
ChatGPT: An Overview.
Anke Brand. ACSI Service Provider February 2023
The new buzz word is ChatGPT. OpenAI’s ChatGPT chatbot is the fastest-growing consumer app ever, with a study from Swiss banking giant UBS estimating that it reached 100 million monthly users in January 2023.
ChatGPT is currently the fastest-growing app since its launch, comfortably beating the growth speeds of popular apps like TikTok and Instagram.
Citing data from Similarweb, UBS said an average of about 13 million unique users accessed the platform daily in January 2023 — more than doubling its performance in December.
“In 20 years following the internet space, we cannot recall a faster ramp in a consumer internet app,” UBS said in its report.
For reference, TikTok took approximately nine months after its launch to reach 100 million monthly users, while Instagram took two-and-a-half years.

The question on everybody’s lips is: What is ChatGPT?
I have asked ChatGPT to write me a short article on itself and explain to the readers what it is. Here is the response which I have copied and pasted:
“ChatGPT is a cutting-edge language model developed by OpenAI, one of the world’s leading research organizations in artificial intelligence. It is designed to generate human-like text based on the input it receives, making it a powerful tool for various applications, such as chatbots, content creation, and language translation.
At its core, ChatGPT is a transformer-based neural network that has been trained on a massive amount of text data from the internet. The model has been trained to predict the next word in a sentence based on the context of the words that came before it. This allows it to generate coherent and natural-sounding text in response to prompts given to it.
One of the key strengths of ChatGPT is its ability to generate text that is consistent with the input it receives. This means that it can generate text that is appropriate for a wide range of topics and styles, from formal business writing to casual conversation. It is also able to retain context across multiple turns, which allows it to have more meaningful conversations with users.
or example, it can be used to build chatbots that can answer customer questions, or to generate descriptions for products or services.
Another advantage of ChatGPT is that it can be fine-tuned for specific tasks, such as question answering or text summarization. This makes it a versatile tool that can be adapted to a wide range of use cases. F
However, it’s important to keep in mind that ChatGPT is not perfect, and there are some limitations to its capabilities. For example, it can sometimes generate text that is factually incorrect or inappropriate. Additionally, it can struggle with understanding context in more complex situations, such as sarcasm or irony.
Despite these limitations, ChatGPT is an exciting and rapidly-evolving technology that has the potential to revolutionize the way we interact with computers. Whether it’s through chatbots, content creation, or other applications, ChatGPT has the potential to make our lives easier and more efficient.
In conclusion, ChatGPT is a powerful language model developed by OpenAI that is capable of generating human-like text in response to prompts. Its versatility and ability to retain context make it a useful tool for a wide range of applications, from chatbots to content creation. While there are limitations to its capabilities, ChatGPT is an exciting technology that has the potential to change the way we interact with computers.”

My personal experience with ChatGPT’s ability to generate human-like text was surprising and dreadful at the same time. I can see how it can be a threat to the quality of education. Since the model is trained on vast amounts of text data from the internet, it will give you a lot of information, but no understanding. For the student, the chatbot can do an assignment within seconds, but it is not to say that the student will have any understanding of the subject.
For Christian schools, the Chatbot is not capable of teaching from a Biblical Worldview perspective. We should question ourselves what we believe the word ‘education’ means. Education simply means life. Education is life. Three words comes to mind: knowledge, understanding and wisdom.
We know that knowledge is facts, figures, and data. Understanding is an expansion of knowledge and requires the ability to organise, to reason, to handle all the facts, to process them, to relate, to interrelate, to discern, to see the implications, and to draw conclusions. Wisdom is the effective application in life of understood truth. The Bible says in Proverbs 2:6 “For the LORD giveth wisdom: out of his mouth cometh knowledge and understanding.”
ChatGPT will be able to give a learner knowledge or information. However, there is a risk that it may generate incorrect or misleading information. Especially for the Christian student. If students rely on ChatGPT to complete assignments or study for exams, they could end up learning false or inaccurate information, which could harm their education.
Also, ChatGPT is trained on data that reflects the biases and prejudices of the society in which it was created. This means that the model may generate text that reinforces harmful stereotypes or discrimination.
If education is to make a difference, then wisdom will be the principal thing. Wisdom requires action-performance. Wisdom is not intellectual or emotional. The source of wisdom is the person of God. It can never come from a machine or any form of artificial intelligence.
The natural outflow of wisdom is character. Artificial intelligence and ChatGPT focus on knowledge and information and have incredible capabilities of generating educational content, but have little to do with the development of wisdom and character.

We cannot ignore the fact that ChatGPT can also be an advantage for education. For example, the model can be used to create personalised learning experiences for students. By using ChatGPT to generate questions or feedback, teachers can adapt to the unique needs and abilities of each student, helping to improve their learning outcomes. ChatGPT can also be used to generate reading materials, summaries, and quizzes, making it easier for students to access the information they need to learn.
Additionally, ChatGPT can be used to support students with special needs, such as those with learning disabilities or language barriers. For example, ChatGPT can be used to generate text in simpler language for students with reading difficulties, or to translate educational materials into different languages for students who are non-native speakers.
In conclusion, while ChatGPT has the potential to improve education it is also important for educators and students to be aware of the limitations of the model. There is the risk of misinformation, the potential for privacy concerns, the risk of addiction, information overload and the possibility that the sense of reality will be shattered.
Whether or not you should motivate school children to use ChatGPT depends on the specific educational context and the intended use of the model. If you decide to use ChatGPT in the classroom, it’s important to provide students with clear guidance and to emphasize the importance of critical thinking and information verification. Additionally, you may want to consider using ChatGPT in moderation, rather than relying on it as the sole source of information or educational support.