Today was another day focused on ChatGPT and education.

Today’s Learning of Tomorrow Online Symposium featured Takayuki Fukatsu—who is “probably the person in Japan making the most of ChatGPT”—as our guest speaker for a discussion on “The Impact of AI on Education.” He provided clear answers to every question, making for a very satisfying lunchtime symposium. We’ll share a detailed report later.

After that, there was a freshman orientation called the “KMD Crash Course.” I received a message at midnight the day before yesterday telling me to run a workshop there.

We therefore held two debate sessions on “The Pros and Cons of Using ChatGPT in Education.” We structured the workshop so that one group made full use of ChatGPT while the other was prohibited from using it, and then evaluated the quality of both debates.

Of course, it depends on the participants' personalities, so it's hard to say for sure, but at least judging by today's results, the debate among those using ChatGPT was comprehensive in its coverage of the issues and sophisticated in its wording, but somewhat lackluster. Among those not using it, the debate was rough around the edges, but both sides got heated, resulting in a passionate debate.

When I asked ChatGPT about the difference, I received the following response. Well, I think that was pretty much the right answer.

It is reasonable to assume that there are several differences in the quality of debates depending on whether ChatGPT is used or not.

First, when using ChatGPT, you can present more detailed arguments because it provides access to a wider range of information and facts. Since ChatGPT has been trained on a vast amount of online data, it can draw on information from a variety of sources. This allows debate participants to quickly search through a large amount of data to support their arguments.

However, on the other hand, when using ChatGPT, communication gaps may arise because it cannot engage in direct dialogue between humans or understand the other person’s emotions or context.Furthermore, while ChatGPT can provide information, it cannot convey self-expression, expressiveness, or passionate feelings regarding the topic of discussion. Since these elements are crucial in a discussion, they may be lost when using ChatGPT.

Furthermore, when using ChatGPT, you need to carefully evaluate the AI’s responses. Since ChatGPT provides answers generated automatically by a computer, they may not always be entirely accurate. Therefore, compared to debates between humans, when using ChatGPT, you need to carefully evaluate the responses and think critically about them.

Overall, there are advantages and disadvantages to both using ChatGPT and not using it. Ultimately, it is important to note that, in either case, human interaction is essential, so the quality of the debate depends largely on the participants’ conversational skills and the quality of their interactions.