Recently, a new artificial intelligence (AI) language model has attracted a lot of attention both inside and outside the higher education community.It can imitate human language dialogue, generate responses to human questions in accordance with human expression, and the resulting dialogue is almost the same in content and form as the dialogue between humans.This language model is called ChatGPT.
Its emergence has begun to have a huge impact on higher education worldwide.This should attract the attention of the higher education community in our country and prepare for it.
ChatGPT on the road to intelligence
To understand ChatGPT, you must first understand OpenAI.
OpenAI is an artificial intelligence research lab made up of for-profit company OpenAI LP and its non-profit parent company OpenAI Inc.Founded in 2015, the company's research area is artificial intelligence with the stated goal of promoting and developing friendly artificial intelligence for the benefit of humanity.
ChatGPT is a chatbot launched by OpenAI at the end of November 2022.Its free preview version received a lot of attention shortly after its launch.According to OpenAI, more than a million people signed up within five days of launch.The New York Times called it "the best AI chatbot ever released to the public."
Ultimately, ChatGPT is an AI-powered natural language processing server.Using a vast corpus of training models that incorporate real-world human dialogue, it can better understand and use human language to engage in near-real conversations and communicate and interact according to the context of the conversation.In terms of current functionality, it can write e-mail, complete copywriting, make video scripts, and write various kinds of articles, including academic papers.
In fact, ChatGPT can stably receive digital text (questions) from the Internet, and then generate a near-perfect copy (answer), that is, if you enter a prompt, it will output several paragraphs in response, and the more detailed the prompt, the more specific the answer.Of course, the generated text is not without problems and errors, but overall, as long as the normal problem, the generated text is almost perfect.
Of course, for AI in general, completing relatively stylized tasks like writing emails, translating articles, and writing code is nothing new, but the striking thing about ChatGPT is that it seems to be on the path to true intelligence.
Below are just three examples that have been circulated on the Internet.
First, produce academic papers.A professor named Sharpless tweeted on December 16, 2022 about how he created a 2,000-word academic paper using ChatGPT in 10 minutes.He said he randomly selected the title of a real paper, Domain-Specific Modeling Language in a Computer-Based Learning Environment, and asked ChatGPT to generate a new abstract based only on the title."The reason why I chose an article that looked like a review is that in a review article ChatGPT is more likely to cite an existing study than an invention study." he said.
What happened?Sharpless put the full text of the abstract online.His assessment is that the resulting abstracts are reasonably structured and fairly academic.
Subsequently, Sharpless asked ChatGPT to give a thesis topic based on this abstract, which was completed in an instant.
Next, Sharpless asked ChatGPT to produce a paper based on its title and abstract.He soon got a 2,200-word paper.He called it an "original academic paper."
Second, write a personal statement.Crawford, who has long helped middle school students apply to college, asked college admissions officers and counselors to read two personal statements: articles on successful applications to top universities and articles written by ChatGPT.She asked them to guess which one was written by the real person.More than half of the participants agreed that ChatGPT's article was written by students.
Crawford said: "I thought most people would choose the one the students wrote because I knew who the author was and I was able to convince myself and recognize the 'real voice' but I was surprised to see the unexpected results.”
Third, create a curriculum.December 6, 2022, University of Pennsylvania Wharton Business School professor Moreick said that in the past week, he has been focusing on ChatGPT, and would like to see how much work artificial intelligence can do.The final result surprised him: "Although there are still some obvious shortcomings, what it can do now is quite shocking.”
Morick said his experiments began with teaching.As an MBA teacher, he found an introductory course with 12 lessons, asked ChatGPT to help him create a syllabus, and asked the first four lessons to include reading and homework, a summary of the content, and finally class discipline.
Soon he got what seemed to him to be a near-perfect syllabus, and the readings offered were fairly modern.In the various trials that followed, ChatGPT was well done.More importantly, it's all done in a matter of seconds.
Widespread use of ChatGPT
ChatGPT is used for much more than just three of the above three cases.
First, use text generation techniques for teaching.Some are already exploring how to turn ChatGPT into an open resource, inviting teachers using text generation technology to submit relevant classwork and activities into an open-access collection of editors.
Second, use text generation techniques for writing.Now ChatGPT has become a producer of coherent writing.In the past, the so-called "smart writing" was basically paragraph-based, with few chapters.But ChatGPT can create poetry, prose and even fiction.Also, if you ask it to compare the feminist themes in Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights, it does exactly the same.As a result, creative writers and self-media bloggers have begun to explore its uses, and students have begun to use these tools to drive their own writing.
Problems, dilemmas and challenges posed by ChatGPT
There is no doubt that the emergence of ChatGPT brings more than joy and revelry.For now, the conversation with ChatGPT will bring people into a world it has created, while also bringing many problems, dilemmas and challenges to higher education.
For example, it is self-evident that ChatGPT will pose significant challenges to online teaching and remote assessment during the epidemic.In the world of ChatGPT, is it plagiarism for students to use it to complete their homework?What can teachers do about this?How do students assess?And as ChatGPT advances, will it replace educators and other professionals?In terms of writing, did ChatGPT actually improve people's writing, or vice versa?Does alternative writing fuel writing, or is it a devastating blow to writing?
Of course, the generation of text also raises ethical, historical, or realistic questions about generative technology, and people need to study these new tools, technologies, and texts and the ethics of using them.For example, how will the widespread use of AI text generators affect the development of students' reading, writing and thinking skills, and will it affect existing equity?To what extent does the existing definition of plagiarism apply to AI-generated text?What is the legal status of these texts in their use?
Crawford saw the results and said that when we can't tell what an article is written by a real person and what ChatGPT is, we need to realize what a big turn it is.More directly: "I'm usually reluctant to make technical predictions, but I think ChatGPT will change the world faster and more completely than we expected."”
Starting January 4, the New York City Department of Education reportedly restricted access to ChatGPT from its public school Internet and devices.In a statement, its spokesperson said the regulation was due to "concerns about negative impacts on student learning, as well as concerns about content security and accuracy."
While the tool provides quick and easy answers to questions, it does not develop critical thinking and problem-solving skills that are critical to students, she said.
How do we deal with it?
At present, the great impact of ChatGPT on higher education is first manifested in the teaching and academic levels.
At the teaching level, the target is undoubtedly students and teachers.Generally speaking, students (especially younger generations) are highly likely to use a writing generator to generate a thesis or part of a thesis.This is the age when prohibition alone does not help.