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How to Use and Not to Use ChatGPT


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Credit: OpenAI

In the wake of ChatGPT's intense popularity, much discussion is being had about where and how to use tech like ChatGPT in daily life. After all, it's a powerful AI tool that can do a lot of different things, but it definitely has its own drawbacks and problems, too. So, the question becomes, how can you use ChatGPT? What's a good way to use this tech?

Not to worry, because in this article, we'll tell you what you need to know about how to use and not use ChatGPT.

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Don't Do Your Homework With ChatGPT

Don't Do Your Homework With ChatGPT
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Credit: OpenAI

Look, we get it, it's a beautiful dream: an advanced, AI-powered 'do your stuff for you' simulator. We'd all love robots to handle all the things we don't want to do for us. But, ethics and morals aside, it's not a good idea.

With math, for example, ChatGPT can struggle. Even with relatively simple calculations, this tool can get things wrong and confidently so. If you feed it some math problem that's due tomorrow, there's a good chance you'd be better served but just trying to solve it yourself.

Same with something like history. The information ChatGPT has access to is limited, and as a result, there are lots of things it doesn't know, and what's more is that it may know something but still get it wrong when it comes down to analyzing a complicated topic like history. Better to just read your textbook and find out whatever it is you need to know.

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This is, in general, going to be the situation. Sometimes, ChatGPT will be right, but other times, it won't, and ultimately, there's just not a good way to know whether or not that's going to be the case. Best to just copy off a friend you know is getting the right answers at that point, if you want to cheat.

Do Learn Concepts With ChatGPT

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While ChatGPT might not be a reliable way to get your homework done for you, it is a good tool to use to help you understand something.

For example, say you're learning about what iambic pentameter is in English class, but you don't really full understand the idea. You see examples of it, but how it works isn't making total sense to you and the examples you were given you find it hard to actually understand. Using ChatGPT to help explain the finer details and, perhaps, even generate some fresh examples for you can be a good way to use this kind of site.

Don't rely on ChatGPT for all or most of your knowledge on a particular topic, but if you have a specific question or you want to learn more about a particular thing, that's where ChatGPT can be most effective. Of course, it's always best practice to double-check things you learn from ChatGPT.

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The main point here, though, is that understanding and help with a particular topic is a much better usecase for ChatGPT than it is to use it to do your homework or teach you about something you don't know anything about.

Don't Have ChatGPT Write Your Essays

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It might be tempting to have ChatGPT write an essay for you. You might have to write something fairly standard on a well-known piece of literature that ChatGPT even has access to information about, but don't do it.

As mentioned above, you can definitely still stumble into situations where you can get outright wrong information from ChatGPT, but that's not the only concern here. The problem with a ChatGPT essay is much like the problems you run into downloading an essay off the internet.

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It won't end up feeling like your own writing, which any professor can easily tell, and it will ultimately come off as fairly formulaic and generic. Feeding ChatGPT some information and using it to help structure your essay, or giving it an example of an idea you're struggling to put into words is one thing, but using it to write essays for you is ultimately just ineffective.

Put simply, ChatGPT can be a useful tool to help you write an essay, but don't rely on it for the whole thing.

Do Have ChatGPT Summarize Things

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While it may not be a good idea to have ChatGPT write an essay for you, if you're behind on your reading, getting ChatGPT to summarize something for you can be a good way to use the tool.

Asking ChatGPT something about a piece of literature you're reading or to summarize something is worth trying out in a pinch. Or maybe you want some good examples of something happening in a book you've read for an essay, that's another good thing you can try to use ChatGPT to handle.

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However, if you read something that sounds unusual or particularly off, make sure you double-check what you're hearing from ChatGPT with another source, like the Sparknotes-type websites of the world.

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