenAI, this powerful language model is specifically designed for chatbot applications and is able to maintain the context of a conversation as it progresses.
One major advantage of ChatGPT is its ability to handle a wide range of topics and scenarios, thanks to its large training dataset and fine-tuning for specific tasks and domains. Whether you’re looking for information on a specific subject, or need help with a creative project, ChatGPT has the knowledge and capability to assist you.
However, one potential disadvantage of ChatGPT is the cost and resources required to run it. Because it is a highly advanced chatbot technology, it requires a significant amount of computing power to operate, which can make it more expensive and less practical for some organizations to implement.
Overall, ChatGPT is a powerful and effective tool for building chatbots that can engage in natural and coherent conversations with users. While it may have some limitations in terms of cost and resources, its advanced capabilities make it a valuable asset for businesses looking to improve the customer experience through chatbots.”
If I didn’t know better, I’d think that was a real person!
Sources:
Liebl, L. 2022. 5 Common Chatbot Fails and How to Prevent Them. URL: https://www.userlike.com/en/blog/chatbot-fails (accessed Jan. 5, 2023).
