At last week’s GSV Emeritus India Summit—one of the country’s largest in the edtech space—global educator Mike Malefakis said that 2023 is the year of ChatGPT, and this is just the beginning. “Speaking of trends and not venturing into ChatGPT is almost impossible in 2023,” he told FE. “If 2022 was the year of the metaverse and how it impacted learning, 2023 belongs to ChatGPT. It might become passe (or a norm) soon, but there is no escaping the impact of this innovation for now.”
ChatGPT is a chatbot that uses artificial intelligence to interact with humans in a very natural way. While there a raging debate globally on whether or not ChatGPT will put people out of work, as also its impact on education, Malefakis (who is the president of University Partners at Emeritus) said he is optimistic about this technology. “We don’t need to be afraid of technologies like ChatGPT, but instead have to harness these to our advantage,” he said.
He also predicted we are only looking at the tip of the iceberg when it comes to hyper-accelerated improvements in artificial intelligence. “The tools of the future will get faster, better and smarter,” he said. “Some of the smartest people in the world are already using technologies such as ChatGPT to become more effective. As executives and learners, too, should embrace and use it productively.”
The three-day summit concluded that immersive tech and augmented reality will change the edtech landscape, the fundamental challenge for edtech in India is creating different models to penetrate tier-2 and tier-3 markets, a lifelong learning mindset is essential if professionals want to be future-ready, we need more women in decision-making roles for them to lead innovation, and the ultimate goal of learning is employability.