ChatGPT: A new chapter in human intellect

When chat GPT was released for the first time on June 11, 2018, it took the internet market by storm, reaching easily 1 million users, and re-defining what is meant by AI. The New York Times said it’s “Code red for Google”. But just how far can it take you, and to what extent you’re already taken?

Packed with 175 billion parameters of machine learning algorithms, this is by far, the most sophisticated language model ever trained. To put this into perspective, your home’s Alexa holds 20B parameters, and yet, it is still capable of accomplishing almost “magical” tasks. But think about it as a simplified Google search. Fortunately, the time for the human apocalypse hasn’t yet arrived, and AI is still bound to inputs of our own. It runs on the 10 billion internet words digested by its requirements. So, despite its instant manoeuvres and answer to user’s desires, everything comes back to the 30-year-old internet history it relies on.

Nonetheless, even lacking the power of distinctive creation, it exceeds in bandwidth to a point humans can only dream to edge. As such, while a human would take 50 minutes to write a 2,000-word essay, Chat GPT could do it in one.

Copywriters, advertisers, journalists, customer supporters and even entry-level coders could be replaced by this free tool. Will it happen? Maybe. But, just as astrophysicist Neil Degrasse Tyson said, “This isn’t something new”, and indeed, machines have been a part of humankind for centuries. Just half a decade ago, 40% of the American population lived for farming, and just yesterday these were wiped out by robots. Today, we fear AI, the next, everyone’s employed by a job unimagined.

We can never be certain that this or that will happen within such or such timeframe. So, for now, Chat GPT is still tagged to that “evolution” trend, that seems to be linear, until it is changed.

As a final note, given this AI technology isn’t short in tools to aid students cheat during exams, or use it to generate human-like texts including personalized essays or creative tasks, it is vital to reflect on its effects. Many, idols on the field of technology, psychology and human cognition have demonstrated significant resistance towards the academic use of Chat GPT. The primary investor and co-founder of Open AI (Elon Musk) himself has warned about the dangers of AI, Tweeting: “ChatGPT is scary good. We are not far from dangerously strong AI”. It is up to the student to decide whether they want to use this tool to replace their intellect, and there are only so many ways a school system can prevent them from doing so. But one thing’s for sure, if humanities’ abilities are funneled to limited thinking and decreased distinction in ideas via imagination, AI has already won. This generation is tasked to forge new insights into making a healthier, more cultured, and peaceful planet while repossessing the fundaments and values that distinguish us as mankind.

“When students cheat on exams, it’s because the school system values grades more than students value learning” — Neil Degrasse Tyson

Citations:

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• Grant, Nico, and Cade Metz. “A New Chat Bot Is a “Code Red” for Google’s Search Business.” The New York Times, 21 Dec. 2022, www.nytimes.com/2022/12/21/technology/ai-chatgpt-google-search.html.

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• Kumar, Amitesh. “What Is ChatGPT? Best Uses and Limitations of the Brand-New Tool.” Emeritus Online Courses, 22 Dec. 2022, emeritus.org/blog/ai-ml-what-is-chatgpt/. Accessed 25 Jan. 2023.

• PyCoach, The. “ChatGPT: 4 Jobs That Will Change (or Be Fully Replaced) by This AI-Powered Chatbot.” Geek Culture, 16 Jan. 2023, medium.com/geekculture/chatgpt-4-jobs-that-will-change-or-be-fully-replaced-by-this-ai-powered-chatbot-97e8118b2475. Accessed 25 Jan. 2023.