Conversational AI is a Great Tool for Education
Conversational AI helped me understand a lot of things very quickly and easily, which was very hard to do by just searching and reading articles. The important part is the conversation - I can ask follow-up questions - it feels like talking to an expert, clearing doubts on the go, and getting a clear understanding of everything.
Here’s my recent experience with ChatGPT:
For the past many years, I wanted to know exactly how a single cell (zygote) splits and grows into a full human shape every time instead of growing into some other random shape.
I come from a technology background and my knowledge of biology is elementary only. Searching online, reading many articles, and watching a lot of videos didn’t give me the answer that I was looking for (or I didn’t know what to search for). Every time I started the research out of curiosity, I got stuck at some point and gave up.
Yesterday, the question came to my mind again, and I started a conversation with ChatGPT and it started giving answers - explaining technical terms in a way that a normal person could understand.
I learned a lot of things like “Cell Differentiation”, “Gene Expression”, and at what point some cells start to behave differently when the zygote starts splitting. I had questions - what makes a cell behave differently, how it start to gain the shape of a human, etc.
After hours of talking, the discussion drilled down to cell signaling, Chromosomes, DNA, RNA, mRNA, tRNA, DNA replication, protein synthesis, and more. When I understood what to search for, I could find the right videos to watch - which complemented ChatGPT’s explanations.
I don’t want to know everything at the atomic level, but the conversation with ChatGPT gave me a better understanding of how a single cell grows into the shape of a full human (or any animal FTM) and not any random shape.
I got the answer to the question that I had been trying to understand for many years by reading articles and watching videos, in just a couple of hours by talking to ChatGPT.
The number one limitation of educational videos and articles at present is that we can’t ask further questions - we are limited to understanding only what the video/article says. Conversational AI (not just ChatGPT, but any similar tool) can solve this problem forever. With the help of linked explainer videos, supporting articles, round-the-clock availability, and unlimited patience to accept any level of questions, Conversational AI will definitely improve the learning experience manifold.
Read the discussion on this on HackerNews.