Chat GPT in Education: Applications, Impacts, and Future Prospects

Yitian Ji

School of Software, Beijing University of Technology, Beijing, 100124, China

Keywords: Chat GPT, Artificial Intelligence, Education.

Abstract: The widespread application of intelligent chatbots (such as Chat GPT) around the world had a significant

impact on education. This paper delves into the various ways in which Chat GPT is applied in education,

including its role and influence in teaching assistance and personalized learning. In terms of teaching

assistance, students can use Chat GPT to complete homework, and teachers can use it to design course outlines

and achieve personalized teaching. However, rationally responding to the intervention of Chat GPT in the

educational ecosystem has become a major challenge in the education sector. Potential risks have emerged in

the educational ecosystem with the introduction of Chat GPT, such as issues with the accuracy of information

and a decline in students' independent learning abilities. In response to these issues, this paper suggests a

transformation in teaching methods and innovation in assessment methods in pursuit of a more innovative

and efficient educational prospect.

1 INTRODUCTION

With the rapid development of artificial intelligence

technology, AI-generated content technology (AIGC)

has attracted widespread attention across various

fields. This method utilizes artificial intelligence

technology to create various types of content

automatically. These contents include text, images,

audio, video, music, and other forms. Through

machine learning, natural language processing,

computer vision, and other technologies, this

technology enables computers to understand,

analyze, and create content, generating products that

match the described content without direct human

participation. A typical example of AIGC is artificial

intelligence chat software, such as Chat GPT. With

their powerful natural language processing

capabilities and generative dialogue technology,

these software have been widely used by the public

since their launch. For instance, the chatbot Chat

GPT, developed by the American AI research

company OpenAI team, can answer users'

consecutive questions and has a memory function

during the dialogue process to correct its previous

content. In addition, it has functions such as

translating documents, writing code, and refusing

unreasonable requests. The number of Chat GPT

https://orcid.org/0009-0009-3499-4465

users broke through 1 million in just 5 days, achieving

the fastest-ever performance.

With the advent of Chat GPT, its outstanding

performance has quickly made it one of the most

powerful search engines on the market. The powerful

search function enables Chat GPT to have a wide

range of applications in the field of education. Chat

GPT can answer students' professional questions in

various disciplines and fields based on its extensive

data reserves. Unlike traditional search engines such

as Baidu and Google, after students pose their

questions to Chat GPT, they no longer need to sift

through satisfactory results from various websites as

before. Chat GPT can quickly, clearly, and

systematically provide detailed answers, greatly

improving learning efficiency. However, the

widespread use of Chat GPT has also sparked some

controversies. Linguist Noam Chomsky once stated

that Chat GPT is "Basically high-tech plagiarism and

a way of avoiding learning"(Marshall, 2023). Its

powerful text generation function has fueled student

cheating, as students only need to pose their questions

to Chat GPT to easily obtain answers without

thinking. Chat GPT can even help students write a

paper in a very short time, and it is difficult to

distinguish whether these articles were completed by

AI, greatly affecting teachers' judgment of students'

496

Ji, Y.

Chat GPT in Education: Applications, Impacts, and Future Prospects.

DOI: 10.5220/0012957500004508

Paper published under CC license (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0)

In Proceedings of the 1st International Conference on Engineering Management, Information Technology and Intelligence (EMITI 2024), pages 496-500

ISBN: 978-989-758-713-9

actual levels. This has led many universities to ban

students from using AI and to introduce many AI text

detection tools. Therefore, reasonably controlling and

using Chat GPT in the education sector to perfectly

integrate it into educational work has become a major

challenge.

This paper aims to explore in-depth the impact of

Chat GPT on the education industry, analyze its

current application status, potential risks, and

possible educational transformations based on

existing literature, and finally, the paper will look

forward to the application prospects of Chat GPT in

future education and how to use this technology to

promote the high-quality development of education.

2 OVERVIEW OF CHAT GPT

TECHNOLOGY

Chat GPT's ability to engage in natural

communication with human users is primarily due to

the large language model (LLM) behind it. LLM is an

artificial intelligence model designed to understand

and generate human language. LLM acquires a rich

understanding of language patterns and knowledge by

training on a vast amount of text data, enabling it to

perform various natural language processing (NLP)

tasks. NLP is a branch of artificial intelligence that

allows computers to understand, interpret, and

generate human language, thus achieving effective

communication with humans in various scenarios.

2.1 Building Super Large LLMs

OpenAI believes that future general artificial

intelligence should possess a task-agnostic super

large LLM capable of learning various knowledge

from massive data. To achieve this goal, the scale of

the LLM must be enormous. GPT-3, released in 2022,

has 175 billion parameters and was one of the largest

language models in the world at the time. Faced with

this giant model, the vast majority of users do not

have the conditions to deploy or modify its

parameters. Therefore, to achieve a task-oriented

approach without adjusting the model's parameters,

the prompt mode, rather than the fine-tuning mode,

should be adopted. In simple terms, to help people

complete tasks, users do not need to adjust the

internal settings of the model but can provide it with

some prompts or questions. Based on these prompts,

the model can answer questions or complete tasks.

This way, even users who do not understand the

working principle of the model can communicate

with it(Zhu, etal, 2023). For example, when a user

asks Chat GPT about how to cook spaghetti, Chat

GPT can provide detailed step-by-step instructions

and even recommend different sauce options based on

the user's taste preferences. This dialogue capability

reflects Chat GPT's profound understanding of

language and demonstrates its ability to provide

personalized suggestions based on the user's specific

situation. Enhancing this capability is the key to Chat

GPT's successful communication with human users.

2.2 Achieving Smooth Communication

with Human Users

Chat GPT could not initially communicate smoothly

with human users. The successful implementation of

this function mainly benefits from the injection of

human preference knowledge into the GPT model.

So-called "human preference knowledge" refers to

the habitual language expressions of humans and the

answers that humans consider good(Zhu, etal, 2023).

After injecting this knowledge, GPT becomes more

capable of understanding human commands and

providing logical and satisfactory answers to humans.

In addition, GPT has a strong autonomous learning

ability. When humans inject information into GPT,

they can learn the knowledge independently without

human intervention. Therefore, as more users use

Chat GPT, the knowledge volume in its database

continues to grow, and Chat GPT can communicate

more smoothly with humans.

3 CHAT GPT'S APPLICATION

AND IMPACT IN THE FIELD

OF EDUCATION

Based on the above research, researchers can find that

Chat GPT's powerful functions lie in its ability to

process and generate language and its adaptation to

human preferences and autonomous learning

capabilities. These technological features lay the

foundation for Chat GPT's application in the field of

education. In this section, researchers further explore

how Chat GPT plays a role in educational practice

and its potential impact on the education system.

3.1 Educational Assistance

In the teaching system, teachers face challenges such

as preparing teaching materials, designing interactive

sessions, and assessing student learning outcomes. As

an advanced artificial intelligence technology, Chat

Chat GPT in Education: Applications, Impacts, and Future Prospects

497

GPT provides new auxiliary tools for these teaching

activities. First, during the lesson preparation stage,

teachers can ask Chat GPT to help design course

outlines and courseware or send the designed

courseware to Chat GPT for polishing. After

completing the courseware, teachers can use Chat

GPT as a virtual student, conduct a simulated lesson

for it(Huang, etal, 2021), and ask Chat GPT to raise

some questions about the course to simulate student

questioning and interaction. This can greatly improve

the richness of the course and the efficiency of

teachers' lesson preparation. In addition, teachers can

use Chat GPT to generate some classroom exercises

or homework assignments and assist in grading after

students complete their assignments, improving work

efficiency and the accuracy of homework

grading(Zhou, etal, 2023).

In addition to teaching work, teachers are

responsible for educating people. When teachers face

some special and difficult situations, they can seek

help from Chat GPT. For example, if the input to Chat

GPT is: "I am a primary school teacher in Beijing, and

a Tibetan student is about to transfer to our class. How

can I call on students to welcome him?" Chat GPT

will provide many suggestions, such as: "Organize

classmates to learn about Tibetan culture and

greetings," "Hold a welcome party and some fun

group games to greet the new student,"

"Communicate with the student's parents to

understand the student's situation and maintain

attention." Through these measures, the new student

can be helped to integrate into the class smoothly and

promote internal multicultural exchange and

understanding within the class. It can be seen that

Chat GPT can also provide help for teachers with

interpersonal skills.

3.2 Personalized Learning

After discussing the various applications of Chat GPT

in teaching assistance, it can be seen that this

technology greatly improves teachers' work

efficiency and teaching quality. However, the core of

education is not only about imparting knowledge but

also about meeting the personalized learning needs of

each student. Chat GPT can not only serve as a

teacher's assistant but also become a partner in

students' learning journey. Chat GPT's vast database

and powerful search engine allow students to access

professional academic knowledge at any time and

place, and the learning venue is no longer confined to

the classroom(Yang, etal, 2023). When students have

doubts, Chat GPT can act as a teaching

assistant(Khan, 2023). Its continuous dialogue mode

well simulates the scenario of students asking

teachers for answers, not only answering students'

professional questions but also greatly saving

answering time and improving learning efficiency. In

addition, compared with human teachers, Chat GPT

provides a pressure-free learning environment where

students can ask questions freely without fear of

judgment.

Moreover, Chat GPT can better fit the teaching

principle of "tailoring teaching to suit the student's

individual abilities"(Jiao, 2023). Different students

have different cognitive levels, learning abilities, and

learning methods. Chat GPT can provide

personalized teaching guidance according to each

student's different learning habits. For example, when

learning a theory, some students are accustomed to

understanding text symbols, while others are

accustomed to memorizing with charts. At this time,

Chat GPT can provide differentiated help to meet the

needs of different students. For instance, some

students with weaker learning abilities may be

discouraged from learning when facing some abstract

concepts due to difficulty in understanding. At this

time, they can ask Chat GPT to explain the concept in

more popular and practical language to better

understand it. In addition, Chat GPT can also

motivate students to develop their interests and

hobbies. Often, students will gradually distance

themselves from their hobbies due to limited

cognitive levels or scarce learning resources. For

example, a junior high school student is interested in

astronomy but cannot approach their hobby due to

limited cognitive level or scarce learning resources.

At this time, Chat GPT can communicate with the

student, understand the student's situation, and

provide personalized resources, or recommend

suitable astronomy books and materials, allowing

them to approach astronomy appropriately.

4 RISKS AND CHALLENGES

Based on the above analysis, it can be seen that Chat

GPT has a positive effect on educational assistance

and personalized learning. However, the application

of any technology comes with potential risks and

challenges. Although Chat GPT has brought

unprecedented convenience and possibilities to

education, it may also lead to a series of problems.

Firstly, the information and answers provided by

Chat GPT may not be accurate. Chat GPT's responses

are usually presented in conclusive text, and its

working principle is not clear to people, making it

difficult to judge the accuracy of its answers. When

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encountering questions involving cultural

differences, complex logic, or ambiguous text, Chat

GPT may give wrong answers. In the field of

education, if teachers and students rely too much on

Chat GPT to obtain professional knowledge and

conclusions and do not discriminate and think during

the learning process, it may affect learning and

teaching work.

In addition, using Chat GPT to complete learning

and teaching tasks can lead to a decline in logical

thinking ability. For students, using Chat GPT to

complete homework deprives them of the process of

independent thinking. Even if students can

understand the derivation process or Chat GPT's

logical thinking after obtaining the answers given by

Chat GPT, this understanding is still based on

"understanding based on answers," and they may still

be unable to solve problems independently when

facing problems in the future. Teachers may lose their

own teaching style if they consistently use Chat GPT

for auxiliary teaching. The teaching plan templates

provided by Chat GPT are generally more fixed. If

teachers always teach in a template, the classroom

will inevitably become boring, students' learning

enthusiasm will decrease, and teachers will gradually

lose their ability to reprocess knowledge(Wu, etal,

2023). For example, in physics electromagnetism,

"Lenz's Law" is a relatively difficult concept to

understand. When Chat GPT is asked to explain this

law, it gives the answer: "The law states that the

induced current will always flow in such a direction

that it opposes the change in magnetic flux that

produced it. " And it gave the mathematical

expression. Obviously, if teachers directly explain

this law to students using the definition given by Chat

GPT, it will be difficult for students to understand.

However, suppose teachers use the mnemonic

"increase against, decrease with, come repel, go

attract" to explain this law. In that case, students can

quickly understand and remember the physical law

reflected by this law. This kind of product based on

human imagination and creativity is difficult for Chat

GPT to generate, showing how important this ability

to reprocess knowledge is for teachers.

5 DEVELOPMENT

SUGGESTIONS AND FUTURE

OUTLOOK

Although Chat GPT is a powerful educational tool,

the development of technology is always a double-

edged sword; it can greatly promote the

modernization and personalization of education, but

it may also inadvertently weaken the core values of

education. To ensure that Chat GPT and other

artificial intelligence tools can play a positive role in

education, a series of measures need to be taken to

guide their development direction and provide

guidance for future educational practices.

5.1 Transformation of Teaching

Methods

In traditional teaching models, teachers often focus

on questions such as "Have you memorized this

knowledge point?" and "Have you mastered the

problem-solving routines of this type?" With the

increasing capabilities of Chat GPT, these questions

can be easily solved by AI, thus necessitating a

transformation of traditional teaching models. In the

new era, educators should focus more on the 4Cs of

education — Creativity, Collaboration,

Communication, and Critical Thinking—championed

by many other countries(Jiao, 2023).

Although Chat GPT has powerful search

capabilities, its conclusions are based on existing

information summaries. Its creativity and imagination

for things are far inferior to humans. Therefore,

cultivating students' creativity can allow them to

leverage the powerful functions of Chat GPT better to

display their imagination and create innovative

things. Collaboration and communication skills are

equally important. On the one hand, it can enable

students to learn how to make demands of Chat GPT,

communicate efficiently with it, and shape it into a

"service provider" tailored to their needs.

On the other hand, although students can solve

most problems through Chat GPT and can find many

high-quality learning resources on the internet, this

has led to a significant reduction in communication

between teachers and students, and discussions

among students are not as frequent as before.

However, when students enter society, cooperation

projects and presentations of all sizes will require

collaboration and communication skills, so

cultivating these soft skills is essential. Critical

thinking can help students improve their ability to

discern information when using Chat GPT. Students

should always maintain a critical attitude toward the

information they obtain and not blindly accept the

information provided by Chat GPT.

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499

5.2 Innovation in Educational

Assessment and Evaluation

With the transformation of teaching methods,

educational assessment and evaluation methods must

also be correspondingly innovated. Traditional

assessment methods often focus on testing students'

memory and repetition abilities, while the assessment

in the new era needs to pay more attention to students'

comprehensive abilities, especially the creativity,

collaboration, communication, and critical thinking

emphasized by the 4Cs education. This means that

teachers must design more complex and diversified

assessment tools to accurately measure students'

progress and achievements in these areas. For

example, project collaboration can be included in the

assessment. By engaging students in solving

problems through practical projects, this approach

encourages students to explore actively, collaborate,

and innovate. In the evaluation stage, report

presentations and project showcases can be added to

exercise students' language expression and

communication skills in addition to traditional written

exams.

Education aims to cultivate individuals who can

think independently, communicate effectively,

collaborate to solve problems, and have an innovative

spirit. By combining artificial intelligence's potential

and human educators' professional knowledge,

researchers can look forward to a more personalized

and effective educational future.

6 CONCLUSIONS

With the continuous development of artificial

intelligence technology, Chat GPT, as an advanced

artificial intelligence technology, has shown

tremendous potential and influence in education. This

paper has detailed the various ways in which Chat

GPT is applied in education, as well as the possible

impacts and challenges it brings. Chat GPT has

brought great convenience to both students and

teachers in learning and teaching. Its powerful search

engine can personalize the guidance of students to

meet the learning needs of different students,

significantly improving the efficiency of knowledge

acquisition. At the same time, it can also effectively

assist teachers in their teaching work, providing

services such as course design, courseware

refinement, and simulated teaching, greatly

improving teaching efficiency and quality. However,

the development of technology is always a double-

edged sword, and Chat GPT also faces some issues

and risks. Sometimes, its information and answers

may be inaccurate, misleading teachers and students.

Moreover, over-reliance on Chat GPT may weaken

students' independent learning abilities and teachers'

innovative teaching capabilities. Therefore, to play a

positive role for Chat GPT in the field of education, it

should be used critically. Traditional teaching models

and assessment methods should be innovated, and

educators should focus more on cultivating students'

thinking, literacy, and soft skills to ensure they use

Chat GPT correctly and benefit from it.

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