Since its inception in November 2022, ChatGPT, a generative AI solution developed by OpenAI, has quickly grown in popularity due to its capacity to offer textual responses to challenging inquiries on a variety of subjects. As a result, pupils will always have access to a virtual instructor.
The attractiveness and drawbacks of ChatGPT as a teaching tool were recently brought to light by a poll conducted by Intelligent.com among more than 3,000 parents and students in high school and college.
First of all, it is evident that ChatGPT is already influencing the tutoring industry as almost all of the survey participants stated that they had dropped certain lessons and employed the technology as a replacement.
Up to 95% of the respondents who provided feedback to Intelligent.com stated that their grades have improved after utilizing the application, which is a startling statistic. In addition, 90% of respondents stated they preferred ChatGPT over a person teacher.
As a current student utilizing ChatGPT, I have discovered it to be a beneficial and practical tool for learning, one of the students said. Unlike going to a teacher, ChatGPT is available around-the-clock and can respond to my inquiries right away, he continued.
The effectiveness of ChatGPT over tutors is acknowledged by both parents and students
Both parents and children appear to agree that ChatGPT is a more efficient learning tool than tutors, with 96% of parents and 85% of students favoring the technological tool.
Conversely, proponents of tutors’ superior efficacy defended their position by highlighting the importance of interpersonal connections and the tutors’ capacity to pique students’ interest in certain subjects through charm and charisma, which OpenAI’s software glaringly lacks.
Despite these alarming statistics, it seems that not all instructors are concerned about the possibility of losing their jobs as a result of this revolutionary technology.
In this regard, one of the teachers interviewed by Intelligent.com made the following observation: “The bond between student and teacher, one of trust, encouragement, and bearing witness to the student’s learning journey, is in my opinion what promotes true learning and growth in a way that prompts and computer-generated responses just can’t.”
While hard sciences and foreign languages are the next two most popular disciplines, most students use ChatGPT for math sessions, which has essentially replaced their tutors in this area.
Education with fully autonomous AI is still a ways off
According to some experts, ChatGPT is currently unable to deliver all the advantages of in-person coaching. More than just imparting material information, tutors help students learn by organizing their study time, identifying their learning challenges, motivating them, and building trustworthy connections with them.
The human aspect of connection, concern, and useful advice, according to educators, will always be crucial for learning.
Even while programs like ChatGPT show potential, it’s probable that for the foreseeable future, human teachers and tutors will continue to be predominantly used as a complement to technology rather than a substitute.
Because fully autonomous AI teaching and learning tools have not yet developed to the degree of sophistication needed to completely replace human tutors, intelligent tutoring systems that include AI capabilities while keeping a human function may be the most trustworthy answer, for the time being.
The controversy calls attention to a crucial issue: How might AI technologies best complement, rather than replace, the indispensable function of human teachers?
While students have welcomed ChatGPT, they can ignore the qualities that make great teachers great—their capacity to encourage, inspire, and develop human potential, which AI has yet to match. True learning is rooted in the human connection between the student and the instructor as much as it is in the sharing of knowledge.
