Signal Summer 2023 Newsletter

www.alliancecom.net 9 gain new insights and perspectives. In the process, you’ll enhance your knowledge of art, music, justice, literature, philosophy, science, technology, and more. Plus, since new figures are added regularly, you’ll never run out of interesting people to engage in conversation. Character.ai Website The Character.ai website offers an even wider range of AI chatbots than the Hello History app. In addition to historical figures such as Albert Einstein, Napoleon, and Socrates, you can choose to have chatbot conversations with living figures including Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg, and Billie Eilish. You can also chat with popular anime characters or one of your favorite TV personalities. Created by two former Google researchers, Character.ai is currently in beta mode. It’s intended primarily for entertainment purposes, and the homepage clearly explains that these are tech-generated conversations and not to take anything the characters say too seriously. As a community-based site, users can create their own chatbot characters, each of which is linked back to their profile. Reasons for Popularity Although some people may be uncomfortable with AI chatbots and consider them to be a bit “creepy,” they’re growing in popularity and are clearly here to stay. Due to dramatic advancements in machine learning and other underlying technologies such as natural language processing, today’s AI chatbots are smarter, more responsive, and more useful than ever before. These chatbots enable students to talk to historical figures they’re learning about in class, translate ideas from other periods into modern English, expand the user’s knowledge on a variety of topics, and bring historical figures to life. Virtual AI Companions As AI becomes more commonplace, there are now a growing number of virtual AI companions available for online conversations. While smart assistants like Siri or Alexa are useful for carrying out simple tasks or providing basic information, virtual AI companions are designed for ongoing conversations more like what you’d have with friends in real life. Here are a few examples of virtual AI companions: Replika (https://replika.ai/) Billed as the AI companion who cares, Replika’s lofty goal is to become your close friend. Kuki (https://www.kuki.ai/) This award-winning AI brain is designed to entertain humans. SimSimi (https://simsimi.com/) Launched in 2002, SimSimi was the world’s first popular chatbot for daily conversation. In the future, AI will undoubtedly become more advanced, and chatbots of all kinds will be more convincing, more educational, and more entertaining. Schools Address Use of ChatGPT for Student Assignments One AI chatbot has been making headlines recently. It’s ChatGPT, the chatbot launched in late 2022 that’s capable of writing essays, solving science and math problems, and producing working computer code. Students are using ChatGPT to quickly complete their assignments, then turning the work in is as their own. This development has caused many educators to panic. Howwill they catch students using ChatGPT to cheat? What impact will ChatGPT have on their lesson plans and on student learning? High schools and colleges have long been wary of plagiarism, which is inevitable if students use ChatGPT for assignments. Plagiarism is a serious offense in the academic world, with some institutions threatening expulsion if students are found guilty. However, not everyone in the education community views ChatGPT as a threat. There are those who believe students and educators can benefit from ChatGPT if it’s used strategically. For example, ChatGPT can help simplify difficult passages for students with lower reading levels or learning disabilities. And since educators often don’t have enough planning time, some of them use the software to help create lesson plans and suggest edits to students’ work.

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