What is it?
ChatGPT is what we refer to as a generative artificial intelligence (AI) tool using a large language model (LLM) to create text.
You can ask ChatGPT questions and it will generate a response. These types of tools use a large volume to internet text and a complex statistical model (LLM) to generate a response. These tools do not actually know anything and they are not capable of reasoning. They are, essentially, guessing what response you want.
Things to think about:
It can be fun to learn how to use new tools and ChatGPT can be used to try out new ideas or brainstorm. There are some things to consider though.
ChatGPT was trained using the internet and we as end users can't fully understand the algorithm or biases. It is inherently unclear how the tool is creating responses. Recently (20, Feb 2024) users reported nonsensical responses to prompts. One example can be found here.
These tools should not be used to create prose or text that you will pass along as your own work. There are a few reasons for this. Most importantly because it's the machine creating the work, not you, the researcher. Additionally, there's no assurance of response quality. ChatGPT and other tools have been known to create false citations and provide false responses to questions.
