Anything you can do, ChatGPT can do better

As AI technology continues to advance, the line between science fiction and reality is becoming increasingly blurred, bringing once unimaginable possibilities to life. OpenAI’s new program, ChatGPT, is a tool that uses artificial intelligence to understand and respond to human language. As ChatGPT rises in popularity, students in fields such as education and computer science weigh in on the potential impact of the AI program on their careers and the future of their industries. It is easy to be skeptical at first, but with a few short prompts ChatGPT showed just what it can do: it wrote the first three sentences of this article.

OpenAI, a non-profit research company, took the internet by storm with its open access artificial intelligence tools such as DALL-E 2, which allowed anyone to create automated digital artwork. The company found itself in the headlines again when it launched ChatGPT: an AI capable of writing with near-human skill and seemingly unlimited knowledge. Short commands given to ChatGPT will yield well-informed, well-worded responses to suit any need.

After hours spent testing the limits of ChatGPT, the results were both comedic and impressively intelligent. Starting with simple, one-sentence prompts, the program was able to produce short stories with simple characters, such as a lost dog. When given more complex commands, ChatGPT completed each task in a matter of seconds. When prompted to write a plot summary for a new Spider-Man movie, the program produced an emotional final chapter to the recent Spider-Man trilogy which could have easily inspired a full screenplay.

The program had no difficulty creating amusing songs or crafting recipes using a small list of ingredients. As a test of its academic ability, the program was asked to write a short analysis of “Macbeth.” The resulting essay, while short, could easily help a student survive an in-class discussion. Summaries of historical events and explanations of literary symbols produced equally impressive results.

As the requests grew more intricate, ChatGPT showed no signs of difficulty. In under 10 minutes, it analyzed half the characters in Victor Hugo’s “Les Misérables” and re-wrote their respective songs from the Broadway musical.

Each time a song was re-written in modern English or with a different tone, the lyrics — while simple — still captured each song’s essence. It only seemed to falter when analyzing interactions between characters, particularly those with complex relationships.

When crafting a news article describing the Capitol Insurrection on January 6 and several other politically charged topics, the program exhibited a slight left-leaning bias. When writing fictional stories or songs, every response resulted in a happy ending. Every AI can be programmed or trained to possess biases based on the information it draws from, and it seems that — deliberately or not — ChatGPT is slightly liberal and an unyielding optimist.

While the bot could easily entertain someone for days by writing silly Hallmark movies or songs, it started to concern younger users when it swiftly accomplished tasks they could expect to see in their future careers. Not only could the program produce convincing essays that would likely fool the average English teacher, but it could also write complex computer programs in several programming languages. Done in less than a minute, these programs were written more efficiently than high school junior Kian Whelahan could manage.

Whelahan, with 4 years of programming under his belt, commanded ChatGPT to program a Rock, Paper, Scissors game with several gameplay options: best out of three, five and seven rounds. Kian wrote the code in 20 minutes; ChatGPT took less than 20 seconds.

“ChatGPT was horrifyingly easy to understand and get complex answers out of,” says Whelahan. “When I pressed ‘go’ the bot took about 20 seconds to write the whole program. Even better, the bot was able to write it in 64 lines, two less than mine.”

Whelahan put the bot through its paces, demanding more complex programs in multiple coding languages. In a matter of minutes, ChatGPT produced several high-level scripts, including the code for a functioning video game grappling hook.

“I think ChatGPT… is perfectly capable of replacing some programming jobs at a low and simple level,” says Whelahan. “The idea that an AI is able to create… complex programs from a few words makes me feel nervous.”

He is certainly not alone. High school junior Ross Klaiber had an equally unnerving experience with ChatGPT and expressed the same fears for his future in computer science.

“This is just like a ‘Black Mirror’ episode in my mind,” says Klaiber in reference to the science fiction thriller. “I know it’s a bit reactionary, but I did have some… scared thoughts that this… would mean that I shouldn’t study computer science because I’ll just get replaced by an AI.”

Despite concerns of programmers being replaced by AI, Klaiber noted that ChatGPT is not programmed to simulate typical human interaction.

“It isn’t one of those [bots] like Siri that you can say ‘hi’ to or ‘thank you’ to. The AI would actually break if you did,” said Klaiber. In fact, attempting to start a conversation will result in nothing but a message explaining that ChatGPT does not have emotions. While ChatGPT may not threaten all professions, it will certainly make some jobs more difficult.

English teacher Maria Cahill Foley and her colleagues spent days discussing nothing but ChatGPT. Seemingly out of nowhere, teachers were confronted with a computer program that has the potential to ensure their students never have to write another essay. ChatGPT can analyze classical literature far better than the average high school student and can write an A-plus essay to boot.

“Although I am highly impressed at this program’s capabilities, I can only see its potential use as a way out for lazy writers,” says Cahill Foley. “Programs like ChatGPT will surely be used by students to plagiarize writing without having to develop [writing] skills themselves, but they will also teach students that writing skills are not worth learning.”

Cahill Foley said that educators, particularly those in English and History, will likely have to adjust their teaching styles to combat plagiarism. Salem State University first-year Aimee Champagne, who aspires to teach English after receiving her degree, echoed Cahill Foley’s remarks.

“If the majority of people used AI to write,” says Champagne, “perhaps education will shift the focus toward editing a pre-written piece or checking the information the AI has given you. The art of writing will become a hobby rather than a necessity.”

Both Champagne and Cahill Foley expressed worries that ChatGPT may severely affect the value and necessity of human writing.

“If we rely on these programs too heavily, we could see a day when human beings never write for themselves, losing a human element to our ancient form of expression,” says Cahill Foley. If the writers of tomorrow spend their high school and college years using AI to sidestep assignments, ChatGPT may become a permanent fixture of writing.

The future is not here yet, but it keeps getting closer. ChatGPT is a gateway into uncharted territory that could change one of humanity’s greatest skills. Whether that change is positive or negative remains to be seen, but one thing is certain: ChatGPT definitely did its English homework, and it can do yours too.