What key terms should I know within artificial intelligence (AI) discourse?

Artificial Intelligence (AI)

Artificial Intelligence, often referred to as AI, encompasses computational systems created to imitate human behaviors and cognitive processes. In essence, computer scientists strive to design AI that can augment or replicate specific human cognitive functions, such as problem solving, experiential learning, pattern recognition, and decision making.

Generative AI (GenAI)

Generative AI is a branch of artificial intelligence trained on vast datasets (text, images, audio, code, etc.) in order to generate contextually relevant outputs. ChatGPT is a well-known formation of GenAI designed to generate human-like language in response to a prompt; in fact, the “G” in ChatGPT stands for “generative” to reflect this nature. However, GenAI covers a great variety of generators, such as image generators like Midjourney and DALL-E 2, or voice generators like Eleven Labs. Amid these various formations, ChatGPT belongs to a specific subcategory of GenAI called Large Language Models.

Large Language Models (LLMs)

Large Language Models are a specific subset of GenAI designed to process and generate human language. These models, trained on extensive textual data, can understand, generate, and manipulate text in ways that resemble human communication. LLMs include popular chatbots like OpenAI’s ChatGPT, Microsoft’s Bing, Google’s Bard, and more.

What do I need to know about evaluation as a skill before I begin this tutorial?

A Brief Overview

Evaluation is a skill used in every facet of life, whether you are assessing which career-path to pursue or which cappuccino to order. Despite the ubiquity of this skill, an assignment like an evaluation essay can prompt you to consider subtle details that often go unnoticed in daily decision-making. These subtleties include aspects like developing specific assessment criteria or contemplating a text’s broader socio-historical context.  Paying attention to these subtleties within the writing process can contribute to stronger critical thinking and result in stronger essays. To achieve such a result, the following tutorial will explore three specific strategies that demonstrate how a GenAI tool like ChatGPT can assist you in mastering the art of writing an evaluation.

For further information on evaluation as a general skill and the process of writing one, see table 1.

Table 1

Open-Access Resources Related to Evaluation

What are three ways ChatGPT can support evaluation essay composition?

Developing Specific Criteria

In today’s digital landscape, the thumbs-up symbol is a universal signal for liking something, be it an Instagram post, YouTube video, or Netflix movie. However, such likes are inherently based on individual preferences—one person may like a song for its lyrics while another may like it for its melody. As a result, likability lacks the persuasive power you may need when it comes to convincing someone of your opinion on a subject. Instead, creating an effective evaluation demands critical thinking about the criteria used for assessment.

Here, ChatGPT can provide assistance with brainstorming. It can help you move from genre to sub-genre characteristics and can reframe these characteristics as guiding questions for evaluation. For instance, in the following example under Strategy in Action #1, a user collaborates with ChatGPT to develop criteria for reviewing a horror movie, showcasing this particular type of evaluation skill. In this way, ChatGPT can help you elevate an evaluation from an instinctual judgment to focused, defensible assessment.

Strategy in Action #1

View the following example prompt and response with ChatGPT focused on developing specific criteria.

If you’d like to interact directly with ChatGPT in the above conversation, access the original chat through this link^[4] and click the ‘Continue the conversation’ button in the opened dialogue window.

Maintaining a Professional, Unbiased Tone

It is human nature to possess biases. Each one of us is wrapped up in a motley quilt of experiences and beliefs that blankets the way we receive, perceive, and interpret information. Recognizing and navigating these internal biases requires concerted effort, especially when we’re aiming to maintain a professional and unbiased tone in an evaluation. Such a tone is essential for making evaluative writing more persuasive, as it adds credibility and fosters trust among readers. However, achieving an unbiased tone can be challenging due to the same factors that contribute to biases in the first place, such as preexisting beliefs, emotional attachments, and peer pressure.

As a Large Language Model (LLM), ChatGPT is specifically trained to generate language in various tones, making it an excellent resource for providing feedback on the tone of your work. By analyzing the language used in an essay, ChatGPT can offer valuable suggestions to address biased or emotional tones, helping you craft more objective and compelling writing. For example, see Strategy in Action #2 for an example where a user seeks feedback on the tone of an essay.

Strategy in Action #2

View the following example prompt and response with ChatGPT focused on maintaining a professional, unbiased tone.

If you’d like to interact directly with ChatGPT in the above conversation, access the original chat through this link^[5] and click the ‘Continue the conversation’ button in the opened dialogue window.

Check out table 2 for additional tips and suggestions related to maintaining a professional, unbiased tone.

Table 2

Tips and Suggestions: Recognize the Internal Biases of ChatGPT Too

Articulating the Socio-Historical Context of a Subject

When writing an evaluation essay, it is helpful to draw parallels to professional review writing, which is a form of evaluation often encountered in contemporary culture. Much like crafting an academic evaluation essay, a professional critic’s central task involves evaluating a subject using specific criteria. However, the critic also has an important responsibility to guide the audience in comprehending the work within a broader cultural context. For example, reviews of the popular Netflix show Bridgerton—a steamy Regency era drama—have ranged widely between praising the show for having a notably diverse cast and criticizing it for “the negative stereotyping of its Black characters.”^[8] Understanding this show against the backdrop of both the Regency era in which it is set (1811-1820) and the 21st century in which it was created helps highlight how this story is not just a period romance, but also a reflection of socio-historical attitudes around race. Consider how evaluating Lord Hastings—an abusive and absentee father—through both a past and present socio-historical lens reveals deeper layers to his portrayal; his obsession with having a suitable heir reflects the Regency-era emphasis on primogeniture^[9] while his villainous character reflects the modern-day racist stereotype of being a Black man who abandons his child.

As such, being able to articulate the cultural context of a subject can help you create a more nuanced evaluation. To this end, ChatGPT can serve as a starting point for surveying prevailing cultural norms and historical events that may have influenced the creation or reception of a subject. As an example of this use, Strategy in Action #3 demonstrates a user collaborating with ChatGPT to articulate the significance of Zoom within its socio-historical context.

Strategy in Action #3

View the following example prompt and response with ChatGPT focused on articulating the socio-historical context of a subject.

If you’d like to interact directly with ChatGPT in the above conversation, access the original chat through this link^[10] and click the ‘Continue the conversation’ button in the opened dialogue window.

Check out table 3 for additional tips and suggestions related to understanding the socio-historical context of a subject.

Table 3

Tips and Suggestions: Confirm the Accuracy of Socio-Historical Context

What’s a pitfall to avoid when collaborating with ChatGPT on an evaluation essay?

Great for Skill Support, but Not so Great at the Skill Itself

While ChatGPT can provide help with writing an evaluation essay, it’s worth noting that ChatGPT is not very skilled at evaluation itself. This deficiency stems from the inherent subjectivity often involved with most forms of evaluation. As a computer software incapable of its own opinions, ChatGPT cannot offer such subjectivity in its responses. However, within its design as a LLM, ChatGPT can perform specific evaluation tasks.

Specifically, an LLM is engineered to identify patterns in language, which enables it to respond coherently to prompts. Within this process of pattern identification, ChatGPT will conduct sentiment analysis to determine whether the words in a user’s input correlate to patterns of positive, negative, or neutral sentiments. For example, ChatGPT would likely evaluate the use of words such as “fantastic” and “top-notch” as indicators of positive sentiment, and this evaluation would enable it to respond appropriately to such positive expressions. Thus, ChatGPT does possess evaluative capabilities, albeit within narrow confines.

With such limited skills in evaluation, it’s important to know that simply feeding an assignment prompt for an evaluation essay into ChatGPT likely won’t yield helpful results. This limitation is why this tutorial aims to upskill your writing with specific strategies for utilizing ChatGPT’s strengths while avoiding its weaknesses.

Learning Outcomes for ENGL 1302: How does this tutorial apply to state standards?

This tutorial is designed to support your success in ENGL 1302 (Composition II) by aligning with the student learning outcomes established by the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board. As highlighted in Table 4 below, this tutorial directly addresses three key standards. By aligning with these specific learning outcomes, this tutorial not only provides you with skills and knowledge that transfer across diverse learning environments but also gives your education value outside your institution.

Table 4

Applicable State Learning Outcomes