Asia University Hosted the Forum on “ChatGPT Application in Higher Education and Industrial Development”

  • 2023-03-15

Asia University hosted the forum on " ChatGPT Applicaiton in Higher Education and Industrial Developments" on March 13th, 2023. It is the first large-scale and international ChatGPT forum in Taiwan. Prof. Changhai Tsai, founder of Asia University, and Prof. Jeffrey J.P. Tsai, president of Asia University, invited many renowned and influential scholars and CEOs from the industry to attend the conference, including Chair Prof. Edward Y. Chang from Stanford University, President Yen Li Tsai of National Chengchi University, former Councilor or Minister without Portfolio Dr. Yau Hwang Kuo, former Councilor of Science and Technology of the Executive Yuan, and many others. Over 1,000 participants from different backgrounds and nationalities attended this event.

President Tsai pointed out that it is foreseeable that ChatGPT will lead to a major change in teaching and learning as well as research in the higher education and industry as well.

In his opening speech President Tsai quoted Bill Gates saying that the emergence and development of ChatGPT will have a significant impact on humankind. The CEO of Nvidia, Jensen Huang, for example, called ChatGPT "the iPhone moment in the AI world." It can be expected that a new and significant industrial revolution is coming. ChatGPT has generated over 100 million users in a short time, with millions of people using it daily. The impact of ChatGPT on higher education and industry is in progress and the trend is irreversible. It may create new professions, such as prompt engineers, and, consequently, many industries will also face great challenges and crises.

President Tsai also noted that Microsoft has already integrated robots with ChatGPT, and Amazon predicts and expects that the number of robot workers will surpass human workers by 2030. Therefore, the future will be a society of coexistence and collaboration between humans and machines. Yet ChatGPT is neither infallible nor invincible. Although its language performance is impressive, it is still relatively unsatisfactory in its logical thinking. Moreover, it obviously cannot show real human emotions or achieve creative thinking. President Tsai added that although some universities across the world decided to forbid students from using ChatGPT, he believes that the trend cannot be stopped. To prepare students for the potential important changes in the industry, AU has developed teaching and peer counseling strategies as well as the guidelines for the proper use of ChatGPT. He further emphasized, "People who use AI well won't be replaced by AI.

Chair Professor Kuan Tsae Huang said Asia University can play a role in this wave of ChatGPT.

Stanford University's Chair Prof. Edward Y. Chang spoke on "improving educational tools to teach critical reading through inquiry prompts." He said that the "Socratic dialogue method" can be included into ChatGPT courses by teachers. To avoid blaming ChatGPT for being unable to ask questions, one should consider the credibility and effectiveness of the supporting evidence and sources before asking a question.

Former Councilor Dr. Kuo shared his thoughts on "What's next for ChatGPT? Adaption and Innovation for Higher Education and Industry Development". He emphasized the rapidity of AI evolution.. He referred to generative AI as the most promising artificial intelligence technology in the future. ChatGPT has changed how content is generated, making it more efficient with lower cost and barriers to use. This gives it an advantage over "internet armies" and can potentially change how human civilization operates, leading to controversies in digital governance. He also emphasized that the younger generation must learn to work with ChatGPT, taking it as a practical knowledge repository. He analyzed the multifaceted impact of AI on society and promoted the idea of how Taiwan can become a leader in the application of AI.

The picture shows Asia University holding a forum on "2023 ChatGPT Adaptation and Innovation in Higher Education and Industrial Development". President Jeffrey J.P. Tsai, president of Asia University (Second from the left), Former political commissar Yau Hwang Kuo, former political commissar of Science and Technology of the Executive Yuan (Third from the left), Chair Professor Kuan Tsae Huang (Forth from the left) and so on, taking a group photo with participating presenters and students.

Chair Prof. Kuan Tsae Huang addressed the issue of "Commercialization, Opportunities and Challenges of ChatGPT." He reminded the audience that Taiwan must find its way and role in this wave of innovation, and that AU as an institution of higher education can create its niche in this trend.

Dean Yung Hsien Wu of the National Tsing Hua University Academic Affairs commented that in the future, teaching might involve presenting answers generated by AI. Chao-Liang Chang, Director of the National Center for High-performance Computing, said that the existing Chinese-language ChatGPT models only used a small number of traditional Chinese characters during the training process. There is still room for integrating Taiwan’s multicultural features into the future application of AI.

Professor Yun Nung Chen from National Taiwan University pointed out that ChatGPT is not intended to replace humans, but it can help us to work with great efficiency. Hen Hsen Huang, from the Information Science Institute of Academia Sinica also dwelt on the standardization of ChatGPT from a technical perspective, using the latest ChatGPT "Escape Curse" as an example.