ChatGPT: The Next Big Thing

Artificial Intelligence (AI) has been around for a while now but it has been in the news almost constantly in recent months. This is primarily due to the November 2022 launch of ChatGPT by OpenAI. The stated goal of OpenAI is to develop what people call artificial general intelligence, which is a state where machines can basically do anything, humans can, any task, any emotion, and any feeling. OpenAI was originally formed as a nonprofit to change the way AI research was generally being conducted…secretively and by big tech giants like Google. When Sam Altman became the CEO of OpenAI, he created a for-profit arm of OpenAI and pushed for more intuitive business applications of AI. In November, OpenAI released ChatGPT (which stands for generative pre-trained transformer) and it became immediately popular. ChatGPT reached one million users in five days without any marketing.

ChatGPT is a chatbot that can answer virtually any question. It can write original poetry in the style of E.E. Cummings, original screenplays in the style of Quentin Tarantino, or APA formatted research papers complete with citations and sources. The chatbot is good. So good, that students have already begun to use it to cheat and traditional methods to detect plagiarism are defenseless. As a test case, I asked ChatGPT a question that I have used on essay exams in the past…"Which of the big five personality dimensions should be used to hire sales professionals and why?" In literally 10 seconds, I had a four-paragraph response that I would have graded as a near-perfect answer (see image below). Obviously, this presents some serious challenges concerning online courses and projects/papers completed outside of the classroom for?us in higher ed and we are scrambling to find solutions. Requiring proctors, using pencil and paper, and making students apply concepts to very recent events are some possible remedies, but they will not eliminate AI as a threat and we will have to constantly adjust as ChatGPT gets better at what it does.

While those of us in academia are concerned about students using AI to cheat on exams or essays, those in industry worry about AI's impact as well. ChatGPT can write press releases, marketing copy, computer coding, etc. In other words, AI could eliminate a lot of existing jobs but some argue that will lead to the creation of new ones. Some companies will embrace AI and use it to be more productive and efficient. Others will likely shun it due to its lack of human touch or accountability as it isn't perfect and sometimes makes mistakes or spits out inaccuracies. One thing is for sure, AI is here to stay and it will likely become more popular. As a result, we must also embrace AI as a tool that can and will be used positively in both higher education and industry. How does your organization plan to use or respond to AI?

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