ChatGPT, Even Better at Bunk than Professional Columnists! By Charles Taylor (Florida)
It seems that not a day goes by where AI such as ChatGPT are not proclaimed to be able to do a job that humans do, maybe even better. The latest, for at least for today, is that ChatGPT can give better advice than professional columnists. If by this it is meant the agony columnists in the papers, or now, online sites of the mainstream medias, then I think the bar is being set very low indeed. But, given ChatGPT’s access to the internet and knowledge, we should not be surprised at this result. While it could be argued that a certain degree of empathy is need to give personal advice, probably most humans doing this job do not have much of this anyway, so that is not much of a problem for ChatGPT!
“There’s no doubt ChatGPT has proven to be valuable as a source of quality technical information. But can it also provide social advice?
We explored this question in our new research, published in the journal Frontiers in Psychology. Our findings suggest later versions of ChatGPT give better personal advice than professional columnists.
A stunningly versatile conversationalist
In just two months since its public release in November of last year, ChatGPT amassed an estimated 100 million active monthly users.
The chatbot runs on one of the largest language models ever created, with the more advanced paid version (GPT-4) estimated to have some 1.76 trillion parameters (meaning it is an extremely powerful AI model). It has ignited a revolution in the AI industry.
Trained on massive quantities of text (much of which was scraped from the internet), ChatGPT can provide advice on almost any topic. It can answer questions about law, medicine, history, geography, economics and much more (although, as many have found, it’s always worth fact-checking the answers). It can write passable computer code. It can even tell you how to change the brake fluids in your car.
Users and AI experts alike have been stunned by its versatility and conversational style. So it’s no surprise many people have turned (and continue to turn) to the chatbot for personal advice.
Giving advice when things get personal
Providing advice of a personal nature requires a certain level of empathy (or at least the impression of it). Research has shown a recipient who doesn’t feel heard isn’t as likely to accept advice given to them. They may even feel alienated or devalued. Put simply, advice without empathy is unlikely to be helpful.
Moreover, there’s often no right answer when it comes to personal dilemmas. Instead, the advisor needs to display sound judgement. In these cases it may be more important to be compassionate than to be “right.””
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