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GPT3 could be a legit game changer for teaching CS. The first time I tried self-learning programming I gave up because I often got stuck on random things that a

GPT3 could be a legit game changer for teaching CS. The first time I tried self-learning programming I gave up because I often got stuck on random things that a tutor/mentor could have helped me solve in 5 seconds instead of hours of Googling. Some sort of fine-tuned model that can analyze why your code isn't working for practice problems and give hints and suggestions rather than just giving you the solution. Each student could effectively have their own personal tutor obviously people are going to use "unlocked" GTP3 to do their homework, but kids do that today as well. People who want to actually learn will be helped massively by tools built on LLMs

raldi 4y ago
And there’s so much attention on “oh no, take-home assignments are impossible now” but if so, I see the education world adapting. Instead of writing an essay about Napoleon, a bot will interview you like an oral exam — a far superior evaluation, but when done by humans there was just never enough to time in their day to do them regularly and for everyone. Instead of a homework assignment done behind closed doors and then tossed over the fence for the TA to grade, the bot pair programs with you and helps you through the places you’re getting stuck.
- meowkit 4y ago
  A wonderful outcome if that level of adaption occurs. I am more worried that the Luddite mentality will get these models banned in (primary school) educational settings.
  - raldi 4y ago
    Yeah, I could see a position of, “How will people express themselves if they don’t practice writing essays?” but I could see in five years the primary two ways of doing that becoming (1) Machine-assisted essay writing, and (2) People with ideas explaining them to an AI model through conversation, and then the model going out and explaining it en masse to others. Maybe even some of those others will challenge points or extend the ideas, and the tech can distill all this feedback and critique into a summary that they take back to the author.
- visarga 4y ago
  Reminds me of the scene where young Spock was "training" in a multi-media capsule reciting facts and solutions like a drone.
jacobsenscott 4y ago
The problem with using GPT for education is it isn't an intelligence, it is just a fancy pattern matcher. It is as likely to give you a wrong or bad answer as a right answer. A student wouldn't be able to tell the difference, so they might learn the wrong stuff. It is handy for people with the experience to tell the difference though.
- visarga 4y ago
  Only in closed-book mode. If you open the books and let it reference the materials it doesn't make stupid mistakes like that. What the model needs is a search engine and a curated index of materials.
  - Jarwain 4y ago
    So merging chatgpt with Google's knowledge graph?
- robocat 4y ago
  But how much different is that from googling and getting a crappy stack-overthrow answer, or a poorly written blogpost? In the areas I am an expert in, the information I find is often incorrect, insufficient, inaccurate, invalid and often downright incredibly shitty. Still better than nothing? A bigger problem is that GPT depends on us all writing and publishing answers and examples, which we often do as part of our discovery or learning process. If we are just given answers, perhaps we won't publish answers, and then GPT will not have the material it requires for it to give its answers. Also we are mostly motivated to write because we have an audience: however with the intercession of GPT, the audience disappears and there is less motivation to publish.

raldi 4y ago

And there’s so much attention on “oh no, take-home assignments are impossible now” but if so, I see the education world adapting. Instead of writing an essay about Napoleon, a bot will interview you like an oral exam — a far superior evaluation, but when done by humans there was just never enough to time in their day to do them regularly and for everyone. Instead of a homework assignment done behind closed doors and then tossed over the fence for the TA to grade, the bot pair programs with you and helps you through the places you’re getting stuck.

meowkit 4y ago
A wonderful outcome if that level of adaption occurs. I am more worried that the Luddite mentality will get these models banned in (primary school) educational settings.
- raldi 4y ago
  Yeah, I could see a position of, “How will people express themselves if they don’t practice writing essays?” but I could see in five years the primary two ways of doing that becoming (1) Machine-assisted essay writing, and (2) People with ideas explaining them to an AI model through conversation, and then the model going out and explaining it en masse to others. Maybe even some of those others will challenge points or extend the ideas, and the tech can distill all this feedback and critique into a summary that they take back to the author.
visarga 4y ago
Reminds me of the scene where young Spock was "training" in a multi-media capsule reciting facts and solutions like a drone.

jacobsenscott 4y ago

The problem with using GPT for education is it isn't an intelligence, it is just a fancy pattern matcher. It is as likely to give you a wrong or bad answer as a right answer. A student wouldn't be able to tell the difference, so they might learn the wrong stuff. It is handy for people with the experience to tell the difference though.

visarga 4y ago
Only in closed-book mode. If you open the books and let it reference the materials it doesn't make stupid mistakes like that. What the model needs is a search engine and a curated index of materials.
- Jarwain 4y ago
  So merging chatgpt with Google's knowledge graph?
robocat 4y ago
But how much different is that from googling and getting a crappy stack-overthrow answer, or a poorly written blogpost? In the areas I am an expert in, the information I find is often incorrect, insufficient, inaccurate, invalid and often downright incredibly shitty. Still better than nothing? A bigger problem is that GPT depends on us all writing and publishing answers and examples, which we often do as part of our discovery or learning process. If we are just given answers, perhaps we won't publish answers, and then GPT will not have the material it requires for it to give its answers. Also we are mostly motivated to write because we have an audience: however with the intercession of GPT, the audience disappears and there is less motivation to publish.