The release of Artificial Intelligence to the world was supposed to change our collective lives. It was touted as the new way of living, searching, producing work and even organizing our existence, but it seems like it has been relegated to just another search engine and maybe a better way to use a calendar app. Of course this is not true, Artificial Intelligence has been integrated into may processes that we are not aware of, but the general public interacts more with ChatGPT, the OpenAI program that is meant to be a virtual assistant and search engine and that is why the perception has been skewed.
Using ChatGPT has been a revolution for many and its uses are varied. There are many that have even begun to use it as a complement to therapy as the program can repeat and summarize feelings back to the user in a way that may make them easier to understand. But while this is a very interesting use case, most people have gone the more standard and boring route and have just used it to answer questions and find out some information that would be harder to look for otherwise.
The way most people use ChatGPT
First and before we get into the questions, it is worth reminding anyone that reads this article that Artificial Intelligence is not actually intelligent. It is a computer program that analyzes data and does not create anything new. Any complex tasks or questions will not be correctly done or answered and it cannot reason for you or be reasoned with. Plus, any answer that it gives you will have as much chance to be correct as it will to be incorrect, and you must always double check any facts that you have been presented with or ask it to cite sources for the material. Never take the answer as correct.
Having said that, most people seem to be unaware (or not to care) about this limitation, as the most common question that ChatGPT is asked is “Can you help me write a text on (topic)?”. While this can be useful if you are stuck without ideas, do bear in mind that most stories and topics it covers are repeated and repetitive, and you will have the same essay as most people that have asked the same questions. If you give it a more specific prompt you might be able to get something a bit more uncommon, but it will never be original, so if you are trying to get it to help you with a class assignment maybe think twice.
Other popular questions that many have asked GhatGPT are:
- Help with essays or writing texts
- Solving Math Problems
- Programming Questions
- Explanations on General Topics
- Creative Ideas and Practical Advice
Getting help from this tool is a fair thing, after all, it is meant to help us, but you have to be careful with what you ask for and how you follow up with your requests. Like we have explained, when you ask a question like an explanation to a general topic, unless there is a source cited that is accredited and generally respected, the answer might be entirely made up and thus incorrect, which will spread even more misinformation.
And while it might be good to ask it to help you with math, you must have the basics down first just in case it makes obvious mistakes that you can catch. A different way of having something explained to you might be helpful, after all, we all learn differently, but there are plenty of math teachers on YouTube who will be able to explain any concept in a fun different way that resonates with you and that will be a lot more accurate.