On the contrary. It’s desk research – plain and simple! In order to get a good result you must be able to write a high quality prompt. However, if you use Chat GPT state your source as you would with any source.
Chat GPT: cheat or …?
I just had to try. Is ChatGPT able to program a simlpe gallery in jQuery? Since I need a sample like that for a programming class the anwer could come in handy.
I asked for a gallery of five images. At first each image got a <div> with an image tag inside.
Then I rephrased the prompt, and asked for an array of five images, and got a far better result. The improved prompt was:
“create a jquery script that will create a gallery on a web page from an array with five image names“
A few seconds later the answer was ready. Here is a proof of concept. I copied the code to jsFiddle, however I’ve reduced them number of images to four for aestetic reasons:
Chat GPT seems like a fine resource for programmers. After the code there is a fine explanation, how the thing works. Which is fine if you want to understand the details.
“In this example, we’re using jQuery to create a gallery from an array of image names. We first set up the HTML and CSS to create a container for the gallery.
Then, in the jQuery script, we create an array of image names. We also create the overlay container and an image element to show the full-size image when the user clicks on an image. We append these elements to the body of the document.
We then use the jQuery each() function to loop through the array of image names. For each image, we create a new image container element and set its src attribute to the corresponding image name. We also add a click event handler to each image container element to show the overlay with the full-size image when the user clicks on it.
Finally, we attach a click event handler to the overlay container. When the user clicks on the overlay container, we remove the active class to hide it again.
By adjusting the CSS, you can customize the appearance of the gallery to your liking.” [Code explained by Chat GPT, prompt op.cit.]
The images were added from my experiments with the image AI Stable Diffusion.
Chat GPT and studies
It’s hardly a secret that Chat GPT is a debated subject among teachers and students. According to some journalists you could even pass an exam in Law via Chat GPT.
How does Chat GPT see it’s role in the classroom? I asked and the answer was surprisingly usefull:
“As an AI language model, my purpose is to assist users in generating human-like responses to their inquiries or prompts. However, using me to write essays or school reports without understanding the topic or doing the necessary research may be considered cheating, as it does not reflect the student’s own effort or understanding of the subject matter.
It is essential to keep in mind that while I can provide useful information and suggestions, students should use the information provided by me as a tool to aid them in their research, writing, and learning process. It is always best to use your own words and ideas to showcase your understanding of the subject and demonstrate your skills and knowledge.
Therefore, the use of ChatGPT should be considered as a supplementary tool and not a replacement for personal learning and research.
To use Chat GPT as a research tool or as a starting point makes sense. Today noone would hardly care if Duckduckgo or Google were used during a desk research phase. On the contrary: it’s expected. For programmers Google is a very useful tool.
If you find a good source by search engines they are used as sources and added to the source list, in footnotes and so on. According to academic method Chat GPT is a source among sources. If it’s used for research and inspiration you should mention it in a footnote, e.g. if you’re inspired by the Harward Mehtod in the sources list you could add the source along these lines, [Chat GPY, prompt: “is the use of chat gpt considered cheating for studies or school reports”, 2023 February 25th]
Now the prompt is important, since that’s what give you the answer from Chat GPT. As a coder you should know, that the answer’s quality depend on a combination of your ability to pose the correct question. There is also an element of randomness. If you ask the same question again you will not always get the same answer.
The case with my code for a jQuery above is a good sample. Since I know how to code the first result was not good. However, when my question was rephrased – the answer became more usefull. The quality of the answer depends on the quality of what’s in the prompt.
A clever student will get better answers.
In the future I believe that different AI services will compete. Probably the writing of good prompts will be an essential skill for anyone who works with code or academic research. After all you need to be critical towards anything returned by the Chat GPT prompt. You have to compare and choose the best results. And that’s good old Desk Research …
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