This week OpenAI released a blog post titled “A Student’s Guide to Writing with ChatGPT”. It is curious why they, as the most popular AI tool among students, had to wait two years to release such guidelines and why they do not improve their interface to implement such recommendations. Maybe OpenAI is really not interested in such breadcrumbs as their ultimate goal is to reach AGI (Artificial General Intelligence). In fact, we had a meeting with an OpenAI representative a while ago, they had no concrete educational offers, and they never really followed up afterwards. Anyway, let’s look at some of the OpenAI tips for students first and I will leave my two-cents on each of them. I would also recommend everyone to try these use-cases to decide whether those are tips that you would like to share with students. – Delegate citation grunt work to ChatGPT “AI excels at automating tedious, time-consuming tasks like formatting citations. Just remember to cross-check all source details against original materials for accuracy. By taking care of the grunt work, ChatGPT can free you to focus on the fun part: being creative, coming up with original ideas, and formulating an undeniable argument.” Not recommended. It is highly unlikely that ChatGPT will get all formatting right, especially given the nuances in different styles like LUSEM Harvard style, or Elsevier APA style etc. There is high risk of hallucination, which will be difficult to identify. We should still guide our students to dedicated tools like EndNote or Zotero. – Quickly get up to speed on a new topic “ChatGPT can jumpstart your research by providing a foundational understanding of a subject.“ Not recommended. OpenAI’s own benchmarks showed the shortcomings of ChatGPT when confronted with factual information. Unless we are asking something well-known, like Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, there are still risks of hallucination. We should still encourage students to read and learn from the material themselves (I know it is a big ask nowadays!)
– Get a roadmap of relevant sources “ChatGPT can guide your research by suggesting relevant scholars, sources, and search terms. But remember: while it can point you in the right direction, ChatGPT isn’t a substitute for reading primary sources and peer-reviewed articles. And since language models can generate inaccurate information, always double-check your facts” Not recommended. Maybe OpenAI did not put much thought into this blog post after all. This is again another advice that is prone to hallucinations (hence the strong fact-checking reminder by OpenAI). ChatGPT should not be used as a scholarly database like WoS or Scopus. We should nudge students towards our librarians and library resource. – Complete your understanding by asking specific questions “ChatGPT can help you connect the dots and fill in gaps in your understanding of complex topics by answering questions other sources might ignore or bury deep within chapters.” Recommended. This is at least a better advice than the previous ones. Students can (and should) AI tools to get help where they are stuck. “Can you explain this to me as if I am a 6-year-old” type of prompts are actually quite useful in understanding complex topics. Nonetheless, as teachers we should still be in the loop, encouraging students to confirm their understanding with us. – Improve your flow by getting feedback on structure “Once you’ve written an outline, ChatGPT can help by reviewing the structure and providing feedback on the flow of ideas.” Partly recommended. While AI tools can help with structure, we have to keep in mind that it will not know what the expected structure should look like. Prompting skills helps immensely in this kind of contexts. – Test your logic with reverse outlining “Reverse outlining is a technique to assess the structure of an essay by identifying the main point of each paragraph. Seeing your structure at a glance can help you step back and evaluate the logical flow of ideas.” Recommended. This is actually a quite nifty tip. One issue is that it will be more helpful to experienced writers than to students, who do not really consider developing a key idea in each paragraph at the first place. This is a good example of how AI helps experts more than novices. – Develop your ideas through Socratic dialogue “Like Socrates did for his interlocutors, ChatGPT can act as an intellectual sparring partner, engaging you in dialogue to help you articulate and refine your ideas.” (Probably) recommended. Since I do not use the Socratic method in my teaching, I will leave the judgment to those who are more experienced. We know that language models have strong conversational capabilities, but can it actually employ the Socratic method and enhance a student’s understanding? I guess the best way to learn is to try it ourselves as teachers before recommending it to the students. – Pressure-test your thesis by asking for counterarguments “To make your thesis more robust, try asking ChatGPT to challenge your logic, identify weak points, and suggest counterarguments you may have missed.” Partly recommended. This is certainly a beneficial use of ChatGPT, but in an ideal world students should gain the skills to generate counterarguments themselves. Outsourcing this entirely to AI might actually be bad idea in the long run. – Don’t just go through the motions—hone your skills “A school paper isn’t just a requirement for a grade—it’s an opportunity to cultivate your powers. Instead of just trying to get it done, try asking ChatGPT to suggest ways to develop your ability to think critically and write clearly.” Not recommended. “Critical thinking” skills are, in my opinion, too important to be entirely outsourced to AI. To get most out of AI, students should be able to judge the quality of the output themselves. “Help me develop critical thinking skills” type of prompts will be little use to students if they do not have some frameworks around critical thinking. Such reflections make it clear that fundamental skills like critical thinking and effective writing should be taught in the early stages of the study programs. If you would like to read all of OpenAI’s suggestions with example prompts, please visit this blog page. I hope you found at least some of them inspirational. Thank you for reading and have a nice weekend! | 
