ChatGPT: It’s good. But is it true?

Let’s start at the end.

Could ChatGPT have written this article about itself? I have no doubt.

Could it have written it better? Most probably.

ChatGPT is not the first and only tool of its kind but it is clearly a game changer. As someone with a keen interest in education (or should I say edification?) and the use of knowledge, I am more than happy for the rules to change. So naturally, I was quick to jump into the fray and see what it is for myself.

Was I impressed? Yes.

Was I scared? Yes, but not for the reasons you may think. In fact, as a writer and admissions consultant, I felt more secure in my vocation than ever before. I had finally been vindicated.

For years I have been postulating that the future is creative. If you can think, you can survive. But if you can create, you can thrive. I have been decrying the dumbing down effects of social media, the precious minutes wasted in mindless scrolling, liking, envying. Precious time wasted in mindless, passive pursuit.

I am not against social media. It is necessary. I am sometimes inspired by a post I see. If I’m lucky, a few minutes on Twitter alone can spark a fury of ideas in my head. But the investment of time I am putting into these media is making them quite expensive.

Inspired by a TikTok video (it was sent to me) in a which a marketing executive was extolling the virtues of ChatGPT and how it had reduced three days’ worth of work to 20 minutes, and seeing as I had time to make up for (wasted on social media), I asked ChatGPT to create two questionnaires for my own educational consulting business that could help me understand, on the one hand the kind of parent I would be working with and on the other, the type of student. I figured the process would save me about a day or two days’ worth of work. But I wasn’t looking only to save time, I was also expecting and hoping for ChatGPT to give me ideas I could not, or would not think of, but like inspiring content on social media, the nuggets were scarce and hard to mine.

Thirty years ago I bought a home PC and when it was not reacting as desired, I lamented to my techie friend how stupid it was.

“It is a machine,” he replied. “It can only respond to your commands.”

You can infer the rest.

Similarly with ChatGPT, the intelligence of its reply can only be to the level of my prompt. ChatGPT cannot and will not make me more intelligent. It will give me information, the breadth of which I could never get by myself, but it certainly cannot expand my intelligence.

But here’s what I found most intriguing. Using ChatGPT left me feeling hollow. I was — dare I say it? — disappointed. No, I was more than disappointed, I had been de-pressed. I did not want to use the questionnaire it gave me. It was dull! Boring! But most importantly, it was soulless. I, on the other hand, had been robbed of the gift of creativity. And what is creativity if not life itself?

A few years ago I was reading the essay of a student applying to a top international university. The essay was excellent. It was flawless. But like my interaction with ChatGPT, it left me with a sense of emptiness I could not pinpoint.

“Where are you?” I asked the student.

Naturally, she was a bit surprised since we were on a video call.

“I don’t see you.” I could see her pondering whether she should hang up and seek another counsellor.

“Your essay is flawless,” I explained.

And therein lay the problem. I could see this student’s achievements, I could hear her ideas. But I couldn’t see her. I couldn’t hear her. I was looking for the person behind the words, the humanity in them. The writer could have been a robot. Her essay was soulless. It was good. But it wasn’t true.

So am I scared of ChatGPT? Yes I am.

I am scared of ChatGPT because it is going to be even easier to generate inane content on the cyber highway.

I am scared because it is going to give some people a false sense of intelligence.

I am scared because it is going to give some people a false sense of achievement.

I am scared because of its potential to diminish people’s minds even more: the act of active learning physically expands the areas we use in our brains.

But what I am really scared of? I am scared that the people I turn to as teachers and mentors, the people I turn to for knowledge, I’m scared that they start using it. I’m scared that they will stop generating new and original content and leave me at the mercy of artificial intelligence.

I am scared that I, my children and the students I work with, will become even more averse to deep thought and work.

Could ChatGPT have written an article about itself? I have no doubt.

Could it have written it better? Most probably. It could delve into the minds of deeper thinkers and better writers to put together a different essay.

But could it have given me the sense of elation I feel after I have created something? Could it have synthesized these exact words, written in this exact style and elicit the same feelings in the reader that this text has? Only now that I have written it myself and put it out there, can it do it.

I rest my case.