Advanced English VOCABULARY lesson | Learn English with the News

Okay, so this is an article based on a very  topical idea at the moment about all this  

artificial intelligence and, in particular, about  this chat GPT. Yeah, okay, so I'll read it to you  

twice: once, to give you the gist, and the second  time to go through the words. So here we go. 

The type of factual error that blighted  the launch of Google's artificial  

intelligence-powered chatbot will carry on  troubling companies using the technology,  

experts say, as the market value of its parent  company continues to plunge. Shareholders were  

rattled after it emerged that a video demo  of Google's rival to the Microsoft-backed  

chat GPT chatbot contained a flawed response to a  question about NASA's James Webb Space Telescope.  

The animation showed a response from the program  called Bard, stating that the JWST, James Webb  

Space Telescope, took the very first pictures  of a planet outside of our own solar system,  

prompting astronomers to point out that this  was untrue. Google said the error underlined  

the need for the rigorous testing that Bard is  undergoing before a wider release to the public,  

which has been scheduled for the coming weeks. A  presentation of Google's AI-backed search plans  

on Wednesday also failed to reassure shareholders.  This week, Microsoft, a key backer of chat GPT's  

developer OpenAI, announced it was integrating the  chatbot technology into its Bing search engine.  

Google also plans to integrate the technology  behind Bard into its search engine. Both Bard  

and chat GPT are based on large language models,  a type of artificial neural network, which are  

fed vast amounts of text from the internet in  a process that teaches them how to generate  

responses to text-based prompts. Chat GPT became a  sensation after its launch in November last year,  

as it composed recipes, poems, work presentations,  and essays from single, simple prompts. 

Okay, so that's the article. Let  me read it again to you a little  

bit more slowly. And then we'll look at the words. The type of factual error that blighted the launch  

of Google's artificial intelligence-powered  chatbot will carry on troubling companies  

using the technology, experts say, as the market  value of its parent company continues to plunge.  

Shareholders were rattled after it emerged  that a video demo of Google's rival to the  

Microsoft-backed chat GPT chatbot contained a  flawed response to a question about NASA's James  

Webb Space Telescope. The animation showed  a response from the program called Bard,  

stating that the JWST, James Webb Space  Telescope, took the very first pictures of a  

planet outside of our own solar system, prompting  astronomers to point out that this was untrue.  

Google said the error underlined the need for  the rigorous testing that Bard is undergoing  

before a wider release to the public, which  has been scheduled for the coming weeks.  

A presentation of Google's AI-backed search plans  on Wednesday also failed to reassure shareholders.  

This week, Microsoft, a key backer of chat GPT's  developer OpenAI, announced it was integrating the  

chatbot technology into its Bing search engine.  Google also plans to integrate the technology  

behind Bard into its search engine. Both Bard  and chat GPT are based on large language models,  

a type of artificial neural network, which  are fed vast amounts of text from the  

internet in a process that teaches them how  to generate responses to text-based prompts.  

Chat GPT became a sensation after its launch  in November last year, as it composed recipes,  

poems, work presentations, and  essays from single, simple prompts. 

Okay, so that's the text. As I said, I've  given you the link below. So here are some  

of the words that I've highlighted and what they  mean. The first word is "blighted," as in the type  

of factual error that blighted the launch. When  something is blighted, it is damaged. So, if they  

made a mistake, as they did, there was an error,  and it blighted the launch; it damaged the launch,  

and people didn't look too kindly on it.  In effect, it damaged the share price.  

Now, you can blame lots of things. You can  blight a crop by an invasion of insects,  

so it's damaged because these insects cause  disease among the crops, or blighted is to damage. 

Next, we have "carry on." This is a simple and  very well-used phrasal verb. So it says here,  

the artificial intelligence-powered chatbot  will carry on troubling companies. To carry  

on means to continue. So, when you carry on  something, you continue—carry on speaking,  

carry on listening, carry on with your exercise,  continue. So, when the teacher comes into the  

classroom and tells the kids, "carry on with  what you're doing," she means continue what  

you're doing. So this damage, this blight for  Google, will carry on and continue troubling  

companies that use this artificial intelligence. And then, the very last word in this particular  

paragraph says, "will impact the market value of  its parent company as it continues to plunge." To  

plunge means to fall very, very quickly. So,  if the share price was $100 a share and then  

after this mistake, and after the launch, the  share price went to $60 or $50, then you could  

say the share price has plunged. It has fallen  very, very quickly. So when something falls,  

it plunges; it means it goes down really quickly. In the next paragraph, shareholders were rattled  

after it emerged these mistakes. After these  mistakes emerged, when somebody is rattled,  

it means they're not so sure; they are  a little bit circumspect, or they're a  

little bit nervous. So, if somebody is rattled,  they are unsure about what they should say or  

whether they should continue using the service.  So, if shareholders were rattled, it means they  

were very unhappy and frightened and scared at the  sudden drop in the share price. They were rattled. 

And then we use the word "flawed," as in this  GPT chatbot contained a flawed response. A flawed  

response means a response with a mistake in it.  So, if you write some document and it is flawed,  

as you see the spelling there, FLAWED, it  means that there's a fundamental mistake  

in the information that you're using. And then the  example they had: they were using the example that  

this telescope took the first images of planets in  our solar system when, in fact, that information  

was incorrect. So the statement they made was  flawed. It was inaccurate, it was incorrect.

And then when we use the word "prompting," as  in prompting astronomers, prompting means giving  

the astronomers an opportunity to come out and  tell them, "No, in fact, you're wrong." So when  

somebody is prompted, they are pushed gently. If  you're standing on the stage and you forget your  

words as an actor, somebody on the side of the  stage will prompt you; they will whisper what the  

words should be, giving you a gentle little  push or a hint. So in this case, when this  

information was announced and there was obviously  a mistake in it, it prompted, encouraged, and  

gave astronomers a bit of a push to come out and  say, "Sorry, guys, you're wrong, you're wrong." 

Now, it says here, they prompted astronomers to  "point out," and when you point out something,  

you indicate it. If you're traveling around a city  on a tourist bus, the tour guide will point out  

places of interest, showing and indicating to you  the places of interest. So what these astronomers  

did, they were prompted to point out, to  indicate where and what the mistake was. 

Next paragraph, Google said the error underlined  the need for rigorous testing. So when something  

is tested rigorously, it means in great, great  detail. Rigorous means thorough or complete. A  

rigorous test would be a thorough, complete test  to make sure there are no mistakes in the future.  

So what Google will do now that this mistake has  been identified is ensure that the next time they  

launch something, all of the information is  stress-tested to make sure it's accurate and  

not going to give any misleading information. So  when you test something rigorously, you go through  

it quite thoroughly. If you buy a new car, you  would expect it to be tested rigorously, with a  

thorough test on the car before it's handed over  to you, ensuring that the steering wheel works,  

the locking system works, the brakes work, the  engine works well, and in modern cars, all the  

technology works. There will be a rigorous, really  detailed testing program on that particular car. 

Next, they're going to go through this rigorous  testing before a wider release to the public.  

So what does that mean, a wider release to  the public? The release they had, based on  

this article, was to a group of journalists  or specialists in that particular area. It  

was quite an invited guest list, a short, small  list of people they wanted to impress. Of course,  

with a mistake, that didn't impress them so much,  but it was a very narrow range of invitees. A  

wider release to the public means a general  release to everybody. So the whole world will  

have the information. A wider release to the  public means making it available to everybody. 

And then, at the end of that particular paragraph,  it says that this attempt failed to reassure  

shareholders. "Failed to reassure" means it  doesn't succeed in giving people peace of mind;  

they're still uncertain, unclear, and nervous.  So when you fail to reassure somebody, they  

don't feel any better after you've given them the  information. Okay. So if you had your car stolen,  

hopefully not. If you had your car stolen, and  you reported to the police, the police will come  

to you and tell you, I can guarantee you that  we'll have your car back within 24 hours. Well,  

that's a good reassurance that you believe that  police are going to find your car. But if the  

policeman said to you, look, the chances  of us finding the car are pretty remote,  

the likelihood is that the car has been  stolen. And by the time it's discovered,  

all the parts will be taken off the car and sold  individually. So the police will fail to reassure  

you that you're going to get your car back. In  fact, quite the opposite. The chances of getting  

your car back are almost zero so they failed  to reassure you. So in this particular article,  

the announcement by Google failed to reassure  shareholders that they would see the share price  

bouncing back up so they are a bit worried  about the future of this particular bot. 

This week, Microsoft, a key backer—what does  that mean? A key backer is a key or an important  

supporter, usually financially. If Google is  putting all the money into this particular bot,  

they are supporting it financially,  providing resources, technicians, analysts,  

or programmers to help develop this particular  bot. They are the key backer, the number one,  

the most important, the person with all the  money available to help support and drive  

this and get it to where they want it to be. And then, in the very last paragraph where  

we're talking about Bard and ChatGPT  being based on large language models,  

we use the word vast; they are fed vast amounts.  Vast means huge, a vast amount of information,  

a vast amount of rain fell over the last few days,  a vast amount of snow is needed for the French,  

Austrian, and Italian Alps, and they're going  to enjoy a nice winter skiing business. Okay,  

so vast means huge, great. A vast wilderness,  like the desert, is a massive area of land,  

but it's a wilderness or a vast amount. Okay?  So to generate and improve or to give these bots  

and ChatGPT artificial intelligence to make them  workable and worthwhile, they have to be fed vast  

amounts of information so that they can draw on  their artificial intelligence. And then finally,  

the last word we have here is composed, as in  composed recipes, poems, work presentations. Well,  

to compose is to make up or to bring together,  like a musical composition. When somebody writes  

music, they compose music, somebody writes the  lyrics, somebody puts together the music score.  

So you know, good partnerships of songwriters  and musicians who come up with the words and  

the music. So to compose something is to bring it  together, to write it, to create it. So in this  

sentence, it says, ChatGPT became a sensation  after its launch last November, as it composed  

recipes, poems; it was able to create recipes and  poems within seconds that other people could take  

hours and hours, if not weeks, to compose. Okay,  so there you've got some specific words related  

to damage, carry on to continue, plunge to fall  very quickly, rattled to be unsettled or nervous,  

flawed response, a damaged response that has  some mistakes in it, prompting to push gently  

to persuade somebody to do something, point out  to indicate, rigorous testing, very difficult,  

detailed testing, a wider release to the public  means to almost everybody, if not everybody,  

failed to reassure you have failed to  make people feel comfortable. Yeah,  

there was a mistake, and they failed  to reassure; they were unable to make  

people feel comfortable and happy about  it. And key backer, the main investor,  

vast amounts, huge amounts of information  needed, and composed recipes and poems. They  

created recipes or wrote recipes or created poems,  wrote poems through this artificial intelligence. 

Okay, so there you go. That's the news article.  As I said, it's taken from a Guardian newspaper.  

I've highlighted some of the words. And often when  you read a newspaper article, these journalists  

are using language that perhaps you might not  use on a day-to-day basis because it's okay,  

it's good quality, very good quality English, but  it may not be the natural English that you and I  

would use if we were sitting over a cup of coffee  and discussing ChatGPT. But this will help you to  

use language, particularly for essay writing,  particularly for exams like IELTS or CAE. So  

it's important to understand the words, and it's  also important to know what they mean. And as  

I've given you some examples of alternative words,  synonyms so you can use instead of those, okay, so  

if you need any more information, you know where  to contact me: www.englishlessonviaskype.com.  

Very happy to help you. If you want  some more news articles like this,  

just let me know and we can include them in future  lesson plans. Okay, this is Harry thanking you,  

and thank you for watching and listening. And as  always, remember to join me for the next lesson.