Learning with ChatGPT

I have access to the premium version of ChatGPT, and every day I ask it a few questions about concepts in physics that I’d like to know more about. Yesterday, for example, I learnt the difference between quenching and annealing and later about the Weierstrass function, which it was also able to plot after some difficulty.

I have found using ChatGPT in this way to be a valuable learning tool, and I imagine there are already people out there who are repackaging instances of ChatGPT to be autonomous ‘teachers’ for students looking to learn something, although not one that can be a school-based learning. The only major human input is knowing what questions to ask and when. This activity can be split into two modes: one when the student asks doubts and follow-up questions and the other when the 'learning programme' determines the pace at which to introduce new concepts.

One of my jobs at The Hindu is to get explanatory articles for concepts in (pure) science. I recently attempted one on amplifiers, which required me to explain the working of a NPN bipolar junction transistor, a device I’d until then been happy to leave behind in my high school classroom. I turned to ChatGPT, asking for a visualisation of the transistor, and it obliged. I’m a visual learner and having access to the tool made a big difference.

I have a background in engineering plus more than a decade’s experience in spotting red flags in scientific papers, and I imagine anyone with these skills will have an easier time navigating ChatGPT’s answers. If a school education can bring a person to this point, ChatGPT can be a valuable guide for the time after. All we need is a guarantee from OpenAI that the tool doesn’t hallucinate or that it hallucinates in specific contexts, and definitely not above a certain rate.