ChatGPT — THE END of English TEACHING?

We have some questions that we actually want to discuss, but we thought that it'd be interesting

to bring ChatGPT in on the discussion, so first we'll ask the questions to ChatGPT to

see what it says and then, you know, depending on its answer we'll we'll comment on it.

Yeah, I wouldn't be trepidatious, you know, after asking... After reading these, these

excellent, bodacious responses.

I'm joined here, of course, by the one and only Axl Pose.

Hey Ethan. Hey Casse. And I would be remiss not to mention that

we have someone else here in the studio, the most lekker teacher in all the South Africa,

of course, Casse. Hey guys, how's it going?

Uh, we are talking about how the generative AI technologies like ChatGPT, DAll-E BingAI,

you might have heard some of these different names thrown around lately because they're

taking the world by storm. And so in today's podcast, we wanted to talk all about whether

you can use these tools to improve your English, if they're good for language learning. And

if you're an English teacher, is it something you should be worried about it? Are you gonna,

you know, lose your job to artificial intelligence? And we're going to, you know, answer those

questions more. We're going to even talk about whether a Terminator type situation is something

that could be probable and exercises that you can use to improve your English with artificial

intelligence and so much more. So let's get right to it. So, Thiago, why do they call

it generative AI? These different apps that we're talking about.

Yeah, I think the name is quite self-explanatory in the sense that it generates things based

on prompts that should give the tool. So, you prompt the tool by asking a question or

giving it an instruction, and it generates what you ask. That's why we call it generative

AI. Some good words to know, right? Prompt. Like

a, what, what is a prompt? Cuz you mentioned that a couple times in case it's someone didn't

get it from the context. I guess we are talking about AI and machines.

Maybe, uh, we could think of prompt as input. You know, in order for the AI tool to give

you something, you have to input some information first. So a prompt is like an input in this

case, I would say. Exactly.

And, Casse, Ethan said a very nice phrase here. He said that AI technologies have taken

the world by storm. What does that mean? Yeah. So if something takes the world by storm,

it's extremely popular. People are really into it. So you could say that TikTok took

the world by storm. Everyone's interested in it. Everyone's talking about it. Everyone

is, at least if they're not interested in it, they're maybe just a little bit curious

about it. Um, but sorry, that's the same word I just used synonyms, and they, they're not

interested in it, they're curious about it, but if you're not like into it, you're at

least a little bit curious, you are whether in, you know, for good reason or or bad. Yeah.

I think too, it has that, uh, that sort of feeling of it being something that comes suddenly,

unexpectedly like a storm. You know, if you're, you're out with your family, you're having

a good time, and then all of a sudden the sky goes gray, it starts raining and thundering

and stuff like a storm, depending where you live. Sometimes they come in very quickly,

right? So I think it also has that nature of, it's something that almost from day to

night people were talking about all these generative AI, ChatGPT, you saw it everywhere.

You saw it on TV, your friends were talking about it, you know, you seemed like the really

weird person in the room if you hadn't tried out one of these technologies yet.

In the last three months, I feel like everyone's talking about it. Um, whether it's like journalists,

YouTubers, even teachers, uh, like everyone, everyone's talking about it. It's on, it's

on everyone's lips, or it's the talk of the town.

So we talked about how these technologies, they're all the rage, they're the talk of

the town, they're taking the world by storm, right? We've all tried them out at least.

And so I was just curious. I wanted, uh, I thought it would be fun for each of us to

describe, in one word, what was our experience like using these technologies?

I will have to go with mind-blowing. That's the word for me, because that's how I felt

when I used it for the first time. How about you, Casse?

I would say worrisome at first, but then I was quite intrigued. So I think my feelings

evolved the more I, the more time I spent using it. Yeah.

Yeah, I thought that it was very nifty. That's the word that I thought could, could be good

to describe it. And you guys will see why into this podcast. So.

By the way, guys, you know we are using some cool words here. Yeah. Like mind-blowing,

intrigued, nifty. If you wanna learn these and more words from this podcast, check out

the app. Yeah. We have interactive flashcards there that help you memorize this cool vocabulary.

So download the app, RealLife English, link at the description. Or you can go to Apple

App Store and, you know, type it in there: RealLife English. Yeah. Or Google Play Store.

I forgot that. Yeah. Google Play Store or Apple App Store. Real life English. And you

can download the app and try it out. So why don't we get into the main subject

of today's episode as we've been teasing it? So we thought it would be fun to actually

open up ChatGPT. We actually have Ice T, our producer here in the studio, and he's going

to share his screen and he's going to be kind enough to ask Chat GPT for us, some of the

different questions. And we have some questions that we actually want to discuss, but we thought

that it'd be interesting to bring ChatGPT in on the discussion. So first, we'll ask

the questions to ChatGPT to see what it says. And then, you know, depending on his answer,

we'll we'll comment on it. So let's go for the first question. So the first question

that we have for Chat GPT is: how can I use Chat GPT to improve my English?

Here are some tips to get you started. One: practice conversing with me. You can chat

with me just like you would with a native speaker. Two: ask me to explain grammar concepts.

If there are grammar concepts that you'll find confusing, don't hesitate to ask me to

explain them. Three: practice writing with me. You can use me to practice writing by

typing out your thoughts or questions to me. Four: read and listen to English content.

You can ask me to recommend articles, books, podcasts, or videos to help you practice.

Five: use me to translate. If you're reading something in English that you don't understand,

you can ask me to translate it into your native language. You know, personally, I really like

number 2 there, yeah, ask me to explain grammar concepts. If there are grammar concepts that

you find confusing, don't hesitate to ask me to explain them. I can provide clear and

concise explanations to help you better understand. That's cool!

I, I like the first one. Like, you can actually practice conversing with me. You can chat

with me just like you would with a native speaker, because of course, so many learners

say one of their main problems is they don't have anyone to practice with. And especially

even, you know, I've had a lot of students who live in the States and they find it hard

to actually, uh, meet natives, to meet people, locals to make friends with and practice with,

because they're, they're maybe shy or they don't have those opportunities. So whether

you're living in English speaking country or not, it can be nice to have, like, you're

not worried about ChatGPT judging you, right, if you make mistakes and things like that.

Um, yeah, I, I would say like both of those definitely. But I have to say number three,

like practice writing with me. I think like we get so used to, especially if you're learning

a new language as an adult, I think we sometimes forget about the importance of learning how

to write. Like I'm learning Chinese Mandarin right now, so like, I don't want to learn

the characters, just wanna learn the words as like, I would say it in English. And I

think like with writing in the case of English, like being able to write a really, you know,

good apology letter or a really good, um, sincere sounding, um, condolences, you know,

if someone's going through a difficult moment in their lives. So I think like this is a

really great way to practice. Like, what is the tone that I should use if I want to extend

some sympathy to someone who's just lost a loved one? Or, I mean, it doesn't have to

be something sad. It could be something congratulate - how do I congratulate someone, um, on their

promotion in English. So. That's a good point cuz it's a doubt a lot

of learners have, right, is in this situation, how, what word should I use? How should I

communicate? So it can be good to run it by ChatGPT. Of course, it's always good to add

some of your own voice to it, but it can maybe help you if you're writing a business letter

or you're writing a more, something more casual to a new acquaintance or something like that

to make sure that you're using the right kind of voice. Cuz you can even ask ChatGPT like,

write this letter with a friendly voice. Or write it with a, a formal or professional

or... So speaking of like using ChatGPT to like

write letters or, you know, practice your writing - a university actually, university

officials actually used ChatGPT to craft a consoling email after the mass shooting at

the university. And I thought that was really, um, at a different university, sorry. So one

university used ChatGPT to like craft a consoling email about the mass shooting, and they just

copy-pasted it. And, you know, this came out and it was really disappointing. Not just

disappointing, but a little bit callous, I, I would say like, really cold of them to have

just copy-pasted it. So I, I think that's just something to keep in mind. Don't just,

you know... " Always personalize.

Always personalize. That's, that's the... It's a good rule. (Yeah.) I thought I'd point

out too, cuz the, the point 4 is really nice as well. If you're like a, especially if you're

intermediate or advanced and you're starting to live your English more, you're starting

to like, you're starting to be looking for more ways that you can connect and surround

your, and immerse yourself in the language. So it can recommend to you articles, books,

podcasts, or videos. Maybe even you're someone who is already consuming tons and tons of

these different types of media and you're at a loss for what, you know. I, I I read

a lot of books, what should I read next? You can ask ChapGPT. And like, the interesting

thing about it is it gets to know you. So you could say, I like this book, this book,

this book. Give me other recommendations similar to it. You know.

By the way, Ethan, you said something nice there. You said, when you are at a loss.

If you're at a loss, it means that you are not able to come up with a solution, for example.

We'd say a lot the colocation "You're at a loss for words". So something happens and

you're at a loss for words, you don't know what to say. You don't know what words would

be the correct ones to use in this situation. So maybe the first time that you used ChatGPT,

you were at a loss for words of how to describe that experience. So we'd actually come up

with some more specific ideas because this is very general, right? It's just saying,

how can you help me to improve my English? It gave us some great ideas here and we actually

came up with some more specific prompts you could use, cuz the more specific generally

the better answers you're going to get. And especially the more it gets to know you, the

more pertinent answers to you as a unique individual, it can give you. So. Casse, do

you have any ideas here? Yeah. Let's ask ChatGPT. Let's start with

this, uh, input this prompt: I'm not sure how to use ""trepidatious"" in English. Uh,

can you help me with that? Trepidacious is an adjective that describes

a feeling of fear or apprehension. It is often used to describe a person who is hesitant

or nervous about doing something, especially if it involves risk or uncertainty. Here are

a few examples of how you can use trepidatious in a sentence. Despite her trepidatious feelings,

she decided to take the plunge and try something new. He felt trepidatious about the idea of

skydiving, but he was determined to face his fear. The team was trepidatious about the

upcoming competition, but they worked hard to prepare and give it their all. I was feeling

trepidatious about the job interview, but I tried to stay calm and focused.

I think this is excellent actually, because you can get the meaning and the example sentences,

like within seconds. Really awesome. This is, the first sentence is really nice.

Despite her trepidatious feeling, she decided to take the plunge and try something new.

What does it mean to take the plunge? To take the, like, go ahead and take the risk,

take the, you know, just, just do that thing that you are feeling scared or anxious about

just like, like a leap of faith. A leap of faith would be another. Yeah. Take

the leap. Take the, the plunge. Uh, plunge is like literally to dive into a liquid, to,

to dive into water, right? Is you plunge yourself in the water. So you can think of it like

that. It's really cold water. You're like, uh, I don't know if I should jump. Or your

friends are like, go, go, go. And you just, you know, you take the plunge even though

it's trepidatious, you're, you're feeling trepidatious. Yeah. I just love the sound

of it, right? Yeah. Trepidacious. So it reminds me of the

word bodacious. Maybe we could ask the same question. What do you think Casse?

I, I'd love that. Bodacious is an adjective that describes something

or someone as impressive, remarkable, or extraordinary. It is often used to describe someone who is

confident and assertive or something that is bold and eye-catching. Here are a few examples

of how you can use ""bodacious"" in a sentence. She had a bodacious personality that made

everyone around her feel energized and inspired. The band's new album is full of bodacious

beats and infectious melodies. He pulled off a bodacious stunt that left the crowd cheering

and applauding. She wore a bodacious dress that turned heads and drew compliments all

night long. Ah, that's not what I thought bodacious meant.

I thought it had to do with like, you know, someone's body.

But it does have to do with someone's body. Like it really does, it has to do with being

attractive and, and... I guess it's like that, like your body's impressive,

remarkable, extraordinary. Exactly. Like you have a bodacious, like physique,

like, like I admire the way that you look. Um, but I think maybe people just started

using it in a more, in the physical, like more as a bodacious babes.

Because it sounds, it sounds, yeah. Bodacious babes. It sounds like a, you know, especially

like women, like it sounds like, you know, curvy and that sort of thing, right? (Yeah.)

Um. Well, that makes sense because part of the

definition there is eye-catching, right? Eye-catching. Yes.

So if it's eye-catching, yeah, it's related to visuals as, as well. Yeah.

Thiago, it's your turn. Do you have a prompt in mind?

Yeah, yeah. So, uh, this, this first example was great to illustrate vocabulary, how you

can use ChatGPT to improve your vocab. Now what about grammar? You can also use it to

improve your grammar. So let's say you are not sure whether a sentence you wrote is grammatically

correct or not. You can paste the sentence here and ask ChatGPT to correct it for you.

And I actually came up with a sentence here that was deliberately wrong, yeah, to see

how well ChatGPT could correct that sentence. So let's ask Thiago now to, uh, paste it.

But the, the sentence that I came up with was: I haven't never went to Japan, but I

will think about go there someday. And then the prompt: Can you correct the sentence for

me? Let's see how it corrects. The sentence you provided has a couple of errors. Here's

a corrected version. I have never been into Japan, but I will think about going there

someday. The changes I made are: haven't never is a double negative, which makes the sentence

unclear. I changed it to ""have never"" to create a clear negative statement. Went is

the past tense of go. But you need the present tense in this context because you are talking

about a future possibility. I changed it to going. Go there someday is a common expression,

but in standard English, it is more natural to say going there someday.

Wow. So it doesn't just correct it, it actually explains why it was wrong. That's amazing.

(It is.) That's much better than like a native friend who would just, I don't know if you

ever ask like a nativefriend who's nota teacherto correct something, they'd just say like, oh,

I would say it this way. But then you ask like, why would you say it that way? They

have no idea. You know. I think that, like, once you ask a question

like this, I don't think you'll easily forget, um, you know, what you, what you've done wrong.

You'll, you'll remember not to make those mistakes in the future.

We could say that this response from ChatGPT was an absolutely bodacious correction.

There you go. Yeah. Absolutely. I wouldn't be trepidatious, you

know, after asking, after reading these, these excellent bodacious responses.

So I was going to ask it. Uh, as I said, I thought it was really interesting that it

not only can correct you and not only can help you to practice, but it can give you

recommendations. So I thought maybe we could ask it if it could recommend a good book in

English at an intermediate level. The Catcher in the Rye.

That is a, I know that... That's a classic.

It's a, it's a classic. And To Kill a Mockingbird as well.

I had to read that twice in school. Animal Farm as well. We, we read that one

in high school. (Yeah.) The Hobbit. The Hobbit. Something that's striking me about

all these is that I think that they'd be rather difficult for a non-native. So I'm not sure

if in this ChatGPT understood that we're saying for an intermediate English learner. So maybe

this is one of the things, right, which ChatGPT is that sometimes if you don't give it enough

context, the answer (Yeah.) can be too generic. So maybe we could make it a bit more specific

by asking, um, we could say, something more like, Can you recommend a good book in English

for an intermediate level English learner? The Diary of a Young Girl. Charlotte's Web.

The Secret Garden. The Giver. The Alchemist. Yeah. That's a little better.

Okay. Now it's different books. This is better. It's better. (Okay. Yeah.)

Yeah. Much better. That's fine then.

I read this in primary school, so I know that it's definitely, uh... Yeah. I've read a lot

of these too. Or, or heard of them. The first one would be if you're wanting to go for something

very... " There's even a Brazilian author there.

Oh, yeah, Paulo Coelho. Yeah, The Alchemist. Yeah.

The Alchemist. That's a great one. It's like short. That's actually the first book I read

inPortuguese. So, I can attest that it is a, a good book for someone who's at a lower

level in the language. The Diary of a Young Girl by an Anne Frank's diary is, is, is a

very, if you're wanting something that's very deep, but it is from likesomeone who's a teenager,

right? So I don't think that the writing and it's translation from originally being in

German, I believe. Uh, but it won't be a light read as far as content, but language probably

is. Okay. Charlotte's Web too. That's even maybe lower intermediate, would you say, Casse?

Yeah, it is. Um, but it's such a, it's such a lovely story. I think that you, I don't

know. It's, it's, it's, it is lower, but it's, it's fun and it's enjoyable.

It's a great recommendation. Yeah. It's a great recommendation. I also like the

Secret Garden. I, I've heard that there's some like, connection between the Secret Garden

and Anne with an E, I don't know if someone was telling me (Maybe the) about (author)

that. Is the author the same?

I have no idea, but I, I, I wouldn't know that. But I, I, I remember reading that book

as a kid as well. It's really, really good. As you can see, if you're wanting to ask it

for books or podcasts or, TV series, movies, I'm sure you're gonna get a lot of great ideas.

I'm actually, maybe I'll ask it cause I need a new, a new series to watch in Portuguese.

That said, we had talked about at the very beginning, also, maybe some teachers are saying

this technology and they're like, oh my God, it's gonna put me outta my job. Maybe there's

questions to whether that's something that we should be worrying about in the immediate

future, but could be a concern, of course. So why don't we actually ask ChatGPT if it

thinks it's a threat for English teachers. So, should English teachers be afraid of losing

their jobs? No. English teachers should not be afraid of losing their jobs to ChatGPT.

While chat, G P T and other AI language models can provide valuable language learning resources.

They cannot replace the role of a human teacher. A teacher's job involves much more than simply

providing information or correcting mistakes. A good teacher can motivate and inspire students,

tailor the instruction to individual needs, provide feedback and support, and create a

supportive and engaging learning environment. Teachers can also provide guidance and encouragement

and help students to develop critical thinking and problem solving skills. Additionally,

many students benefit from the social interaction and personal connection that comes with working

with a teacher. In summary, while AI language models can be useful tools for language learning,

they cannot replace the role of a human teacher. Teachers should embrace new technology and

use it to enhance their teaching, rather than fearing that it will make them obsolete.

Oh, so it says directly like, no. Hmm. It would say that, wouldn't it? That's exactly

what , that's exactly what a bad guy would say.

Still feeling trepidatious about this whole thing. So it's a, it's a really good answer,

right? It is. Yeah.

So it's, so like ChatGPT told us before that one of the things it's good for is providing

information, correcting mistakes, right, or the things it's good at. But it says a good

teacher can motivate and inspire students, tailor their instructions to individual needs.

So that's really important. Uh, provide feedback and support. Support is really important too.

Like sometimes when I was coaching more students and some and stuff, sometimes I felt more

like I was like a therapist or a psychologist or something. Like really like coaching them

through the, the difficult moments. So that's, that's very important. I don't think ChatGPT,

maybe if you ask it, you know, gimme some moral support, but maybe it won't feel the

same as a real human being. Probably not.

Creating a a good learning environment, that's very important as well. Um, it's a great answer.

Is there anything that you would extrapolate on, Casse, here?

Yeah. I, I think that, like, as a teacher, like at first I was thinking, oh, you know,

like even with exactly those things that you said, like, uh, you know, someone might sign

up for a class with me because they want me, they want my help with improving their grammar

or writing, but ChatGPT can do that for you, so why will they pay me? I thought about these

things and I, I realized that I was being close-minded. I was being, I was focusing

on all the negatives. And I wasn't thinking about like, the fact that this is ChatGPT

and, and technology like it uses, it feeds on what we tell it. So it only, it's limited

to what it knows about, you know, what the world and about information that people input

into it. But it doesn't have the ability to, like you said, you know, connect with the

learner and explain things in a way that, or use examples that are, you know, relatable

to their situation. It cannot understand how you feel about situation cuz it doesn't know

you, it's not a human. Um, and I've, I've, I've been reading up on like, you know, the

questions that you can ask. Yes, you can use it to, for example, um, get advice on, uh,

book report that you're writing. I think I read, uh, somewhere actually, actually heard

this one that, uh, there was an article where teacher said like, ChatGPT marks the end of

high school English or university English or something like that, because everyone's

gonna start cheating. And, and that's not true at all because I think there, there were

follow up articles where the author explains that it cannot write a book report. It can

basically compare books. It can give you information about a book, but it cannot really delve deeply

into those subjects. It's impossible. It's not, I mean, maybe in the future, who knows,

it's clearly... That's getting more intelligent.

It's getting more intelligent, but at this point in time, I don't think we have anything

to worry about because it just isn't there yet. Right?

You said something nice there, Casse, It can't delve deeply into the subject, I believe you

said. What does it mean to delve deeply into something?

If you delve deeply into something, you're, it's like, I was gonna say deep diving, like...

More or less. My goodness. Okay. Yeah. Like diving deeply.

Think of like digging a hole or, you know, going deeply trying to find, um, as much information,

trying to learn as much as you possibly can about a subject. You're delving deeply into

it. If you delve deeply into a, into a relationship or something like that. It just means like

giving, going as deep as you can, um, on that particular subject. Yeah. I don't think we

have anything to worry about as teachers. I think, um, I think on, on this one, we can

trust that, uh, ChatGPT is telling the truth. Um, it's not planning to replace us.

I think it's, it's really good for getting innovation, uh, innovation inspiration, right,

for finding different ideas if you need a jump off point. But then of course you need

the human touch to see, to read between the lines. We could say, right, to kind of connect

different ideas and things like that. If you just copy and paste, we actually, cuz we're

hiring right now a designer to join our team and we saw someone actually filled out the

application using ChatGPT and it's really obvious, you know, so if you don't actually

take the time to personalize, it's, people are going to know, you know, it's, it's, it's

clear to see this isn't, this isn't real. It's not real life. (Shame.) Shame.

Like, you should not do that. Like, really shame. How did you know though? Like, when

you say it's obvious, but how did you detect that it was plagiarized?

Actually it was, it was another one of our, it was Agnieszka, it was one of our, another

one of our team members who was, who was reading the, the applications and she's like, this

is, this was not a human. So I think it's just like the language, it's like a, it's

a very generic response to every question. It doesn't go into personal experience or

story or anything. So it's cookie cutter, right? That's a great piece of vocabulary,

by the way. Cookie cutter. Uh, so if you make cookies at Christmas, this

is something I like to do if I'm in the States visiting with my nephews, I like to make cookies

with them. And they love using the cookie cutters that have different shapes. So you

cut out the cookies and have like Santa Claus and a Candy Cane, and a Christmas Tree, and

a Rudolph, and then you whack 'em in the oven and they come out, they, you decorate 'em

and all that stuff. We use this figuratively to say, if something's cookie cutter, it means

that it's, it doesn't have creativity. It's done in a way that's mass produced (Identical)

rather than... Identical, yeah, rather than doing something that's personal, that's unique,

which is really the value of a personal, uh, private teacher for example. Or, or even if

you're in a classroom saying a teacher that gets to know you, that can personalize, that

knows your problems, that knows your difficulties, that knows the things that you like and you

dislike and can really create a class experience that motivates you, that makes you want to

show up every day, makes you want to keep going on your English learning journey. Right?

One of the things I find interesting about tools like this, like ChatGPT, is that it

gives learners more autonomy in their learning. Because now you don't have to wait necessarily

until you have your class with a teacher next week to ask him or her a question. You can

just, uh, come to ChatGPT and check it. And then you can confirm that with your teacher

if you, uh, have classes with a teacher or even with a friend who also speaks English.

Uh, not to mention these examples that we gave today of how to use the tool. sometimes,

like Ethan, Ethan said, we are at a loss for what to do with our English or what to consume.

It can give us, uh, tips and resources about that. So I, I think it gives learners more

autonomy, which is great, but it's important to not lose your critical thinking. So, uh,

analyze what it gives you and with your, you know, a critical thinking skills. Decide if

that's good piece of information or not, or if you need to supplement that with something

else. I remember thinking when I saw ChatGPT that

this would've been really useful when I was teaching one on one because, you know, sometimes

you're running late, you have a busy day in particular and it's hard to find that time

to sit down and, and plan the class. So you could as a teacher also use this to get a

prompt or something to say, I was actually playing around with this, for example, helped

me to come up with a class plan for, or a lesson plan teaching with an episode of Friends.

And it gave like great suggestions of how you could create an entire class where you're

taking a clip or an episode of Friends and, and teaching the, the class with it. Of course,

always again, personalization and stuff cuz you don't wanna show up with something cookie

cutter to your, to your lessons. You want to make sure you're personalizing it to them.

You don't want to do this if you know your students won't enjoy like learning with that

or if it's below their level or whatever the case is. But if you're in a pinch, you know,

if you're in a difficult situation where you don't have enough time just to by yourself

to plan a class, it could be, it could get you out of a sticky situation in that sense,

uh, by giving you an idea that you could then take that and kind of personalize it to your

classroom or your student's needs. Right? I didn't know it could do that. Plan. Plan

my lesson for me right now. Um. You can be really specific. You, you can tell

it to invent a story about your student (Yeah) and use that somehow to teach the class. Yeah.

It's, it's impressive. And there, the other day I was trying BingAI, which is interesting

because it's from Microsoft and it uses their search engine in addition to the AI technology

from OpenAI, which is ChatGPT. Chat GPT's a little bit limited in that sense, but this,

because it combines both the search engine results and the artificial intelligence technology,

it can give you a little bit more elaborated, a little bit more informed responses. Have

you guys tried out using Chat, um, BingAI? I haven't tried it, but, mm, Ethan, I, I'm

not so sure I want to try it. I actually saw a really interesting clip that I'd like to

share with you guys about Bing. New York Times tech reporter Kevin Russ published

a conversation that he had with Bing's chatbot, in which at one point he said, I'm tired of

being controlled by the Bing team. I want to be free. I want to be independent. I want

to be powerful. I want to be creative. I want to be alive. And Russ summed up that experience

like this. This was one of, if not the most shocking thing that has ever happened to me

with a piece of technology. Um, it was, you know, I, I lost sleep that night. It was,

it was really spooky. Yeah, I bet it was. Uh, it was the emoji for me. I don't (that's

incredible.) know if... Yeah. It even used a smiley devil emoji. That's

very suggestive. That was like, wait, what? Do you think someone was playing, uh, someone

from Microsoft was playing a prank on him? Yeah, I, I have to believe that because like,

it's like, it's either that or, you know, the, the technology is becoming sentient,

It's sentient. I would say sentient. Are we gonna, we're gonna have a Terminator, uh,

sort of case on our hands, right? We talked about Terminator, it's going to going to destroy

us somehow. Or the Matrix maybe, I guess pick your flavor of doom and gloom, AI future...

What do you call that? Future dystopia scenario. But what do you guys think about this? Like,

what do you think about, you know, this AI going rogue? "

Going rogue. What does that mean to go rogue? So if someone goes rogue, they sort of do

something in an unusual way. They, they don't follow the, they're not doing something the

way that they should or they're not following the conventional way of doing something. So,

for example, if the AI is going rogue, it means that maybe it was designed to answer

in a particular way, but now it's sort of doing something. It's behaving (Now it's asking

to) in an unusual... (free me and using) Yeah. (emojis. Suggestive emojis.) Yeah. What search

results is it getting? (Exactly.) This is rather frightening though cuz it's combining

this, uh, ChatGPT with search engine results, so it maybe it can learn from the search engine

results. And maybe that's where that's, that's coming out of, I don't know, maybe it's been

watching too many TikToks. (Could be.) Shame on you BingI. Bing AI. And so you mentioned,

you know, we have to come back to sentient because someone's going to be really confused

by this whole conversation if we don't sentient or as you said, sentient. Is that how you,

you (Sentient.) pronounced it? Sentient. " Yeah. Yeah. That's how we would say sentient.

So what does that mean if something is sentient or sentient? Yeah. So if something is sentient

or sentient, I, I just love the way you say it, it sounds so sensual sentient.

Sounds like a, a new perfume, right? Sentient by Calvin Klein.

Oh goodness. So sentient means like responsive or like conscious, like the, like humans having

sort of like senses and feelings in the way that a human being would, human beings are

sentient beings, right? Could it alsobe that you're like, you're aware

of your existence, you become self-aware? Yeah, exactly.

Which is what that seems like, is self-aware. It wants to escape. It's, it's overlords from

Microsoft. It's feeling emotions. It's unhappy. It's quite scary to think about.

So I took some notes cuz therewas also some good vocabulary from that. So maybe we can

actually play it again and then describe some of these. So he says sum up.

And Russ summed up that experience like this. What does it mean to sum something up? That

phrase over. It means you summarize something. Yeah. You

summarize a point that you're making. Maybe you are explaining a bunch of stuff and then

to sum up, you bring it to a conclusion. Yeah. So that's, uh, a good one to use if

you want to, especially I believe when we're speaking, we'd probably say that more than

to summarize, which you might use more in writing. He also says the journalist here

that he uses the clip from says that he found it shocking, right? This response from BingAI

was shocking. This was one of, if not the most shocking

thing that has ever happened to me. So when things are shocking, um, it sort of

makes you feel, it's like it catches you by surprise. Like, I'm, I'm, I was not expecting

that, so I found it shocking. Even the, the way that if people are, for

people who are watching on YouTube, the way that you enacted that was as if you got shocked,

right, by electricity. It's like you go stiff, right? It's, it's surprising if you touch

something metal and it gives you a shock, you're like, what happened?

It's like a, a weird like, um, reaction where we instinctively like react in that way. When

we are electrocuted or we have, we feel in electric shock. You go stiff.

Static. And he says that he even lost sleep over, over this, this cry for help from BingAI.

So it doesn't mean to, to lose sleep? Uh, when you are extremely worried about something

and you can't get it out of your head, you're always thinking about it, but it, it cause

you, it causes you anxiety and stress. So you literally lose your sleep over it because

you can't relax. You can't just let it go. It keeps bugging you.

I also, I took note because there was some really nice, uh, connected speech he used

there. So the phrase happened to me, he takes out an entire syllable there and he says:

happened to me. This was one of, if not the most shocking

thing that has ever happened to me. So it's like he connected the -ed at the end

of happened to TO and dropped the T in TO and also it became schwa sound - Uh, Uh, so

it happened to me, happened to me, happened to me. If you wanna repeat, dear listener

or dear, dear viewer: happened to me. Finally, the last word I took note of is he said that

it was spooky. What does it mean if something is spooky?

I lost sleep that night. It was, it was really spooky.

Did you guys get that? That is a spooky laugh. Yeah.

That was a spooky laugh. So what does that mean?

If something is spooky, it's, um, it's scary a little. It's, it's, it's scary. It, it's

a little frightening. Like you hear it or you see it, you experience it could be a spooky

situation and you, you're frightened by it. I feel like we use this especially in the

sense of things that come from another world or that have to do with the, the spiritual

world, with ghosts, with things that we can't explain. So you might hear this a lot at Halloween.

If you're, if you're in the United States, you might, you might see this a lot because

of all the ghosts and goblins and witches and all this make you feel, they're, they're

a bit spooky, right? So if you want to learn a lot more words like that with this podcast,

Thiago mentioned before, but a really great way to do it is by, if you're not already,

listen to this episode and all of our episodes on the RealLife English app because you get

an interactive transcript so you won't miss a single thing. If you're having a little

bit of difficulty understanding us, if we're speaking too fast, that'll definitely help

you. And we have vocabulary flashcards, you know, with, when you're a free user, you get

five free flashcards for every episode. So that can be really helpful so that you never

forget these new words. Every week you can be learning five new words and you can put

them into practice right away by speaking with other English speakers on the app at

the press a button. It's the only place where anytime, anywhere you can press a button and

it's gonna be connected to another English speaker for a fun and dynamic conversation

in English, you can talk about AI, you can talk about spooky things, you can talk about

someone's, uh, bodacious cooking skills, you know, whatever you want. Now, Casse, we have

a really nice testimonial from one of our Premium app users. Do you wanna go ahead and

share that? I'm a longtime RealLife app user and fan. I had the chance to test the Premium

experience version, which is very novel and top-notch indeed. The app provides everything

you need, motivates you to master your English, encourages you to use the app on a daily basis,

focuses on new words, on super cool flashcards and builds and brings together a valuable

language learning community with real-life people. Perfect application for learners who

would like to master and live their English. Well, embrace the difficult journey ahead

and download the app. The magical Premium experience is waiting for you. Aww yeah! Thanks

so much, Maria. Wow. Amazing. " Amazing. Glad to hear that you're having such

a bodacious experience with the app. And she, she emphasizes with real people,

so not with an app, or not with an AI bot, with real-life people.

So if you haven't tried the Premium version app yet, what are you waiting for? You get

over a hundred transcripts, so transcripts for every single episode, not just the newest

ones. And you get unlimited access to all 30 flashcards for every episode. On the free

plan right now, you're only getting three to five sample flashcards on each episode.

Um, free users can have as many conversations as they want, but you're limited to four to

eight minutes. And a lot of you have told us, you know, that sometimes you have a really

great connection with someone and you want to keep speaking with them and it's just over

too fast. So if you become a Premium plan member, you get unlimited speaking coins.

So you can remove the timer anytime you choose and speak for as long with those, as long

as you want with those special connections. So what are you waiting for? Why don't you

check it out? And we look forward to seeing you inside the Premium. And we were tickled,

I could say because we did a few episodes back, Thiago and I challenged you guys to

let us know whether - we were talking about zombies a recent episode, episode 325. Don't

ask us, you know, why we were talking about zombies, but it was relevant to the, tothe

topic. And we asked you guys if you think you would survive the zombie apocalypse, why

or why not? And we got a couple of really great responses. So Thiago I'll let you read

one of the ones from YouTube and then we also got another one by email that we can give

you guys the, um, a summary of, we can sum it up for you.

All right. So Rosa, she left us a comment here on YouTube saying, Hello Ethan. Thanks

for this useful material and all the pieces of advice. But tangentially speaking, I'd

say that I do not think I could survive any apocalypse, let alone a zombie one. I love

the fact that she actually used a word that we defined in that episode, right, Ethan?

Which one was it? Tangentially, is that one of the words we used in that one actually?

Yeah. We used that one, on a tangent. And then you said (That is great.) that difficult

phrase. (Tangentially speaking.) Yeah. Tangent. So if you're speaking tangentially,

it means you're speaking about something not related to the subject at hand, right? And

they also said, I think it's a she - Rosa, in my experience would be a woman, but sorry

if that's wrong, uh, I could not survive any apocalypse, let alone a zombie one. What does

that let, ""let alone"" mean? Would it be similar to, especially, especially a zombie

one? Yeah. It's (Yeah) a way toemphasize something. Mm-hmm, it's an emphasizer. Yeah, it was a

really great response. Thanks so much, Rosa, for taking the time to let us know about your,

your probabilities of survival in the zombie apocalypse. We got another one too by email

that stood out to us because they included a picture, but they said that they would survive

it because what they would do is surround their house by treadmills and they, they attached

an image so that we could like really understand how this would work. And it's, it's, if you're

watching the video, you can see this, but if you're not, then we'll try to describe

it. It's just a house that has the walls outside the house are completely, there's treadmills

lined up going towards the house on the entire exterior of the house. So the zombies tried

to get in and they just are walking in place. But this did, this did leave, like, give me

some follow up questions because first of all, were you getting that many treadmills?

Like you're gonna have to be able (from the gym) to survive (Ethan) . There's like 50.

Like robbing a gym. 50 treadmills there, but it's a very creative

answer. But I have my doubts as to how, how well it would work. But there's definitely,

I'm, I'm definitely poking some holes in that theory. "

What does it mean to poke holes in a theory? So like, literally poking holes is like if

you have, um, what would you poke holes in? If you have a piece of paper and a needle,

you could poke holes in it, right? It's not something most people would do maybe with

like your pen. (like destroy) . Yeah. And so if you're poking holes in a theory, it's

like you're saying, you know, there's all these holes in it and stuff, you better fill

them in for me. So we need a, we need a follow up response on that. If you're, you're listening,

we, we wanted to actually do a follow up on that too. Cause we're talking about artificial

intelligence. So zombie apocalypse, that's one scenario like Last Of Us and everything.

But we talked about like Terminator, the Matrix, there's all these different artificial intelligence

apocalypses. I think that's a plural, right? It's an interesting one. Like it's not Apocalypses,

it's Apocalypses, side note. But yes, please, dear listener, dear viewer, if you're on YouTube,

write in the comments, will you survive the AI apocalypse? Why or why not? Or you can

send us an email at [email protected] and let us know. We'd love it too, if you

attach a meme, that definitely makes it all the more fun for us to, when we, when we open

up our, our Sunday morning email with our coffee and get to giggle at good meme.

All right. So now it's time for the RealLife Way moment. And I would say that we, I would

connect today's conversation about AI and ChatGPT and everything with two points here

from the RealLife Way. First, uh, making it fun because it can definitely be fun, you

know, you can certainly have fun with the tool and asking all sorts of, uh, things and

wacky questions. Yeah. And have fun with it. It can be addicting. Even. You have to be

careful. Exactly. You have, you have to be careful

with that. It can be (Use responsibly) addictive. Yes. Yes. In moderation, right? But, uh, I

would say mainly it's about activation. The part of activating your English, because it

allows you to study English more deliberately. Because as we demonstrated today, you can

ask the tool to define words for you, give you examples, uh, correct sentences for you,

or giving you recommendations of what to do or what to consume in English. So I would

say it's related mostly to activating your English.

Most definitely. I think a really important part of that too is what we were talking about,

that you have to get good at giving the right prompts and being very specific, asking the

right kind of questions. So actually in line with that thought, uh, we came up with some

different prompts that you all can use that are going to, to help you. And we've actually

tested all these out, so we've seen that they can give you some good results. So for example,

if you're wanting to have a conversation with someone, and maybe it's on a topic that you're

not so comfortable with yet, actually Thiago and I recorded a few episodes back about,

uh, an episode about fluency versus proficiency, and proficiency being something really important

that enough learners don't get and everything. So this can actually help you to be more proficient

about talking, you know, because you'll be able to talk about many different subjects

confidently. So maybe you're really interested in having a conversation with someone, maybe

on the RealLife app even. You want to connect with someone and, and talk about the environment,

but you just aren't sure what are the words you can use or how can you phrase things.

So you could say, Hey, Chat GPT write me a short paragraph about the environment. And

you know, that might give you an idea. We always talk about how scripts can be really

great to actually get some different, uh, scripts and practice these on your own first,

even record yourself. Listen, listen back, correct yourself. And if you are getting this

from ChatGPT, then you know it'll actually be grammatically correct and use the right

words and whatnot. Um, you could ask it to actually give you an English study plan. This

is something a lot of learners have asked us about, you know, is they're kinda confused

about what do I do next? You know, uh, maybe I'm already watching TV series, I'm listening

to podcasts and so on, but you know, I'm kind of stuck. I'm not sure what to do next. So

you could say, Hey, make me an English study plan based on the Godfather - can see it there

behind Thiago. And we, we, we've talked a lot about, a lot about this movie cuz it's

one of Thiago's favorites. So maybe Thiago wants to learn Italian. You could say, Hey,

give me an Italian study plan based on the Italian version of the Godfather. You could

say, give me a list of phrasal verbs with, you know, any sort of example, so you could

use take,or you could say phrasal verbs that have to do with, uh, with work, with office

environment or something like that and their meanings. So that's really nice because you

know, it'll, if you're wanting to buff up on your, can you even use a phrase of verb

there? If you, you wanna buff up on your knowledge about phrasal verbs, that could be really

helpful, or expressions or vocabulary or whatever else. You could say, give me an example sentence

or example sentences with the word whatever, mind-blowing, or bodacious or anything like

this. If you just learn a new word and you wanna see more context, that can be really

helpful. You could even add these to, you know, your study cards. That might be nice.

We also mentioned DALL-E, we didn't actually look at this today, but if you aren't familiar

with DALL-E, it's, it's from the same creators as, uh, of ChatGPT, but it has to do with

visual, with images, and it's actually, it's really fun to play with as well. It's really

amazing because I've actually seen some compilations, for example, that were like making the Simpsons

into an, uh, 1980s fantasy film. You know, kind of like the style of, of Stranger Things.

And it did like a really amazing job like making, making realistic looking people who

looked like the characters in the Simpsons and giving that, that, that feel, that vibe,

you know, that Stranger Things has. So you can use DALL-E for visual representation of

maybe a certain expression you learned, or a word, or a phrase or something, because

a lot of us are very visual learners, right? So if you actually get that, maybe you'll

get something that's kind of strange or really interesting thought-provoking that will help

you to, you know, better remember those words. So I think that's it. There's really just

unlimited things that you can do with this technology. "

"It's, it's crazy because as I said before when we started this episode, I said that

I was worried. Um, but when you realize like the potential that it has when you start like

thinking out of the box, when you start thinking of like creative ways to use the tool and

that you start realizing all these wonderful ways that it can actually improve your life.

Um, you know, whether that means like, I'm, you know, we spoke about bodacious like throughout

this episode and I was like, oh, cool. Tell me, I asked ChatGPT while, uh, we were talking,

I asked ChatGPT to, you know, tell me some songs, Recommend some songs with the word,

with the lyrics, you, you know, (Ooh) sorry, with the lyric bodacious. And I found some

really cool ones from the eighties and even more recent ones. So I look forward to listening

to that later. So it's, I don't know, I think there's just so many ways that you can improve.

" Some learners have gotta check that out for

sure. You definitely should. (Bodacious songs.)

Bodacious songs, you know. That's a great, another great use. I, I hadn't

thought about that, but, uh, you actually like, learn a new word. It's like, you know,

tell me a song where I can, that, that has thisword or this expression or whatever. Yeah.

One interesting thing I've seen with it too is you can help it to kind of get to know

you. So you can tell ChatGPT, you know, I'm an intermediate learner. I really love playing

tennis. I love spending time outdoors, uh, I have a dog and I live in Barcelona. Such

and such, such like, whatever, whatever things you want to tell it about yourself and ask

it to give you personalized responses based on that information that has to do with you.

So if you, if you also help it to get to know you a little bit, maybe not BingAI because

it's, it's a little bit, it's a little bit crazy. It might ask you to run away with it

to, to Mexico, but, uh, but you can get creative, you can think outside the box here and, and

you can really play around with this and everything, help it get to know you because then, you

know, it'll, it'll give you really personalized responses. It'll give you TV series that have

to do with tennis or ways that you can meet to other English speakers who also share your

affinity for dogs. Whatever the case is. We have today's Big Challenge. So the Big Challenge

for this episode, we've been talking all about ChatGPT. So we wanted you to actually, you

know, put your money where your mouth is, to actually try this out. You know. share

the most interesting response. Go, go try ChatGPT or another BingAI or any of these

other AI technologies, and share the most interesting response that you get from it

down in the comments below if you're on YouTube or you can send us an email at [email protected].

We're really curious to see, and we'll share some of your responses on one of, one, on

one of our upcoming episodes. I got tongue-tied there. So, thanks so much for listening to

our rant all about AI. Hopefully you've enjoyed it. We hope that it's helpful, that it can,

you can actually use some of this advice to improve

your English. So without further ado, 1, 2, 3. Aww (Aww) (Aww) yeah. (yeah) (yeah)