ChatGpt

A friend recently recommended me to check out https://openai.com/blog/chatgpt/.

Below is what I saw at the top of the page. 

"ChatGPT: Optimizing Language Models for Dialogue

We’ve trained a model called ChatGPT which interacts in a conversational way. The dialogue format makes it possible for ChatGPT to answer followup questions, admit its mistakes, challenge incorrect premises, and reject inappropriate requests. ChatGPT is a sibling model to InstructGPT, which is trained to follow an instruction in a prompt and provide a detailed response.

November 30, 2022

13 minute read"

Notably, the page also highlighted specific examples like using the ChatGPT to debug code (after some prompts), or even asking it how to break into a home to which it actually avoids answering as it may be illegal and it only answers when the prompt to the chatbot is changed to one of learning how to prevent a break in. It could even understand and explain complex mathematical theorems and help with Enligh writing tasks.

For now, the team behind it is 'excited to introduce ChatGPT to get users’ feedback and learn about its strengths and weaknesses. During the research preview, usage of ChatGPT is free. Try it now at chat.openai.com.'

Some of the educators I know have shared their views of how this could be the next generation of natural language processing and I truly believe so. It could potentially make educators life so much easier (am thinking English language teachers for now) although there could be issues with students using or abusing it. I, for one, am excited to try to use it in my new role next year although it would not be in a school per se. Sadly, it is not free for good yet so I hope it will be accessible for some time or a close free/cheap alternative will emerge from other research teams.

Below are some sample screenshots of my attempts on the chatbot. I basically asked the chatbot to create a 1hr lesson plan for me to teach verbs and adverbs first for secondary school students then asked the bot to change it for primary then pre-school. I am quite amazed by the slight edits and sensitivities shown as the activities were modified accordingly to suit the target group. As one of my former specialist boss put it, this ability to be so generative (and relatively accurate too) can be quite disruptive for education. 

Note: the lesson plan was complete with Direct Instruction, Guided Practice, Independent Practice and Closure as well as Assessment Considerations.

I even tried to ask the ChatGPT to add dialogue into the comprehension and it worked marvelously. When I asked it further to make the questions more difficult however, there was a network error and the system asked me to slow down as there was too many requests. Nonetheless, I still think this technology is amazing and hope that I can explore further in the future as it matures further.

Also, as I may not have as much time in my new job I may be writing less in this blog perhaps fortnightly or once a month instead of every week. Hope I still keep up to the cadence.