Artificial intelligence (AI) services like ChatGPT are gaining popularity for a wide range of applications, from recipe suggestions to blog post creation. A recent study found that they can also be a powerful tool to help people improve their writing skills, reports PCMag.
In a study published this week in the journal Science, two researchers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) studied whether ChatGPT could be used to bridge the employee writing skills gap. The researchers recruited 453 data analysts, marketers and professionals with higher education and gave them two different writing tasks related to their work, such as writing a press release or short reports.
For the second task, half of the participants were given the opportunity to use ChatGPT as a writing aid. The completed work was then rated by other professionals in the same field on a scale from one to seven, with seven being the highest score.
The results showed that participants who used ChatGPT outperformed those who did not. ChatGPT users took 40% less time to complete a task and their work received 18% higher grades compared to those who did not use the AI tool.
However, the researchers caution that while ChatGPT is a powerful tool, it is also prone to errors. Therefore, users need to check AI-generated content for accuracy.
However, the study found that employees who used ChatGPT during the experiment were more likely to use the tool in their future work. Specifically, workers who were working with ChatGPT during the experiment were twice as likely to report using it in their actual work two weeks after the experiment, and 1.6 times more likely to report using it in their actual work two weeks after the experiment.