If you spend any time on the internet, you’ve probably heard about Chat GPT.

This AI technology is capable of generating detailed written responses to complex questions. It can even do math and correct computer code.

I spent some time experimenting with Chat GPT and it is good…really good.

Teachers are nervous

This is an email I received from a teacher just this week:

“I teach in an alternative high school with a credit recovery focus and most of our students are looking for shortcuts.  I recently came across this piece about AI and I am super discouraged. It makes me want to quit using computers at all and require everything to be done in class using pencil and paper.  Do you have any suggestions?”

Her concern is well founded…how do you know that this entire article wasn’t written by Chat GPT?

I sent this teacher my honest response: I’m not really sure what to do.

Instead of giving you my “hot take” on Chat GPT, I decided to learn about Chat GPT by reading as much as I could and spend some time actually using it.

Here are some of the articles that I found helpful. Hopefully they will help you learn about Chat GPT and form your own opinion.

What is Chat GPT?

Here are a few articles on the basics: what is chat GPT and how do you use it?

ChatGPT: Everything you need to know – this is a comprehensive article that explains what Chat GPT is, how to use it, and how it works.

[Video] What is Chat GPT – this is a good by Adrian Twarog with examples of how developers can use Chat GPT to find coding errors.

Who is OpenAI? – this Wikipedia article provides background on the group that has been working on ChatGPT and other AI projects since 2015 (Chat GPT is only one of their current projects).

Chat GPT in the classroom?

There’s no shortage of articles written by educators about the potential impact of AI in the classroom. They range from “school is dead” to “this will revolutionize everything.” I don’t really believe either of these extremes, so here are a few of the more thoughtful articles that I read.

ChatGPT and Solving Math Problems – I’m not a math teacher, so I appreciated this this blog post written by a math professor at how Chat GPT handles complex math. Spoiler: it works very well and gets better as you use it.

[Video] Putting Chat GPT to the test – Canadian social studies teacher Tim Cavey challenged Chat GPT with a variety of questions and learning objectives and evaluated the responses from a teacher’s perspective.

ChatGPT, Artificial Intelligence, and UDL: How to Harness the Future to Reach All Students – this article by Jeff Horwitz includes a brief explanation of Chat GPT and some positive and negative implications in the classroom. TL;DR: “ChatGPT forces us to examine what we’ve always done…”

Yes, you can use Chat GPT with Students – this thoughtful blog post by Brian Bennett includes ideas for using Chat GPT in the classroom and helps calm teachers who might feel that writing is dead (it’s not!)

Lesson Planning – Teacher Tyler Tarver figured out that Chat GPT can generate detailed lesson plans. Use responsibly.

Attention, Trust, and GPT-3 – “Technology begins by making old work easier, but then it requires that new work be better.” This short blog post by best selling author Seth Godin gets straight to the point.

Want to get creeped out by AI? Read this!

If “end of the world” scenarios keep you up at night, you probably shouldn’t read these articles.

New AI fake text generator may be too dangerous to release – this article is from 2019 explains why an earlier version of Chat GPT wasn’t publicly released due to ethical concerns.

An interview with an AI Bot – This is the complete transcript of a conversation between a Google engineer and LAMBDA, Google’s AI Chat bot.

Google fires engineer for saying its AI has a soul – Yep, this is real. The Google engineer who had the conversation I linked to above was fired for advocating for “AI rights.”

Avogadro Corp: The Singularity Is Closer Than It Appears – this is a fictional book trilogy written in 2011 that is uncomfortably similar to things that are happening today.

Conclusion

My conclusion is that we aren’t even close to coming to a conclusion.

Tools like Chat-GPT will undoubtedly change education and many industries, so buckle up and hang on!