Before the Internet became a thing, the only way to become educated in complex subject matters was to either buy books or go to your local public library and read what was available. Learning required more effort and time back then.
The rise of the Internet gave the global public access to information on a level that was impossible to imagine just a few decades prior. People were now able to do quick searches online to find almost any information they were interested in and learn.
As we've become aware in the current era of heavy misinformation, not everything you read online is true. You still have to take the time to fact-check what you are reading. This is especially the case with the information provided by AI chatbots like ChatGPT, which can be quite misleading at times.
Learning with ChatGPT
If you would've told me a year ago that there would soon be a more efficient and fun way to learn than going on Google to search whatever random questions I had, I wouldn't believe you.
Although ChatGPT reached 100 million users in a little over two months, I believe that most people still have no idea how powerful this AI tool can be.
Is ChatGPT good for learning?
Yes, because you can have a conversation with ChatGPT as opposed to scrolling through pages of search results and reading various articles that you have to evaluate and figure out whether they are written in a tone you like and contain the information you're looking for.
You can even ask additional questions regardless of what you're talking about with the chatbot.
The efficiency when you learn with OpenAI's chatbot is unmatched because the answers you get are always straight to the point. I enjoy these "conversations" so much that I find it great to really get into the mindset like I'm talking with a friend. Here's an example.
I asked a complex question and received a great, concise answer. I felt the need to learn more about the powerful instruments on the James Webb Space Telescope that are able to detect changes in a star's brightness. So, I asked ChatGPT to go into more detail about them. Here's the answer I received.
Yeah, I love learning about the universe and the technology that will help us find answers humanity has been searching for for millennia.
My favorite book of all time is A Brief History of Time by Stephen Hawking, so naturally, this is the first thing that popped into my head when I wanted to share an example of how to learn with ChatGPT. But that doesn't mean you can't use this powerful AI chatbot to learn more practical stuff. We'll get to that in a minute though. Let's make learning as fun as possible first.
Learning with ChatGPT Is Fun
It's fun to learn with ChatGPT because the chatbot was made to respond in a conversational tone. That being said, there are ways that you can crank the fun up a notch. Here's an example.
I love Gary Vee. I listen to his talks all the time. I have had an entrepreneurial spirit for as long as I can remember. There are not many people that can get me pumped up as much as Gary. I also like when he explains stuff because he does it in a practical way.
I can get ChatGPT to explain just about anything in the voice of Gary Vaynerchuck and that to me makes it even more interesting to read. You can do the same in the voice of any person you admire, look up to, or find interesting to listen to.
What's amazing here is that ChatGPT actually nailed it with the prompt shown above. The answer is given in a great Gary Vee tone and I can imagine him taking on the topic in a similar way. Of course, there is something comical about him talking about exoplanets like this.
Regardless of how fun it can be to digest new information with the help of this AI chatbot, there is a limit on how much you can learn before you need a break. ChatGPT will be there even if you want to take a break. For instance, you can ask it to write a joke in the tone of your favorite comedian.
I've always loved how Jerry Seinfeld is able to dig deep down into the minutiae of everyday life and make funny observations. I was wondering what type of joke ChatGPT would be able to generate about the pointlessness of searching for exoplanets in the voice of Seinfeld, and I got the answer in the image above.
I'm not going to lie, this joke really made me laugh. You can let your imagination run wild and request that the chatbot writes just about anything for your entertainment.
Learning Practical Skills with ChatGPT
By now you've seen how you can leverage ChatGPT to learn new information (don't forget to fact-check it though). But how about practical skills?
OpenAI's chatbot is perfect if you want to learn a variety of practical skills. For example, you can become a better writer. I'm not a native English speaker. My English teachers in school were, for lack of a better word, awful. I wouldn't have learned anything if I relied on them.
I learned English as a kid through cartoons, RPG games, and hip-hop music. I'm very thankful for that, but I think kids these days can learn even faster if they use ChatGPT. Scratch that. Anyone regardless of age can learn English better if they rely on this chatbot.
I asked the chatbot if it could help me become a better writer. I wrote that I was going to send a paragraph of text that purposely included mistakes and I wanted it to correct me. Here's what happened.
The chatbot made excellent corrections and I was thrilled with the result. It's important to mention here that the chatbot mentioned the corrections might not align with my personal writing style or preferences, which is something you'll have to work on yourself.
I could spot the corrections it made, but I wanted to get an explanation from ChatGPT. I asked if it could point out what I wrote wrong and what it did to correct it.
The explanations are very concise and they made sense. I used writing as an example of practical skills, but you can use the chatbot in different ways to boost various skills. You can use it to prepare for a job interview or even become a better cook.
Learn to Code with ChatGPT
I had dreams of being a programmer for a brief period of my life. My heart was never really in it. My teenage self just thought it would be a cool way to make money. Needless to say, I dropped out three months later. One of the capabilities of ChatGPT is that it can help you write code and learn to code. Maybe I would've been more interested in learning this skill if I had access to this chatbot back then.
I wrote that I know nothing about coding and asked if the chatbot could give me a simple example of a program written in Python. Not only did it give the example, but it also gave me some great advice on learning how to code in Python.
Remember that you can ask any additional questions at any time and receive a great answer. You can ask the chatbot to expand on concepts like control structures and variables. I decided that my next question was going to be about sorting algorithms, which is the last thing I remember about taking a software engineering course in college before dropping out.
This is a really simple prompt, but the opportunities here are endless. Programmers have recently started using ChatGPT a lot to identify errors in their code, and it has proven to be an incredibly useful tool.
Of course, you should always test the code the chatbot provides you with to make sure that it's working properly.
I wanted to do another prompt and ask ChatGPT if it could detect any errors in my code. I took the bubble sorting algorithm code the chatbot provided earlier and made some changes that would make it impossible to run. I asked if it could notice the errors and correct them. Here's what I got as a response.
This is the type of simple explanation I was looking for. From what I can gather, it will provide the same level of helpfulness regardless of how complex the code is.
Final Thoughts
What we've learned is that ChatGPT is a great source to learn from. It can help you:
- Learn new information and skills through interesting dialogue
- Improve your writing skills and point out mistakes you've made
- Learn to code and fix bugs in your code
- It can provide outstanding entertainment value and make learning a fun experience
The prompts you give ChatGPT help it become better at what it does. Thanks to the prompts we give the chatbot, it will improve with each new release. I'm really interested to see what the next few releases will be like.
