ChatGPT: Your Versatile AI Assistant

Reading time: approx. 10 min

After gaining a fundamental understanding of why there are different AI models, it is time to focus on one of the most well-known and widely used: ChatGPT. Developed by OpenAI, ChatGPT has revolutionized how many people interact with AI and offers a wide range of use cases that are highly relevant for you as a teacher.

What you will learn

• What ChatGPT is as a platform and which models underlie it.
• ChatGPT's primary strengths and how they can be applied in the classroom.
• Its ability to handle Swedish and generate images.
• Common pitfalls and how to avoid them.

The Basics: What is ChatGPT?

ChatGPT is a so-called large language model (LLM) developed by OpenAI. The model's primary function is to understand and generate human language in text form. It is trained on an enormous amount of text data from the internet, books and other sources, which makes it capable of having meaningful conversations, answering questions, writing different types of texts and performing a range of linguistic tasks.

Different Versions: The Models Behind ChatGPT

When you use ChatGPT you interact with an underlying AI model that OpenAI has developed. There has been rapid development here:

• GPT-3.5: This is the model that powers the free version of ChatGPT and was OpenAI's first major public success. It is fast and capable, but can sometimes be less precise or detailed than the newer versions. It is excellent for quick ideas, simpler text generation and basic questions.
• GPT-4o ("o" for "omni", meaning "all-in-one"): This is one of the most advanced models available via the paid version (ChatGPT Plus, Pro, Team, Enterprise and Edu). It is designed to be multimodal and can handle text, image, and audio as input and generate text and audio as output. GPT-4o is strong in language understanding, reasoning and creativity.
• GPT-4o mini: A smaller, faster and more cost-effective version of GPT-4o. It is more powerful than GPT-3.5 Turbo and excels in instruction following, coding and general intelligence for its size. It is often available to free users when they have reached their limit for GPT-4o, as well as for paying users. It handles both text and image input.
• GPT-4.1 mini / GPT-4.1 nano: Newer, faster and more cost-effective models that replace GPT-4o mini in the API for paying users. They are designed for everyday tasks and have a large context window of 128k tokens.
• o3 / o3-mini / o3-pro / o4-mini: These are OpenAI's "o-series models", which are specially optimized for complex, multi-step reasoning and problem-solving in areas such as coding, mathematics and science.
  • o3-mini: A cost-effective model optimized for coding, mathematics and science.
  • o3: OpenAI's most powerful reasoning model for coding, mathematics, science and visual perception.
  • o3-pro: A version of o3 with more computing power to think longer and provide more reliable answers.
  • o4-mini: A smaller reasoning model optimized for speed and cost-effectiveness, almost as powerful as o3 but cheaper, especially good at mathematics, coding and visual tasks.
• GPT-4.5 (Research Preview): This is a preview of OpenAI's latest and largest model for chat, designed to be more conversational, empathetic and helpful with improved world knowledge and ability to follow user intent. It is strong at creative writing and problem-solving, and is expected to hallucinate less. However, it lacks the step-by-step reasoning of the o-series models and is not multimodal in all aspects (e.g. no audio generation).

Strengths: What is ChatGPT Good At?

ChatGPT's versatility makes it a powerful tool in many teaching situations:

1. Text generation and reformulation: Create lesson plans, test questions, text drafts for letters or information to parents. You can also ask it to reformulate complex texts to a simpler level for students, or vice versa.
   • Practical example: Ask ChatGPT to "create five multiple-choice questions about photosynthesis for grade 7" or "reformulate the paragraph about the causes of World War II so that a student in grade 4 can understand it."
2. Idea generation and brainstorming: Get new ideas for lesson activities, project work or creative writing assignments.
   • Practical example: "Give me ten ideas for a creative writing project about climate change for high school students."
3. Summary and analysis: Generate a general checklist for text structure or grammar that students can use for self-assessment or peer response.
   • Practical example: "Create a checklist with ten points that students can use to review their own essays before submission."
4. Role-playing and dialogue exercises: Use it to simulate characters for language teaching, debates or historical scenarios.
   • Practical example: "Act as an 18th-century historian discussing the ideas of the Enlightenment with me."
5. Programming and problem-solving (at advanced level): For teachers who teach programming or need help with simpler coding, ChatGPT can be a powerful support, especially with models like GPT-4o, GPT-4.1 and the o-series models.

Swedish Language Handling and Image Generation

• Swedish: ChatGPT (both GPT-3.5, GPT-4o and the newer GPT models) is very good at Swedish. It can understand nuances, generate text with good grammar and style, and handle dialects and cultural references to some extent. You rarely need to worry about language barriers when using ChatGPT in Swedish. GPT-4o mini supports the same language scope as GPT-4o.
• Image generation: With GPT-4o ChatGPT now has built-in and improved image generation capabilities based on DALL-E. You can ask it to create images directly based on your text description. GPT-4o mini also supports image input.

Common Pitfalls and How to Avoid Them

Although ChatGPT is powerful, there are challenges to be aware of:

• Hallucinations: The AI can sometimes generate incorrect information or make up "facts" that are not true. This is a known limitation for all LLMs. GPT-4.5 is expected to hallucinate less.
  • Solution: Always double-check important information, especially facts. Also teach your students source criticism of AI-generated content.
• Limited "memory" (context window): As we discussed in the previous module, the AI has a limited memory for the conversation. In long dialogues it can "forget" earlier instructions. However, GPT-4o and GPT-4.1 mini have a context window of 128k tokens.
  • Solution: Repeat important instructions if you notice the AI losing the thread, or start a new conversation for completely new tasks.
• Generalized responses: Sometimes the answers can be too general and lack the depth or specificity you need.
  • Solution: Be specific in your prompts! Give examples, define format and role, and be clear with your expectations.

Implementation in the Classroom

• Assistant for lesson preparation: Use ChatGPT to quickly generate materials, exercises or discussion questions. This frees up time for you to focus on pedagogy.
• Support for differentiation: Ask ChatGPT to adapt texts or tasks to different reading levels or linguistic abilities.
• Creative partner for students: Encourage students to use ChatGPT for brainstorming, getting feedback on drafts (but not to write the entire work), or to explore complex topics through dialogue.

Next Steps

Now that you have a good overview of ChatGPT and its different underlying models, the next module will dive deeper into Microsoft Copilot. We will explore how Copilot is integrated with Microsoft 365 and how it can streamline your administrative burden and your work with digital documents directly in the tools you already use.