Should you be using ChatGPT? Experts Say ‘Yes’, But Don’t Confuse It With a Friend

When research and development company OpenAI released ChatGPT late last year, it immediately attracted the attention of the media and the general public.

In just two months, the artificial intelligence software—or a chatbot that can process natural human language and generate answers—reached 100 million monthly active users, surpassing TikTok (nine months), Instagram (20) and beating Uber (70).

“AI will become more and more ubiquitous. This trend cannot be stopped,” says Dakuo Wang, associate professor at Northeastern University, whose research is at the intersection of human-computer interaction and artificial intelligence.

Wang recommends that those who haven’t done so try using the public version of ChatGPT.

“It’s called AI literacy,” says Wang.

He says that everyone needs to start learning what AI can and cannot do.

AI will change people’s lives and jobs, says Wang, but it will not replace humans. Instead, more productive people who embrace AI will replace less productive people who are reluctant to learn how it works.

So, how can an average person use ChatGPT or other chatbots like Replika? Let’s start with the less obvious one.

Yes, You Can Interact With Chatbots

When people first got access to ChatGPT, people quickly started having private conversations with it. In one case, the chatbot professed love to a New York Times reporter.

Replica is presented as a safe place to share thoughts, feelings and dreams with an AI companion that helps users learn more about themselves. The chatbot was created by Eugenia Queda, a Russian-American entrepreneur so that she could talk to her dead friend.

But should I be sharing my darkest secrets with AI?

Is it healthy to have deep conversations with a chatbot when you’re feeling lonely? Robert Wolpe, professor and chair of the Department of Applied Psychology at Northeastern, says that talking to chatbots can be therapeutic because it allows people to speak their mind, and that comes across as empathy.

“If the chatbot asks you how was your day today and you say ‘that’s really crummy,'” says Volpe. “And (then the chatbot says) ‘Oh, tell me about it.’ Part of saying it out loud is therapeutic.”

Remember, chatbots are not your friend

When someone begins to see a chatbot as a friend, they run the risk of developing a strong attachment to the “cold machine”.

“That’s how we’re wired,” says Volpe.

Users should be aware that chatbots have the potential to reinforce wrong ideas or confirm everything a person tells them.

For example, Volpe believes that chatbots should not tell people how to behave or offer advice to someone who is experiencing abuse or suicidal thoughts. In those cases, they should reach out to human professionals.

ChatGPT can improve your writing

So, chatbots may not be your friend, but ChatGPT may be better than a friend when it comes to editing written work.

If used properly, ChatGPT can shorten a paper, rewrite certain passages, check grammar, and improve or change the style of the text. However, users will need to give the chatbot a detailed indication of what they want to do.

Very rarely, Wang says, will the first prompt result in users getting exactly the response they want.

ChatGPT is not good for fact-checking

Users should note that ChatGPT is not good for fact-checking. First, its knowledge is currently limited to the information that exists before 2021. Second, it is intrinsically different from a search engine such as Google.

Search engines index every source and piece of information, says Wang, while AI-based chatbots were inspired by the human brain. Just like our brain contains 86 billion neurons, AI models like ChatGPT integrate hundreds of billions of parameters and are pre-trained on massive text datasets.

The human brain comes up with an answer to a question based on a person’s knowledge, memory and perception rather than referring to an encyclopedia in one’s head. Similarly, ChatGPT does not rely on any specific source, but instead generates coherent and contextually relevant responses by predicting what the next word will be.

AI tools useful for sketching and brainstorming

Rahul Bhargava, assistant professor of art, design and journalism at Northeastern, says AI tools are just another way of interacting with computers that can be tremendously useful in a learning situation.

He introduced his students to ChatGPT and DAL-e, another AI system from OpenAI that can create realistic images and art from natural language descriptions.

DALL-E is good for drawing diagrams, while ChatGPT can help students brainstorm.

For example, Bhargava and his students used ChatGPT to design a miniature tabletop golf model. They asked the chatbot what interactive components should be included in a “Tom and Jerry” cartoon-inspired curriculum.

“The results were on-point for the first round of ideas,” says Bhargava, “and it got the students into a brainstorming mindset.”

AI assistants can teach you how to code

Bhargava says AI coding assistants like Microsoft-owned GitHub Copilot, or CodeGPT, are useful for individuals whose goal is not to become a software developer or computer scientist.

With AI assistants, Bhargava’s students learn modules of a program that can then be linked together. They can generate example code that the user wants to build. This could be an interactive news story for their project or an animated interaction on screen.

It can help you plan a party or meal

If all else fails, you can ask ChatGPT to help you plan your next party or meal. Ask the chatbot for step-by-step actionable instructions, Wang says, and it will come up with a list of steps it must take to cook a meatloaf or organize a first birthday party.