On my last day of visiting Japan, I floated alone, floating on the hot spring roofs of some skyscrapers, praying that no one would join me. Over the past few months, I have been using Chatgpt's advanced voice mode as an AI language tutor, which is part of the test to judge the potential of generating AI as a learning tool and travel companion. People who talk too much with strangers and chatbots on their phones are inspired and exhausted. I'm ready to turn off my Yapper for a minute and enjoy the silence.
When Openai launched Chatgpt in late 2022, it sparked a competition for AI and public interest. Two years later, many are still uncertain whether it is useful in daily life outside of work.
Video from Openai in May 2024 shows two researchers chatting back and forth, one in English and the other in Spanish, and Chatgpt acts as a low-level interpreter, which is trapped in my memory. I wonder how advanced voice mode might be practical, how to learn how to speak a new language bit, and whether this is worth the application for travelers.
To better understand how AI voice tools can change the future of language learning, I spent a month practicing Japanese using the Chatgpt smartphone app before my first trip to Tokyo. I have zero working knowledge about languages besides watching anime. In conversation sessions with advanced voice modes, which usually last about 30 minutes, I often use it as my synthesis, mobile language tutor, practicing basic travel phrases for navigational transportation, restaurants and retail stores.
On my last trip, I used Duolingo, a smartphone app with language learning quizzes and games to refresh my Spanish. I'm curious about how Chatgpt compares. I often test new AI tools to understand their benefits and limitations, and I'm eager to see if this language learning approach might be a killer feature that makes these tools more appealing to more people.
Jackie Shannon, the Openai product leader for Intermodal AI and Chatgpt, claims to use chatbots to practice Spanish vocabulary while driving to the office. She advises beginners like me to use it first to learn phrases - more knowledgeable learners can try free flowing conversations using AI tools right away. “I think they should go straight into the conversation,” she said. “Like, ‘Help me have a conversation about the news on X.’ Or, “Help me practice ordering dinner. ””
So I made useful travel phrases with Chatgpt and showed role-playing scenes like pretending to order and chat in Izakaya restaurant. In the first two weeks, nothing really got stuck and I started to feel nervous, but around the third week I started to feel loose about some of the key phrases of travelers in Japan, my interactions with another language coming Anxiety is significant.
Chatgpt does not have to take into account language acquisition. "It's a tool with a variety of different use cases that has not been optimized for language learning or translation," Shannon said. The universal nature of the default settings of chatbots initially leads to the frustrating blandness of interactions, but after some interactions The interaction, Chatgpt's memory function quickly captured the practice of traveling in Japan and wanted to speak.