How ChatGPT AI can help us in our studies
They say that ChatGPT is going to take away our jobs, dominate and enslave the human species, create Terminators... Is it true? Let's see how to use it. The truth is that we have no idea if artificial intelligence will end up doing all that (hopefully not), but what we do know is that, for now, it can be a very useful tool to help students obtain their university eTitle, or the opposite. It depends on how we use it.
As can be seen, ChatGPT has an excellent predisposition for any type of task we propose, but, as we will see later, it cannot replace us. Any AI is just a versatile tool, not the solution to avoid working. On this occasion, we are going to follow (more or less) the points that ChatGPT proposes as a guide. Let's start with the first point.
What ChatGPT does not tell us in this perfect synthesis that it proposes to start the article is that those answers it provides are not always real. If such an incredible technology is free (for now), there must be a reason. It may be because it is still learning and its way of learning and improving is by talking to us. It turns out that ChatGPT's answers are not always real, but very rarely does it tell you that it does not have information. The AI will consult its databases and give the answer it considers most likely. So far so good; the problem is that its answer will not tell us that it could be wrong, but rather that, if it is not sure or does not know the answer, it will answer any nonsense with the utmost confidence. Here, some examples of the most notorious errors of ChatGPT and other AI. How does this affect us when using it to do a job or to search for information that we need to study? Easy: we have to compare what it tells us with other sources and not consider any of its answers as true; not even if there is a large part that is true. But following the agenda... What is ChatGPT? It answers itself: ChatGPT is an artificial language model developed by OpenAI. It is capable of understanding natural language and generating coherent and relevant responses to a wide variety of questions and topics. ChatGPT is trained on large amounts of natural language data and uses deep learning techniques to understand the meaning of words and phrases and thus be able to generate responses that seem to be written by a human. ChatGPT is used in various applications, such as virtual assistants, chatbots, automatic response tools on social networks, among others. What is it specifically used for? ChatGPT can be used in various applications that require natural language processing and text generation. Some examples of how ChatGPT can be used include:
Let's follow its advice. ChatGPT is a wonderful tool that complements (does not replace) learning. A few years ago (not so many), creating an academic paper meant spending long hours in libraries consulting one volume after another, summarizing texts that could be useful for the paper, and transcribing the desired quotes. Just as it happens now, bibliographies had to be extensive and well referenced. At this point, that seems so arduous to us that we cannot conceive it. Sometimes, we still look for information in books, but we have greatly reduced the work thanks to the internet and bibliographies are a piece of cake with Google Scholar and Mendeley. Does this mean that we have become useless and do not know how to research? No, not at all. It means that we spend less time searching for information and, therefore, we cover more data and references. It is up to us to make these advantages that technology gives us a handicap for our learning or an opportunity to improve it. The same goes for AI. If we let them do the work for us, we will lose. If we use them to search for more information, make practical summaries, or solve doubts and perform organizational tasks, we will find ourselves facing invaluable tools that will boost our knowledge and improve our performance.
Well, what a downer! It is not only plagiarism to copy Calderón de la Barca, but it is also plagiarism to copy ChatGPT. Everything that comes from this AI must be properly referenced or it will be considered plagiarism, and if we know the rules of our university regarding what happens when we get caught plagiarizing, then we already know what we have to do: write in our own words. The advantage is that this is a good way to consolidate knowledge in our memory, since, in theory, we study to learn, not just to pass, right?
Well, it tells us itself: this is a tool, not Our Lady of the Only Tool. We still have experts, books, scientific journals, previous research, the internet... It is not about replacing the others, but about combining everything. Even more so when, as we have already said, AI is not infallible at all. We are obliged to compare. Oh, and one more thing! ChatGPT does not have data after 2021. This means that it can give us wrong answers because sometimes it will warn us about the date of the information and sometimes it will not. Like in this example where the answer should have been that the record is held by a female manta ray measuring 4 meters and weighing 300 kg (impressive!). 
What we have been saying all along: we cannot trust its word and we must have a critical mind when it comes to any information we obtain, whether from ChatGPT or from a textbook. Doubting, investigating, and comparing information is basically the most important thing a university student must do. Let's see an example of one of those "biases" that can affect us when asking ChatGPT for scientific readings recommendations: As we can see, out of a list of 20 books, the AI has only chosen one whose author is a woman: 
If we ask for a similar list but with women, it gives it to us without any problem, so the issue is not that there are no female scientists publishing, but that this AI has the same sexist biases as the internet and we all have. ChatGPT falls into androcentrism and considers that men do everything and women are the otherness or, as Beauvoir said, the second sex: 
If we want to obtain an adequate and rich bibliography, we better make sure to ask for men, women, and people of different ethnic backgrounds.
Despite the fact that ChatGPT recommends this conclusion, we find it somewhat redundant. We believe that it has been sufficiently clear that responsible use must be made, and anyone with common sense will know that allowing an AI to steal their future job because they did not want to make a little effort during their career is ridiculous. That is why we have chosen not to follow its recommendation and instead ask it for what tasks we should not use an AI. Here is its answer, take note: Although ChatGPT can be a useful tool to obtain information and answer questions, there are some cases in which university students could avoid or limit its use. Here are some examples: For tasks that require a high level of academic rigor: If you are working on a research paper or a task that requires a high level of academic rigor, it is important to avoid relying solely on ChatGPT as a source of information. Instead, you should use reliable and peer-reviewed academic sources to obtain accurate and complete information. For tasks that require complex interpretation: If you are working on a task that requires complex interpretation, such as literary analysis or critical evaluation of an argument, ChatGPT may not be the best option. Instead, you should use your own critical judgment and analysis to evaluate the information and make informed decisions. For tasks that require personal interaction: If you are working on a task that requires personal interaction, such as an interview or a survey, it is important not to rely solely on ChatGPT to obtain information. Instead, you should interact with the people involved in the task to obtain direct and complete information. For tasks that require practical skills: If you are working on a task that requires practical skills, such as performing a laboratory task or repairing equipment, it is important not to rely solely on ChatGPT. Instead, you should follow specific instructions and procedures to complete the task safely and effectively. In summary, although ChatGPT can be a useful tool to obtain information, university students should critically evaluate the information they obtain and not rely solely on it to complete important academic tasks. Finally, we could not help but ask it this question: 
Is it lying? ;)
Hello, ChatGPT
To make this blog post, we are going to ask for the help of artificial intelligence (AI) ChatGPT and we will see step by step how we can use it in a useful and responsible way. As can be seen, ChatGPT has an excellent predisposition for any type of task we propose, but, as we will see later, it cannot replace us. Any AI is just a versatile tool, not the solution to avoid working. On this occasion, we are going to follow (more or less) the points that ChatGPT proposes as a guide. Let's start with the first point.
1. What is ChatGPT and how can it be used?
What ChatGPT does not tell us in this perfect synthesis that it proposes to start the article is that those answers it provides are not always real. If such an incredible technology is free (for now), there must be a reason. It may be because it is still learning and its way of learning and improving is by talking to us. It turns out that ChatGPT's answers are not always real, but very rarely does it tell you that it does not have information. The AI will consult its databases and give the answer it considers most likely. So far so good; the problem is that its answer will not tell us that it could be wrong, but rather that, if it is not sure or does not know the answer, it will answer any nonsense with the utmost confidence. Here, some examples of the most notorious errors of ChatGPT and other AI. How does this affect us when using it to do a job or to search for information that we need to study? Easy: we have to compare what it tells us with other sources and not consider any of its answers as true; not even if there is a large part that is true. But following the agenda... What is ChatGPT? It answers itself: ChatGPT is an artificial language model developed by OpenAI. It is capable of understanding natural language and generating coherent and relevant responses to a wide variety of questions and topics. ChatGPT is trained on large amounts of natural language data and uses deep learning techniques to understand the meaning of words and phrases and thus be able to generate responses that seem to be written by a human. ChatGPT is used in various applications, such as virtual assistants, chatbots, automatic response tools on social networks, among others. What is it specifically used for? ChatGPT can be used in various applications that require natural language processing and text generation. Some examples of how ChatGPT can be used include:
- Virtual assistants: ChatGPT can be used as a virtual assistant to answer common questions, such as information about opening hours or contact information for a company, making reservations, among others.
- Chatbots: ChatGPT can be used to create chatbots for customer service, technical support, sales, among others. Chatbots can interact with users and provide quick and accurate answers to their questions.
- Text generation: ChatGPT can be used to generate text for a variety of purposes, such as automatic news writing, creation of article summaries, generation of product descriptions for e-commerce websites, among others.
- Automatic response tools on social networks: ChatGPT can be used to create automatic response tools for social networks, such as Facebook or Twitter, allowing companies to automatically respond to user messages.
- Research and data analysis: ChatGPT can be used to analyze large sets of natural language data and extract relevant information. This can be useful in areas such as market research, sentiment analysis, and public opinion analysis.
2. Responsible uses of ChatGPT
In this second section, the AI recommends us to talk about responsible uses and explains it as follows: Let's follow its advice. ChatGPT is a wonderful tool that complements (does not replace) learning. A few years ago (not so many), creating an academic paper meant spending long hours in libraries consulting one volume after another, summarizing texts that could be useful for the paper, and transcribing the desired quotes. Just as it happens now, bibliographies had to be extensive and well referenced. At this point, that seems so arduous to us that we cannot conceive it. Sometimes, we still look for information in books, but we have greatly reduced the work thanks to the internet and bibliographies are a piece of cake with Google Scholar and Mendeley. Does this mean that we have become useless and do not know how to research? No, not at all. It means that we spend less time searching for information and, therefore, we cover more data and references. It is up to us to make these advantages that technology gives us a handicap for our learning or an opportunity to improve it. The same goes for AI. If we let them do the work for us, we will lose. If we use them to search for more information, make practical summaries, or solve doubts and perform organizational tasks, we will find ourselves facing invaluable tools that will boost our knowledge and improve our performance.
3. Avoid plagiarism
Well, what a downer! It is not only plagiarism to copy Calderón de la Barca, but it is also plagiarism to copy ChatGPT. Everything that comes from this AI must be properly referenced or it will be considered plagiarism, and if we know the rules of our university regarding what happens when we get caught plagiarizing, then we already know what we have to do: write in our own words. The advantage is that this is a good way to consolidate knowledge in our memory, since, in theory, we study to learn, not just to pass, right?
4. Use ChatGPT in conjunction with other tools
Well, it tells us itself: this is a tool, not Our Lady of the Only Tool. We still have experts, books, scientific journals, previous research, the internet... It is not about replacing the others, but about combining everything. Even more so when, as we have already said, AI is not infallible at all. We are obliged to compare. Oh, and one more thing! ChatGPT does not have data after 2021. This means that it can give us wrong answers because sometimes it will warn us about the date of the information and sometimes it will not. Like in this example where the answer should have been that the record is held by a female manta ray measuring 4 meters and weighing 300 kg (impressive!).
5. Be aware of biases and limitations
What we have been saying all along: we cannot trust its word and we must have a critical mind when it comes to any information we obtain, whether from ChatGPT or from a textbook. Doubting, investigating, and comparing information is basically the most important thing a university student must do. Let's see an example of one of those "biases" that can affect us when asking ChatGPT for scientific readings recommendations: As we can see, out of a list of 20 books, the AI has only chosen one whose author is a woman: If we ask for a similar list but with women, it gives it to us without any problem, so the issue is not that there are no female scientists publishing, but that this AI has the same sexist biases as the internet and we all have. ChatGPT falls into androcentrism and considers that men do everything and women are the otherness or, as Beauvoir said, the second sex: If we want to obtain an adequate and rich bibliography, we better make sure to ask for men, women, and people of different ethnic backgrounds.
Conclusions:
Despite the fact that ChatGPT recommends this conclusion, we find it somewhat redundant. We believe that it has been sufficiently clear that responsible use must be made, and anyone with common sense will know that allowing an AI to steal their future job because they did not want to make a little effort during their career is ridiculous. That is why we have chosen not to follow its recommendation and instead ask it for what tasks we should not use an AI. Here is its answer, take note: Although ChatGPT can be a useful tool to obtain information and answer questions, there are some cases in which university students could avoid or limit its use. Here are some examples: For tasks that require a high level of academic rigor: If you are working on a research paper or a task that requires a high level of academic rigor, it is important to avoid relying solely on ChatGPT as a source of information. Instead, you should use reliable and peer-reviewed academic sources to obtain accurate and complete information. For tasks that require complex interpretation: If you are working on a task that requires complex interpretation, such as literary analysis or critical evaluation of an argument, ChatGPT may not be the best option. Instead, you should use your own critical judgment and analysis to evaluate the information and make informed decisions. For tasks that require personal interaction: If you are working on a task that requires personal interaction, such as an interview or a survey, it is important not to rely solely on ChatGPT to obtain information. Instead, you should interact with the people involved in the task to obtain direct and complete information. For tasks that require practical skills: If you are working on a task that requires practical skills, such as performing a laboratory task or repairing equipment, it is important not to rely solely on ChatGPT. Instead, you should follow specific instructions and procedures to complete the task safely and effectively. In summary, although ChatGPT can be a useful tool to obtain information, university students should critically evaluate the information they obtain and not rely solely on it to complete important academic tasks. Finally, we could not help but ask it this question: Is it lying? ;)
