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# Learning with ChatGPT
- URL: https://balaustine.mymagic.page/learning-with-chatgpt/
- Published: 2025-02-07T10:29:28.000Z
- Updated: 2025-02-07T10:29:28.000Z
- Author: VM
- Tags: Scicomm, annealing, artificial intelligence, autonomous learning, bipolar junction transistors, ChatGPT, OpenAI, quenching, Weierstrass function, #Migrated-1787484114599, #wp, #wp-post, #Import 2026-08-23 11:22

I have access to the premium version of ChatGPT, and every day I ask it a few questions about concepts in physics that I’d like to know more about. Yesterday, for example, I learnt the difference between quenching and annealing and later about the [Weierstrass function](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weierstrass%5Ffunction?ref=balaustine.mymagic.page), which it was also able to plot after some difficulty.

I have found using ChatGPT in this way to be a valuable learning tool, and I imagine there are already people out there who are repackaging instances of ChatGPT to be autonomous ‘teachers’ for students looking to learn something, although not one that can be a school-based learning. The only major human input is knowing what questions to ask and when. This activity can be split into two modes: one when the student asks doubts and follow-up questions and the other when the 'learning programme' determines the pace at which to introduce new concepts.

One of my jobs at *The Hindu* is to get explanatory articles for concepts in (pure) science. I recently attempted one on amplifiers, which required me to explain the working of a NPN bipolar junction transistor, a device I’d until then been happy to leave behind in my high school classroom. I turned to ChatGPT, asking for a visualisation of the transistor, and it obliged. I’m a visual learner and having access to the tool made a big difference.

I have a background in engineering plus more than a decade’s experience in spotting red flags in scientific papers, and I imagine anyone with these skills will have an easier time navigating ChatGPT’s answers. If a school education can bring a person to this point, ChatGPT can be a valuable guide for the time after. All we need is a guarantee from OpenAI that the tool doesn’t hallucinate or that it hallucinates in specific contexts, and definitely not above a certain rate.