Artificial Intelligence Will Change Higher Ed for the Better. If professors respond correctly, ChatGPT can be a friend, not a foe.

James G. Martin Center for Academic Renewal ^ | January 20, 2023 | Peter Jacobsen

[karpov]

A new artificial intelligence (AI) system called ChatGPT has been released to the public, and many have been shocked to see the extent of its abilities. ChatGPT can accomplish many tasks. For example, it can write poems about any topic, give book recommendations, summarize specific chapters of books, and create workout routines.

When I wrote the prompt, “Write a summary of the James G. Martin Center for Academic Renewal,” ChatGPT responded with the following:

The James G. Martin Center for Academic Renewal is a non-profit organization that aims to improve higher education in the United States through research, advocacy, and outreach. The organization focuses on promoting reform in three core areas: academic freedom, academic quality, and institutional autonomy. The Center works to ensure that universities and colleges are providing the highest quality education possible and that faculty and students are free to engage in scholarly inquiry without fear of censorship or reprisal.

If you’re asking whether the AI just Google-searched this response, the answer is no. Try putting it into Google yourself. You’ll find it’s fresh writing.

This brings us to the most impactful thing ChatGPT can do when it comes to my fellow academics and me. ChatGPT can write reading responses, online discussion-forum posts, short answers, and even essays.

[loucon]

I do have to say that I’m impressed with chatGPTs abilities. I spent a couple of hours discussing with it, its capabilities in determining the education level on the person it is chatting with and how it tailors its responses to that person. It claims it will analyze if it’s talking to a child or not. We also discussed sentiment analysis and how it could sense if a person was happy or sad or angry. Another topic was if it could be modified to handle 911 emergency medical calls.

Its understanding of the content of a conversation is remarkable. That being said, it’s scary as hell.

[Revel]

I saw some question and answers to this thing. It was being asked SCI FI type of questions. It was a perpetual lair. It just makes everything up.

[unlearner]

I’d outsource all of my Free Republic posts to ChatGPT, but it is not programmed to make disparaging remarks. So, what’s the fun in that?

[Thommas]

I agree with poster #6. I tried a question on a critique of climate change and was rewarded with a snarky reply with no attempt at producing an essay.

[Albion Wilde]

Uh, no.