ChatGPT. It is the world’s biggest hype of the last few months. A chat based on artificial intelligence (AI), available on the web for any user, capable of holding conversations and answering questions in different languages on practically any subject, in the tone and length requested. It also solves problems in mathematics, physics or chemistry, and is even capable of composing songs or poems.
ChatGPT is the current result of the work developed by OpenAI, an organisation created in 2015 by well-known gurus such as Elon Musk and Sam Altman to “non-profit” build a “friendly AI”. On 30 November, ChaptGTP opened to the world, astonishing it with its spectacular abilities. Shortly afterwards, the ChaptGPT Plus version was released for a fee.
On 20 February, organised by the research group “Antropología, Diversidad y Convivencia” (Anthropology, Diversity and Coexistence), the “Conversatorio IA y Universidad. The robotisation of intellectual work. Impact and perspectives of artificial intelligence (AI/ChatGPT) in teaching and research“. In total, around fifty people followed the session online, thirty in person, and those who wish can do so at any time in the Open Classroom of the Teacher Training Centre.
For the University, the emergence of ChatGPT opens up a world of possibilities, but also of risks or “misuses”, which only with training and “critical thinking”, as the speakers agreed, can be dealt with. Or not. “We are talking about what it does today. We are talking about inaccuracies or successes. Think about what he is going to do in a few weeks or months. It’s going to be spectacular. Today we are not able to see it or sense it. It is going to turn upside down much of what we know, including the professions. We are going to have to reinvent ourselves,” postulates Julián Simón (the advisor to the vice-rectorate for quality and a specialist in educational innovation).
Use applications like ChatGPT well, maximise their possibilities and reduce their risks. That should be the goal. And there is only one way: training. For teachers and for students. But perhaps before that, other questions need to be asked: “Are we educating them to use these tools or to compete with them? What is the role of humans?” reflects Monica Cornejo (a participant in the debate). She herself gives as an example what happened decades ago with the appearance of calculators, which seemed to condemn students to stop learning calculus. “My impression is that something similar will happen with this”, replies the social anthropologist herself. Her colleague Olga Mancha (a participant in the debate) closes the debate with a fragment of a song by Jorge Drexler: “Tell me what I should sing, algorithm. I know you know it better than even I do”. Music always comes first.
