Greetings! We’re back with another bonus edition On Tech: AIA pop-up newsletter that teaches you about artificial intelligence, how it works and how to use it.
Last week, I went How to turn your chatbot into a life coach, Let’s now turn to an area where many people have been experimenting with AI over the past year: education.
Generative AI’s specialty is language – predicting what word will come next – and students quickly realized they could use ChatGPT and other chatbots write essay, This created awkward situations in many classes. It turns out, it’s easier to get caught cheating with generic AI than it’s likely to be. making stuffa phenomenon known as “hallucination”.
But Generative AI can also be used as a study aid. Some tools highlight longer research papers and also answer questions about the content. Others may collect study materials such as quizzes and flashcards.
One caveat to keep in mind: When studying, it’s paramount that the information is accurate, and to get the most accurate results, you should instruct the AI tool to focus on information from trusted sources rather than pulling data from across the web . I will tell below how to do this.
research
First, let’s tackle one of the most challenging study tasks: reading and annotating long papers. Some AI tools, such as Humata.ai, read wordtune And various plug-ins inside ChatGPT act as research assistants that will summarize documents for you.
I like Humata.ai because it answers your questions and highlights highlights directly inside the source material, which allows you to double-check for accuracy.
On the Humata.ai website, I uploaded a PDF of a scientific research paper on the accuracy of smartwatches in tracking cardio fitness. Then I clicked the “Ask” button and asked how the Garmin watches fared in the study. It scrolled down to the relevant part of the document mentioning Garmin, made highlights, and answered my question.
The most interesting thing for me was when I asked the bot whether my understanding of the paper was correct – on average, wearable devices like Garmins and Fitbits track cardio fitness fairly accurately, but some individuals were Whose results were very wrong. “Yes, you are right,” replied the bot. This is followed by a summary of the study and lists the page numbers where the findings were cited.
Reading
Generative AI can also help with rote memorization. While any chatbot will generate flashcards or quizzes if you paste in the information you’re reading, I decided to use ChatGPT because it includes plug-ins that generate study aids that are based on specific web articles or documents. are drawn.
(Only customers who pay $20 per month for ChatGPT Plus can use the plug-ins. We explained how to use them.) a previous newspaper,
I wanted ChatGPT to create flashcards for me to learn Chinese vocabulary words. To do this, I installed two plug-ins: Link Reader, which lets me tell the bot to use data from a specific website, and Metamentor, a plug-in that automatically generates flashcards.
In the ChatGPT dashboard, I selected both plug-ins. Then, I wrote this prompt:
Act as a teacher. I am a native English speaker learning Chinese. Take vocabulary words and phrases from this link and create a set of flashcards for each: https://preply.com/en/blog/basic-chinese-words/
About five minutes later, the bot responded with a link where I could download the flashcards. They were exactly what I asked for.
After this, I wanted my teacher to quiz me. I told ChatGPT that I was preparing for the written test to get my motorcycle license in California. Again, using the Link Reader plug-in, I pasted a link to the California DMV’s latest motorcycle handbook (an important step because traffic laws vary between states and rules are occasionally updated) and Asked for a multiple choice quiz.
The bot processed the information inside the handbook and generated a quiz, asking me five questions at a time.
Finally, to test my understanding of the topic, I instructed ChatGPT to ask me questions without presenting multiple choice answers. The bot adapted accordingly, and I passed the quiz.
I loved these devices when I was in school. And probably would have earned better grades with him as a study partner.
What will happen next?
Next week, in the final installment of this ‘How To’ newsletter, we’ll take what we’ve learned and apply it to enrich the time we spend with our families.
