Personal Experience of Chat GPT: A College Student's Perspective.

  What's up. This week would have been tough for many people in college because of many quizzes, and team projects to work on. I hope all the students and professors keep up with their work and be motivated to their goals or plans whatever they are up to. You guys are doing great. Let's be glad that about a month and a few weeks are left until the semester ends.

So, going back to the point, today's blog will talk about my self-reflective opinion about Chat GPT. As my group selected Chat GPT as a topic for our project, our group members discussed numerous thoughts about it last week, trying to narrow it down, and refining it to deeper concepts. Specifically, on how people in education can use it with discernment.  Through the discussion and brainstorming of each other's thoughts, also my personal experience, I have come up with some ideas.

New Ability

As I used chat GPT during several lectures, I want to say it is undeniable that Chat GPT has brought phenomenal efficiency. When I want to get certain information, I can just ask. It reduces the time on searching for information and automated the process of knowledge acquirement.

Some people worry that it will degenerate our brains and make people stupid. However,  I believe it may result in most people have become smarter. Of course, not everyone's knowledge may have deepened, but it has had the effect of becoming common enough for so many people to know a certain level of knowledge just by asking.

Though, it seems to have opened the way for us to think in a different way. There's a lot more we can think of and discover when the process of information acquisition has been automated. 

With the introduction of a new tool called Chat GPT, I thought that people will find and develop new skills for how to communicate efficiently with it.  And, it is critical thinking, I believe. 

Since I have grown up in Korean society and the education system, I am used to the education that makes students find the answer, not create their own answers. Memorization and knowledge acquirement was the main capacity required to succeed in Korean education, focusing only on the results. 

However, I believe chat GPT is the one that will let people challenge unexplored areas and questions that have no answers. By giving us comparatively easy access to new fields by supporting the process with information provision.

Changes in Chat GPT

Though, the problem occurs when the information is not correct or users rely too much on certain information with a fixed attitude which can be referred to as a hallucination.

This was what I believed until I asked to chat GPT again recently.

Specifically when trying to find research papers or scholar articles through chat GPT, it used to provide users the information whether the content is correct or not. There were many news and concerns regarding the issue and we actually tried searching an article a few weeks ago.

                                                             Asking for an article to chat GPT in April 2023

In fact, our group asked chat GPT to provide us with a case study, but when I followed the URL, it was either non-existent or inaccessible. In my personal experience, many data actually matched the true sources but as such, there are some cases where unclear or inaccurate answers are given.

But, as I tried it again like yesterday, it seemed like chat GPT was aware of its problem.

                                                                   Asking it again to chat GPT in May 2023

Mentioning and acknowledging its limitations, it instead offered me a way to find scholar articles.

                                                       Asking it once again to chat GPT in May 2023

It was really shocking to me when I got the answers from it and made me think it was a bit creepy because it changed the formation of answers within a short period. I do not know if the developers or chat GPT itself have changed the settings, it seemed like it was trying to let users discover their own findings.

Requirements When Using It

Thus, I thought that we should use chat GPT as creating ideas through interaction and having a discussion as the function of a chat-bot, not just a means of acquiring knowledge. 

However, it is an individual's competency to use this function. For example, if I know the subject and goal but do not know how to get to the point, I will have to improve my ability to get to the point; process focused, which is making good questions.

In order to do so, individuals have to comprehend the knowledge, making it into their own belongings. It can be a paradox that knowledge comprehension has to be focused on even though chat GPT automated the process of knowledge acquirement. We have to keep on experience and have that data accumulated to know our stance.

Still, it is for sure when we reach that stage, we would be experts or innovators that use chat GPT as a tool for making leading, subjective processes.