The potential upside of AI chat tech

If you’re one of the 1.2 million Australians with communication disability or among the 44% of Australian adults with low literacy, you may soon find helpful, automated communication assistance online.

The chat bot ChatGPT – based on GTP3, a large language model – is a disruptive technology designed to “provide human-like responses” to user input. It is a form of artificial intelligence (AI), boosted by machine learning, is used by more than one million people and is impressing educators.

It responds to the user’s questions and commands, and can draw upon its billions of words to process and generate text, appearing informative and knowledgeable.

Described somewhat poetically as producing “fluent bullshit”, its unchecked outputs may be plausible enough to score a pass mark on assignments and tests, while bypassing plagiarism detection software.

If it becomes accessible for everyone, AI of this type could do more than disrupt exams. It could help people with communication disability and others who struggle with text, and could also significantly enhance rate of communication. People using speech generating devices are often limited to laboriously entering a mere 10 words per minute with word prediction only increasing that to 12-18 words per minute.

Read the full story on the UTS Newsroom: How can I help? Here's the potential upside of AI chat tech