The new reality of education in the face of advances in generative artificial intelligence

Abstract

It is increasingly common to interact with products that seem “intelligent”, although the label “artificial intelligence” may have been replaced by other euphemisms. Since November 2022, with the emergence of the ChatGPT tool, there has been an exponential increase in the use of artificial intelligence in all areas. Although ChatGPT is just one of many generative artificial intelligence technologies, its impact on teaching and learning processes has been significant. This article reflects on the advantages, disadvantages, potentials, limits, and challenges of generative artificial intelligence technologies in education to avoid the biases inherent in extremist positions. To this end, we conducted a systematic review of both the tools and the scientific production that have emerged in the six months since the appearance of ChatGPT. Generative artificial intelligence is extremely powerful and improving at an accelerated pace, but it is based on large language models with a probabilistic basis, which means that they have no capacity for reasoning or comprehension and are therefore susceptible to containing errors that need to be contrasted. On the other hand, many of the problems associated with these technologies in educational contexts already existed before their appearance, but now, due to their power, we cannot ignore them, and we must assume what our speed of response will be to analyse and incorporate these tools into our teaching practice.