Yes, you could be using ChatGPT for learning new skills instead of writing content Google doesn’t want.
Unless you’ve been hiding under a rock for a few years, you’ve almost certainly heard of or used an AI tool. However, regardless of whether you work in SEO or not, have you been using ChatGPT for learning new skills?
You might not realise it, but there are dedicated channels on ChatGPT. They’re called, somewhat un-creatively, GPT’s.
Choose your GPT
There are a lot of GPT’s. One of them will help you craft your CV, whereas another will help you create a brand logo, and another wants your birth information to generate an Astrology Birth Chart (if that’s your kind of thing).
However, I’ve mentioned this to a several people and realised how few know a great deal about what they can get from ChatGPT. Most people tend to have limited their use of it to generating an agenda, or asking it to write about something.
But please don’t ask it to write content and copy and paste it
Oh, and before anyone asks, no you shouldn’t be using it to create your latest blog post for SEO purposes. Please don’t. Perhaps I’ll explain why in another blog, although I doubt will due to the thousands of existing articles telling you why this is digital blasphemy.
There is one particular area that I feel is vastly under-estimated in terms of what it can do for people.
Learning and development
There are countless GPT’s centred on learning and development. This could be professional development or of a more generic nature. Whatever your fancy, there is every chance you’ll find a GPT focused on teaching you a new skill, improving an existing talent or helping you understand a tricky topic.
There’ll be a GPT for you
I don’t have the time to write about them all, but there is one that I found of particular interest – coding. I have been coding (admittedly I call it programming, as I began back in the 1980’s) for 40 years and I absolutely adore it. If there is something I can lose myself in, getting completely zoned out and finding it incredibly satisfying, it is coding.
I began with MS Basic, moved on to something called Assembler and have since coded in Forth, ALGOL, Pascal, C (and any variation since), COBOL, dBase, Fortran, JavaScript, CSS, HTML, the list goes on and on.
Another language I’ve used extensively is Python. For any non-tech people reading this, it is a coding language frequently used in SEO, or at least by those deep into SEO, for a variety of purposes. I won’t go into the primary uses because they’re intently boring if you’re not “into” the sector, but the use of Python often centres around extracting and manipulating data.
There are several Python learning tools on ChatGPT and some of them are rather impressive. I often find that if you understand a topic, you can struggle to take yourself back to the early days of learning it. However, there are enough insights on GPT’s about Python for me to quickly realise how easy they make the process of learning for those with no prior experience of it.
Learning a new skill
That got me thinking, if a GPT impressed me in respect of something I know a lot about, what could I learn that I know absolutely nothing or very little about?
Time to start my education
There is a section of GPT’s dedicated to the category of Education. I dipped into that area and decided to opt for Physics. I’ll be honest, I know basic physics reasonably well. I’ve always had an interest in astronomy, and that brings all manner of physics-related topics under scrutiny. However, I didn’t fancy learning about Law, and the prospect of doing any Maths learning took me straight back to school and I didn’t want to go there.
It presented me with this:
The initial welcome text didn’t fill me full of enthusiasm, I’m not one for things such as “young scribe!” (not to mention the fact that I’m not young), but I persisted and gave it a chance. I asked it a relatively simple question:
In-depth answers and impressive features
What followed was two screens (that I wasn’t able to take a screenshot of) of a quite fantastic summary of the types of energy generation. It was a brilliant collection of paragraphs that eloquently, and simply, presented 4 basic forms of energy and gave details on how they were generated. The GPT then presented me with an even larger section about what it called “The ultimate energy source – The Sun” (which naturally got my attention even more because of the previously mentioned interest in astronomy).
It then gave a lovely little example about energy:
None of this is what I found to be the most impressive feature. No, that was when it ended the section by asking me a question. Yes, the educational GPT’s appear to make a point of testing you. I love this. How many times do you read something, or glance through it, on the web and then immediately forget it? I sometimes wonder how much information we retain online, despite the vast amount of knowledge at our fingertips.
This is what it asked me:
It wasn’t going to let me off lightly
I answered the question correctly and it followed it up with another, more testing, question. However, this time it asked me to explain my reasoning when I answered!
Anxious about my answer
Before and during the typing of my answer, I hesitated and retyped some of the reasons I hadn’t chosen the sun or wind, wondering if the GPT might misconstrue my mentioning of them as being a suggestion that I thought they were correct, but I needn’t have worried. I responded with this:
The GPT responded with the below:
The explanations it gave, for both my correct and the incorrect answers, are concise and easy to understand. It then tells me that my “Elo” has risen. This is some kind of learning score, which to be blunt I’m not interested in, but may be useful for those wanting to deploy a GPT for more formal, perhaps corporate, development purposes.
The GPT knows how to ramp difficulty up
However, it doesn’t stop there. It then wanted to test me again, with this:
You’ll notice the small set of icons at the lower portion of the above screenshot. The first allows the user to have the question (or answer) read out. I see this as essential in any learning environment, because we all learn best in different ways. I also view it as important with any computer-based learning because you can become tired with reading on-screen all the time.
Now, the question it is asking me is once again testing my knowledge about the first delivery of explanations it gave me about energy (in the multiple screens of information I didn’t get a screen of), so it is being thorough in checking my retention of the knowledge and not letting me off lightly.
I replied with this:
I won’t show you the very lengthy explanation it gave for my correct answer (and the incorrect answers) again, but it went straight back into testing mode with this question fired at me:
Finding the limitations of a GPT
At this stage, I wanted to see how it handled incorrect answers. One of the skills of any teacher is how they address the needs of those that don’t understand a subject the first time. I typed my answer and this is what ChatGPT responded with:
See, I deliberately used a personal, free, ChatGPT account for this exercise. I think it is only right to show the true limitations of some services, but I also suspect you’ve been reasonably impressed with what it had offered me so far.
How much would it cost?
If you click on the Get Plus button, you get shown the subscription model:
For $20 a month, you’d get the additional features and access shown. That converts to approximately £15 a month today. However, look at the last feature it mentions more closely:
Yes, you can create your own GPTs. That would be rather cool and might be something you’d consider doing, although you should note this is for a Personal account. There are different subscription tariffs for businesses:
Comparing it to other learning platforms
$25 (£19) per user for a business, on a minimum 2-user plan, might put some off, but it doesn’t compare too badly with other learning platforms (such as LinkedIn Learning) when you consider the power of ChatGPT, and you could also use the creation of GPTs for your own Learning & Development tool creation, saving money on other resources you might otherwise pay for.
I know how it handles incorrect answers anyway – quite superbly. It takes you back to the principles it previously explained, but does so with more simplicity and more examples.
Are GPTs really that good?
The opportunity to learn on ChatGPT, via GPTs, is remarkable. If you view it as nothing more than dedicated GPTs to a subject, that is underestimating the real value of what you get. It is a true learning and development platform because of the way it tests you and explains, in more depth, when you’ve made a mistake.
Furthermore, with AI being able to ask for and interpret your reasoning, it is far better than any traditional online learning platform I have come across. It really does understand what you are saying, and gives an astonishingly good response as a result.
It is the combination of AI and traditional teaching and testing methods that makes it so powerful, so unbelievably full of potential.
Give it a try. Choose a GPT that interests you and you’ll see what I mean about the interactive understanding it possesses, not just of a subject, but of teaching.
Have you used a GPT for learning?
If you’ve any comments, feedback, or if you’ve tried GPTs (perhaps you’re an avid fan of them?), I’d love to hear them below.
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