I ask an artificial intelligence questions about language learning (GPT-3)

General discussion about learning languages
garyb
Black Belt - 1st Dan
Posts: 1573
Joined: Mon Jul 20, 2015 12:35 pm
Location: Scotland
Languages: Native: English
Advanced: Italian, French
Intermediate: Spanish
Beginner: German, Japanese
Language Log: viewtopic.php?f=15&t=1855
x 5996
Contact:

Re: I ask an artificial intelligence questions about language learning (GPT-3)

Postby garyb » Sun Aug 21, 2022 10:00 am

I thought that the response to "Write a marketing campaign highlighting the value of the site language-learners.org." was the most telling of its current limitations: the text was less about what the site is and more about what it looks like, as if a person had taken a five-second glance at the site and written about what they think it is based on key words in the title and navigation menu. Which is nonetheless still impressive, and it will no doubt only improve with time.
4 x

User avatar
luke
Brown Belt
Posts: 1243
Joined: Fri Aug 07, 2015 9:09 pm
Languages: English (N). Spanish (intermediate), Esperanto (B1), French (intermediate but rusting)
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... 15&t=16948
x 3631

Re: I ask an artificial intelligence questions about language learning (GPT-3)

Postby luke » Sun Aug 21, 2022 12:49 pm

The answers and the critiques of those answers are very interesting.

I'm curious what it might say to a question like:

For whom and when is extensive reading a better strategy than intensive reading with respect to foreign language learning?
1 x
: 124 / 124 Cien años de soledad 20x
: 5479 / 5500 5500 pages - Reading
: 51 / 55 FSI Basic Spanish 3x
: 309 / 506 Camino a Macondo

User avatar
rdearman
Site Admin
Posts: 7231
Joined: Thu May 14, 2015 4:18 pm
Location: United Kingdom
Languages: English (N)
Language Log: viewtopic.php?f=15&t=1836
x 23128
Contact:

Re: I ask an artificial intelligence questions about language learning (GPT-3)

Postby rdearman » Sun Aug 21, 2022 3:20 pm

luke wrote:The answers and the critiques of those answers are very interesting.

I'm curious what it might say to a question like:

For whom and when is extensive reading a better strategy than intensive reading with respect to foreign language learning?


OpenAI wrote:There is no definitive answer to this question as it depends on the individual learner's needs and preferences. However, in general, extensive reading is considered to be a better strategy than intensive reading for foreign language learners who are interested in developing their overall fluency and comprehension skills, rather than focused on mastering specific grammar points or vocabulary items. Additionally, extensive reading is typically more enjoyable and motivating for learners than intensive reading, and can therefore help to keep them engaged in the language learning process.
6 x
: 0 / 150 Read 150 books in 2024

My YouTube Channel
The Autodidactic Podcast
My Author's Newsletter

I post on this forum with mobile devices, so excuse short msgs and typos.

s_allard
Blue Belt
Posts: 969
Joined: Sat Jul 25, 2015 3:01 pm
Location: Canada
Languages: French (N), English (N), Spanish (C2 Cert.), German (B2 Cert)
x 2305

Re: I ask an artificial intelligence questions about language learning (GPT-3)

Postby s_allard » Mon Aug 22, 2022 12:53 pm

The results are very impressive indeed but one must wonder what does this have to do with language learning for us non-AI humans. Well actually I think there is more to this than meets the eye. There are two points I would like to highlight.

The first is the importance of impeccable syntax. One of the reasons these results look so good is the very good syntax smoothing algorithm. I may be wrong but I found only one grammatical error: “The Ring can tempting them with power, and seducing them with its promises. So, in a sense it’s basically perfect English. Thus the texts are all perfectly believable.

This is very important especially in written language evaluations such as the CEFR tests. Mistakes are noticed and will cause one to lose points. No mistakes, no points lost.

In speaking, things are a bit more complex because of other factors but excellent grammar is very paramount.

The other point is the quality of the results, i.e. how well do they respond to the prompts. Given that all the texts are perfectly believable, the question becomes one of interpretation of the results by the user and is certainly open to debate.

There are a number of major mistakes of content in spite of the impeccable form. Ryanheise pointed out such a mistake in the language exchange text. I would question some other aspects myself, such as the point number 1: Find a partner. I would have written something like Finding the right partner and included other details.

As garyb pointed out the text of the marketing campaign of our site is not a marketing campaign at all. It’s a kind of welcome message to the site, albeit with a number of inaccuracies.

I find that these kinds of programs, including the translators like Google Translate or Deepl and even the autocomplete function on my cell phone, are wonderful because they do most of the grunt work in language processing. This freezes up the human for the more interesting and creative stuff.
1 x

Cainntear
Black Belt - 3rd Dan
Posts: 3472
Joined: Thu Jul 30, 2015 11:04 am
Location: Scotland
Languages: English(N)
Advanced: French,Spanish, Scottish Gaelic
Intermediate: Italian, Catalan, Corsican
Basic: Welsh
Dabbling: Polish, Russian etc
x 8671
Contact:

Re: I ask an artificial intelligence questions about language learning (GPT-3)

Postby Cainntear » Mon Aug 22, 2022 2:15 pm

s_allard wrote:The results are very impressive indeed but one must wonder what does this have to do with language learning for us non-AI humans.

I think the biggest thing is that the web is slowly devolving into a mush of non-original content -- there's already entire sites built using "text spinners" (i.e. professional plagiarism software) and these AI models are capable of producing content that is superficially superior to "spun" texts, but are likely to be less discriminating and less consistent in their advice, as at least "spun" text (usually) starts with a human-written original.

Language-learning sites are a reasonably good target for click-friendly, low-cost content, because it brings in a clear audience demographic. That makes it easier to get in advertisers, and most of the online packages have affiliate schemes, so even if you get cut off by the big ad brokers (Google, Facebook etc) you can still monetise through your own ad links.
1 x

User avatar
rdearman
Site Admin
Posts: 7231
Joined: Thu May 14, 2015 4:18 pm
Location: United Kingdom
Languages: English (N)
Language Log: viewtopic.php?f=15&t=1836
x 23128
Contact:

Re: I ask an artificial intelligence questions about language learning (GPT-3)

Postby rdearman » Mon Aug 22, 2022 2:25 pm

Cainntear wrote:I think the biggest thing is that the web is slowly devolving into a mush of non-original content -- there's already entire sites built using "text spinners" (i.e. professional plagiarism software) and these AI models are capable of producing content that is superficially superior to "spun" texts, but are likely to be less discriminating and less consistent in their advice, as at least "spun" text (usually) starts with a human-written original.

Language-learning sites are a reasonably good target for click-friendly, low-cost content, because it brings in a clear audience demographic. That makes it easier to get in advertisers, and most of the online packages have affiliate schemes, so even if you get cut off by the big ad brokers (Google, Facebook etc) you can still monetise through your own ad links.


So a future where the forum-bots are talking to text-spinner-bots who make websites which are attacked by spammer-bots, and deep-fake bots are doing zoom calls with team-viwer-bots and creating chat-bots for text-spinner-bot sites.... while the lonely humans once again refuse to speak to or do business with anyone they cannot physically touch. So local bank branches start to reopen, pubs reopen, cafes and diners reopen because it is the only way to be sure your not dealing with a scam-bot.

Doesn't sound all that bad. :mrgreen:
5 x
: 0 / 150 Read 150 books in 2024

My YouTube Channel
The Autodidactic Podcast
My Author's Newsletter

I post on this forum with mobile devices, so excuse short msgs and typos.

Cainntear
Black Belt - 3rd Dan
Posts: 3472
Joined: Thu Jul 30, 2015 11:04 am
Location: Scotland
Languages: English(N)
Advanced: French,Spanish, Scottish Gaelic
Intermediate: Italian, Catalan, Corsican
Basic: Welsh
Dabbling: Polish, Russian etc
x 8671
Contact:

Re: I ask an artificial intelligence questions about language learning (GPT-3)

Postby Cainntear » Mon Aug 22, 2022 2:50 pm

rdearman wrote: So local bank branches start to reopen, pubs reopen, cafes and diners reopen because it is the only way to be sure your not dealing with a scam-bot.

The realistic androids are coming to burst your bubble.
2 x

User avatar
SpanishInput
Yellow Belt
Posts: 97
Joined: Sun Sep 26, 2021 3:11 pm
Location: Ecuador
Languages: Spanish (N), English (C2), Mandarin (HSK 5)
x 469

Re: I ask an artificial intelligence questions about language learning (GPT-3)

Postby SpanishInput » Tue Aug 23, 2022 1:18 am

The examples above mean in the near future it will be even more difficult to find real information.

Also, why does AI seem so smart in these tests, but so stupid in my Home Pod?
0 x

Cainntear
Black Belt - 3rd Dan
Posts: 3472
Joined: Thu Jul 30, 2015 11:04 am
Location: Scotland
Languages: English(N)
Advanced: French,Spanish, Scottish Gaelic
Intermediate: Italian, Catalan, Corsican
Basic: Welsh
Dabbling: Polish, Russian etc
x 8671
Contact:

Re: I ask an artificial intelligence questions about language learning (GPT-3)

Postby Cainntear » Tue Aug 23, 2022 11:48 am

SpanishInput wrote:The examples above mean in the near future it will be even more difficult to find real information.

Also, why does AI seem so smart in these tests, but so stupid in my Home Pod?

That's just a function of the amount of compute power thrown at the task. If Siri ran on GPT-3, we'd be burning so much energy that global warming would be noticeable from one day to the next...
2 x

Kraut
Black Belt - 2nd Dan
Posts: 2601
Joined: Mon Aug 07, 2017 10:37 pm
Languages: German (N)
French (C)
English (C)
Spanish (A2)
Lithuanian
x 3204

Re: I ask an artificial intelligence questions about language learning (GPT-3)

Postby Kraut » Fri Nov 18, 2022 10:50 pm

Artificial intelligence in foreign language learning


How AI software is making its way into language learning

https://www.goethe.de/en/spr/spr/24202694.html

Sensible use in teaching
How can teachers use AI tools constructively and raise awareness of the need for responsible use of technology? One way is to actually work on machine-translated and -generated texts in class in order to heighten metalinguistic awareness among learners and show them the software’s limitations.

In machine translation even from languages like English and Spanish, the programs have a hard time with genders as well as omitted personal pronouns, so there’s plenty of room for error. Machines also often have trouble translating metaphors and allegories whose wording is worlds apart from their actual meaning. And they don’t always strike the right note in terms of context, addressee and linguistic register. Having learners fix semantic, grammatical and stylistic errors and irregularities in a machine-translated text can heighten this awareness.

This is also a good way to work AI text generators into language teaching. Once again, text generators don’t know anything about the world, they merely generate word sequences based on statistical data, so the output doesn’t always come up to expectations. For example, although text generators can readily spit out a fantasy story with a specified plot, they have a much harder time writing non-fiction about specialized technical subject-matter. They’re also prone to the same stylistic errors as machine translators. So one way to work with machine-generated texts in the classroom is to have learners revise them in various ways – whether to adjust them to a certain register or reader, or to meet certain requirements as to content in non-fiction writing.

You can also use text generators to prepare for class. To introduce new vocabulary, for example, you can give the algorithm a certain topic or theme and some words to be included in the output, and the algorithm will come up with a text showing how to use the new words in a sentence.
1 x


Return to “General Language Discussion”

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: BeaP and 2 guests