WN #9

Custom GPTs

OpenAI (creators of ChatGPT) held their first developer conference on Monday and had plenty of exciting news to share. Of course, most of it was geared towards developers, and I do not write a newsletter for developers. 

Or do I?

Don’t worry, this newsletter is still geared towards educators, but the most exciting news to come out of OpenAI’s developer conference is that you, too, can be a developer. Not by going back to school, not by taking an online course, not by sacrificing your nights and weekends digging into the fundamentals of coding. OpenAI’s new release means that you can be a developer, like, tomorrow (or by the end of this section if you really want to be aggressive with it). Congratulations!

I’m talking about OpenAI’s newest release for ChatGPT, “Create a GPT.” This new feature allows anyone with a ChatGPT Plus or Enterprise subscription to easily create their own custom chatbots to use and share with others. Note: I realize not everyone is forking over $20/month for a ChatGPT Plus account, but this is more about demonstrating what is possible with AI, because availability and access to new features evolves rapidly in this space, and what is “premium” today may not be tomorrow.

Here is what you can do with “Create a GPT,” and it requires no special skills to get started other than being able to converse in plain English (or another language):

• Give your “GPT” a set of custom instructions to follow. Maybe you want it to focus on a specific task, follow a specific process, or respond with a specific style or tone. You don’t need to be able to write an elaborate prompt, just converse with the “GPT Builder” bot and it will write the instructions for you based on your preferences. You can also manually edit the instructions at any time.

• Upload any additional knowledge you’d like your GPT to have. Maybe it’s a copy of your syllabus, or a data set, or a PDF of an instruction manual.

• Give it capabilities such as the ability to search the web, generate images, or read and analyze files. There is even an option to allow it to connect to 3rd party apps and services.

• Generate a name and image for your GPT to give it an identity.

• Test your GPT right in the builder interface, and refine as needed.

• Share your GPT with others if desired. OpenAI has also mentioned that it will be creating a “GPT Store” where you can browse and access other user-created GPTs.

Once created or accessed, custom GPTs show up in the sidebar right above your chat history, so you can easily pick and choose which one you want to interact with. Of course, custom GPTs come with the same cautions as ChatGPT and other generative AI. Watch out for hallucinations and bias, and be careful not to input anything that should remain private (though creators do get some control over how data is used).

What’s exciting about this development is that custom GPTs put even more power into the hands of educators. OpenAI provides the platform, you design the experience. You could create a custom GPT for your classroom, or a custom GPT that you share with your department to help design and create resources in a specific way. You could deploy a custom GPT that students can use for feedback tailored to your specific style, or even a GPT that allows users to chat with the school mascot. Eventually, you could even let students create their own GPTs. The possibilities are endless, and I’m excited to see what people are able to come up with!

If you want to go more in-depth into custom GPTs, I highly suggest checking out professor Ethan Mollick’s post on Substack. He has become one of the leaders in the field of AI in education, and does a deep dive on a specific topic each week.

If you want to play around with the idea of custom GPTs in the free version of ChatGPT, I’ve explained a crude workaround in “The Lab” section below.

Using Image Generation in the Classroom

AI image generators are becoming increasingly popular and accessible, giving users the ability to instantly create images in a variety of styles based solely on text prompts. These tools present a wealth of new opportunities for educators and students, from content creation to discussions on ethics and risks. If you are interested in how you can use AI image generation in an educational context, this post details several practical strategies.

Prioritizing Media Literacy for All

What do Delaware, New Jersey, and Texas all have in common? They are the only 3 states that require media literacy be taught to all K-12 students. With the proliferation of various types of media, and the misinformation and bias that come with it, this number seems absurdly low. In the age of AI, getting that number to 50 seems more essential than ever.

Biden’s Executive Order on AI

President Joe Biden signed a sweeping executive order last week in an attempt to ensure responsible use and development of AI across the public and private sectors. Here is what it could mean for schools, including an effort to protect against AI-enabled discrimination.

📌 Updated AI Chatbot Chart

I’ve updated the Generative AI Chatbot Chart that I included in my first newsletter to reflect changes and updates that have occurred in the past couple of months. The chart offers a side-by-side comparison of some of the more popular AI chatbots, which each have their own strengths and limitations. All of the chatbots listed are free to access, with “$$” denoting a paid feature (click to enlarge).

📌 Free AI Literacy Lessons

Commonsense.org has a series of free “grab-and-go” lessons on AI literacy for grades 6-12. The lessons are designed to take 15-20 minutes each and cover topics such as how AI is trained and understanding AI bias.

📌 Now Posting to IG

In addition to this newsletter, I post about AI in education to a following of 500+ educators on X (formerly Twitter) several times a week (@AI4Educators). Now I’m posting to Instagram as well! If you are on there give me a follow (@generaition_edu)!

Custom GPTs (Free Version Workaround)

If you want to play around with custom AI chatbots on the free version of ChatGPT, there is a crude workaround. Open up “Custom Instructions” in your settings, and in the box labeled “How would you like ChatGPT to respond?” type out a series of hotkeys that cue ChatGPT to respond in different ways. Then just enter the hotkey in your conversation to activate each version as desired. This method isn’t nearly as cool as the custom GPTs on the paid version, but it’s a step in that direction.

Using Claude to Customize PDFs

Claude is a free AI chatbot that rivals ChatGPT. I like using Claude for its ability to read and work with PDFs. In this example, I’ve uploaded a simple worksheet on types of conflict and had it re-write all of the scenarios to better resonate with teenagers in Los Angeles.

• The Beatles released a new song. Yes, those Beatles, with, yes, that John Lennon. Here’s a video on how they used AI to make it happen.

• A 21-year-old computer science student used AI to read text from an unopened, 2,000-year-old ancient Roman scroll.

• Some artists are fighting back against AI image generators that train on artists’ work. Their method? “Poisoning” the training data.

• Stanford professor and Google Brain founder Andrew Ng believes the AI extinction threat is being played up by big tech in order to increase regulation and stifle competition.

That’s all for this week! If you appreciate the content in this newsletter, consider subscribing for free, or sharing with people in your network who may find value in it.