Ah! Shut up! I'm listening to Zdenek's English podcast. You're listening to Zdenek's English podcast. By far the greatest English podcast on Earth for English learners since sliced bread. My name is Zdenek and I'm your host. Hello listeners, welcome back to Zdenek's English podcast. Here is another episode for you and this time I'm joined by Barbara from Hungary. Hello Barbara, how are you today? Hi, I'm good, thank you. Did I say all the introduction correctly?
You are from Hungary, you are Hungarian and your name is Barbara? Correct. And how should I pronounce the name? Is it Barbara? Like in the English way or do you say it in a different way in Hungarian? It's Barbara in the Hungarian way. It's almost the same, almost the same. So Barbara, you are an Achiever's Chamber member and that's the first thing we should mention here. And secondly, what's going to be our topic today? What do you have for us?
We are going to actually talk about the AI and about the future, how it will impact our future in 10 or let's say in 50 years. Wow, okay. Well, I think I invited the right person to do this because you work in IT, don't you? Yeah, I'm an IT support person actually. An IT support person, what exactly does that mean? Can you explain it to me? Of course. So if you have a problem with your computer, you cannot power it on, you cannot print on your printer or anything.
If anything, it's not functioning properly, then you call me and then I fix it. So it's that. You fix it. Do you have to come to my place or do you just fix it via a phone call or Skype call? I can do remote work. It depends on, of course, the problem because if it's a hardware problem, then there is a chance that I cannot do it remotely. But in a major area of the time, I can do remote fixing. So it's very efficient. But would you be able to help me with my hardware if something went wrong?
Is it part of your job description to actually go to someone's home? And I mean, I'm still imagining the good old times like 20 years ago when you had that big tower that we called the computer. You remember those times when it was a big, big tower full of hardware that you could open the thing and you saw the graphic card and all that and all the wires there and everything. So would you be able to deal with that? So actually, I have a small business, so I am not an employee.
I can go to offices and people's home if it's requested. And I can assemble a computer or fix the hardware if it's possible. But there are some cases when it's just physically not possible anymore. But I can. I do my best every time. OK, brilliant, brilliant. So today we're going to talk about technology. You mentioned AI. So how do you see the current sort of trend or the way it's going these days? What do you think? Is it going fast or is that the right sort of speed or did you predict it all?
Too many questions. Hang on. Let me slow down. I have so many questions, you know, that's why. OK. How happy are you with what's happening right now? Let's keep it simple. I think since the introduction of this public chat, things have become just too fast. And we maybe do not have the time to recognize the abilities and also. But it's happening again. I don't know why. Sometimes when you say something like some of the words just disappear. I don't know what is happening.
I have no idea myself. Is the Internet trying to kill us here? Probably. It probably recognized what we are about to do here. We are going to reveal all the secrets. Sorry, I don't know what's happening because. I don't know myself. I don't know. OK, listeners, I'm sorry about this little interruption. Barbara is still here. I'm here as well. And if you hear Barbara slightly differently, don't worry. It is still her. We haven't replaced our guest. Barbara, are you still there?
I am still here and I'm still Barbara. Yes. Perfect. Perfect. OK, so Barbara, let me ask you this question. How happy are you with the way the world is currently going with all this AI stuff? So since the publication of this Chagy Pity, things have become really fast. The motion itself and the motion of the world is faster and faster day by day. And I think on one side I am happy with it because we have so many opportunities.
We just have to recognize them. But on the other hand, it has also great disadvantages, unfortunately. But you work in IT, so someone like you, I imagine of all people, you are you are the most likely person to actually recognize those advantages. Am I right about that? Maybe I am one of them. You're one of the chosen ones. Yeah. Is that is that do you think so? Is that a blessing then? Is that like is that a huge advantage for you or does it is it a burden?
Of course, it's a huge advantage because I also do a little programming, not too complex program, but just just the basics. And if you have some issues with your code, let's say you can discuss with the Chagy Pity and you spare a lot of time because you don't have to overview like, I don't know, hundreds of lines of code. You just have to copy and paste the area and then the Chagy Pity will help you with the right synthetics as well. So, of course, it's it saves your time.
But the way it sounds, it's like you're talking about Greek. It's all Greek to me, Barbara. When I hear the word coding, I kind of switch off. But that's that's maybe now different because you just ask Chagy Pity, can you explain what coding is? And it's going to tell you that. And not only that, it's going to do it for you. And you know nothing, right? You can know absolutely nothing about it. But suddenly you can become an expert. You just need to have an open mind enough, right?
To just to just do it. Exactly. And that's that's where the problem comes when when people who did not really study anything, even the basics, can also do programs and websites with the Chagy Pity. And on the surface, it's pretty. It's I mean, the design is user friendly. It's colorful. But the back end is questionable. Is it reliable enough? Do you know where to update? Do you know when to update it? Yeah, but it's going to get more and more reliable.
I think it's going to get better and better because every version, every new version they release seems to have more and more features and seems to be more and more refined. And so I'll quickly tell you my story with Chagy Pity. When it came out, I noticed it. But of course, I started using it after people had hyped it. So I wasn't one of the first people to recognize that it had existed. I was like most most of the people, let's say.
Well, I did jump on the bandwagon a bit. I started using it here and there, but not like for everything. And then there is a next next chapter of this story when after I came back from Vietnam, I've got I've got one friend here who also works in IT and he I used to talk to him in Vietnam. He used to live in Vietnam. Now I caught up caught up with him in Prague and he started talking about Chagy Pity again to me. At first, I was like, come on, this Chagy Pity, it's going to take over your life.
I was a bit skeptical. And he was told he was telling me specifically about the way he is walking his dog and talking about different things to Chagy Pity, asking questions because he and his wife are expecting a baby. And he was asking a lot of questions about how to raise a baby, what to do. And it sounds very amusing. But at first I was like, come on, you're going absolutely nuts. But then, you know, when I came back home, I thought more and more about this.
And I realized, hang on a minute, this is something I should probably try. Yeah. So this is this is my story with Chagy Pity. I could tell you more. But I need to talk. I want to let you talk as well, because you're the guest. It's actually amazing, because even when you hear artificial intelligence and when you when you know that you have access to Chagy Pity, that is artificial intelligence, you imagine big stuff. You imagine, I don't know, like serious stuff.
But if you use it smart in a smart way, you you can actually benefit from it much more. I say I say so I wish I'm my example with you regarding this Chagy Pity. Let's go. Let's go. I am preparing for a language exam. And I've always had problems with learning the vocabulary, the words, because it's hard for me to memorize. And I always needed someone to ask me the words and then I can answer verbally. It's just the way I work. And I used Chagy Pity.
I listed the words in English and in Hungarian. I don't know, like 50 words. And then I had to teach him how to ask back properly the words, because when I provided the list and then I said, OK, now ask me back the words. And then he started listing all the words with the English and Hungarian meaning. So it did not work. And then I put my little time and my little effort and then it was all good. So he just became my virtual teacher, actually. Be careful, Barbara.
Let's hope he as you go. I'm shocked by the fact that you call Chagy Pity he as well. So I'm more I'm worried about you, Barbara. Now we heard stories about these apps where you can have a partner. You can have a partner, an AI partner. So you are teaching. This is how it starts. This is how you this is how you met. It was supposed to be about language learning. Maybe I'm becoming more attached to Chagy Pity. Be careful, because you call him and soon it will be a darling and sweetheart.
He does everything you ask him to do. Ideal husband. It's too far. It's going to be too far. Yeah, but I think people use it as an emotional support as well, because I think it can share ideas, personal ideas. And it's you have to be careful because you got the illusion that you are talking to a person. You just said I'm sorry, but you just said people use Chagy Pity as an emotional support. I thought that was the only thing you cannot use Chagy Pity for. Oh, my God.
I think it can give you advice. So, you know, why are the machine learning technique and it is learning continuously and in every field of life, it can give you advice. And it's scary. It is because so if I have a bad day, right. So I need a shoulder to cry on. Yeah, maybe. Instead of like going to my friends or family members, I'm going to just turn on Chagy Pity and say, I'm feeling depressed today. Can you make me feel better? And is he going to do that? I mean, I haven't tried.
I thought you just said that that's what that's what he does. It's not that he's sorry. No, I said that the capability of Chagy Pity and the areas that you can benefit from it, it's it's wide. The ranges it's wide. Yeah, no, you know, I've basically did what my friend had been doing in the end and I paid for the for the plus version first time ever. Yeah, I thought I would never do that because who pays for I was no, no, I was under the impression.
Yeah, I was under the impression that even the even the lower version of Chagy Pity was quite good. And it was. But then after I heard what my friend had said, I was like, OK, I'm good. I'm doing this as well. And basically, as I as I told you, he's walking the dog going through the forest talking like as if it was with a real person. So he's even outside in an amazing environment. He's asking questions like how to bring up a baby. And he's also practicing his English, he said. Right.
And I was like, oh, my God, I'm going to lose my job soon. And apparently he still it's it cannot correct your pronunciation yet. So that's what he says. So I still might have a job for a few more months and then, you know, I don't mean to scare you. And I think the way you said it, you're already. If you start as if you start, if you start a sentence by saying I don't mean to scare you, then that that that can only mean that you are about to scare me, Barbara.
So I'm already scared. I'm already scared. It's just the fact that we already have outside of Chagy Pity, virtual teachers that can detect your English level and that can correct your pronunciation. And I am not sure how I feel about this, because I think this human contact with and don't get me wrong with the teachers. It's necessary because if a machine tells you what to do, it's it's I mean. But it's not just the teachers, Barbara.
We are talking across all fields. We are talking about friendships here. We're talking about relationships. I'm serious. Like, it's not about it's not just about that, because with a teacher, you have a relationship as you. Yeah, you're creating a bond. There is trust. It's about trust as well. And it I don't know if it can replace that, but it could it possibly could. It's just not it's just fake. But people like fake these days.
You know, that's the problem, because it's simple. It's cheaper and people do it and no strings attached. You know, yeah, yeah, that's the sad part, I think. So that's that's a disadvantage of this huge development that we are facing right now. Oh, my goodness. It's so it's so incredible. I don't think people even realize the scale of what is happening. No, no, you know, I had this watershed moment when I so when I first bought this app, then I paid for the plus version.
And then I started doing what my friend had advised. And I was like, oh, my God, because when we when he was describing to me, it was already sort of impressive. But I couldn't I couldn't imagine it until I actually did it myself. So then then I started asking different questions. And I even was trying to make fun because that's, I guess, my nature. I was trying to make fun of GPD and I sort of like banter with it. And I said I said to it, I said to it sorry, I call it it for me.
It's not a he. I said to it, oh, you did not understand my joke. And then it's then it's sort of it was learning from then. I really soon I told I told it this was sarcasm. And then and then the next answer was, oh, I see what you did there. I was like, what the hell? I realized it just it had just it had just detected my sarcasm. Basically, I was like, whoa, what's going on there? Wow. Yes. But then I asked some some more questions next day and it couldn't do it again.
But I think it will be able to at some point. Yeah, maybe maybe it will answer sarcastically to your questions in the future. You just have to you just have to teach it. If you see it does what you teach it basically, as you said, right. So that's what you're learning vocabulary like that. And you can you can have a conversation with it as well in English. I even tried to brush up on my German. Yeah, I was even speaking to it in German. My German is terrible.
And the funny the funny bit was that it kept answering so quickly that I wasn't able to follow. Yeah. So I kept saying Langsam bitte Langsam, which means slowly, please slowly. And and and it always promised to be slower and said, yeah, OK, I will be slower. And then it never was slower. It was always fast. So once you once you learn how to use it and adjust it to your needs, then it can be efficient. So basically, there are a few ways we could we could deal with this now.
So we could either sort of accept it and another good word would be embrace it. Embrace what's happening. Accept it. Take it as it is and learn to live with it and even use it to our advantage. Or we could just what's we could just sort of ignore it and, you know, pretend it doesn't exist or something. I don't know. I mean, if we even pretend that it doesn't exist and we ignore it, as you said, it will be still existing and other people will still use it.
So why not just make the best out the most out of it? Because, yeah, I realize that because you see, as a teacher, I could be like. OK, I must not tell my students, my paying clients, because I've got paying clients who have been studying with me for maybe years. I'm like, I must not tell them, because if I tell them, they will start thinking about this and realize it's actually cheaper. It's actually cheaper if I let Zdenek go and learn with GPT.
It's only twenty dollars a month, because Zdenek is much, much more expensive. So I was thinking about these things as well. And then the first lessons I had with my students, I told most of them about this because I couldn't I couldn't help it. So most of my students know we even we even had CheGPT as part of our lesson. Cool. You are doing the right business, Zdenek. I don't know. I don't know. I'm just this is just who I am. I would rather be honest with people.
I am more concerned about other impacts that will be, I don't know, present in the foreseeable future. It's about the data privacy because as CheGPT, I mean, as the developers are upgrading the versions of CheGPT, the more and more data it will get from you. And people think that if you are using stuff with your, I don't know, with your data, your name, your email and your phone number, then it's free. And no, it's not free. You pay for it with your personal data that is much more.
So it's it's worth more for the companies than your actual money because then they can customize, I don't know, ads and yeah. Marketing, they can adjust their marketing based on your needs and preferences. And this is something that is usually private. Right. But and then with CheGPT and any any sort of smart speakers like we don't know who's storing this data. They might tell you, oh, no, no, no, you are safe. Everyone is going to tell you you are safe. Right.
Yeah, because everything is in the cloud and it's safe. Now, what if someone hacks the cloud? Can the can the cloud be hacked? Barbara? I mean, everything can be hacked. Even the website of NASA could be hacked. So I don't see why not the cloud of CheGPT, you know, couldn't be hacked. That's so scary. So so. I mean, if someone uses the data for advertising, I don't like it. But it's again, it's already happening with cookies anyway. Right. With the Google Chrome and all that.
It's storing the websites you've been looking at and stuff like that. So it's kind of happening already. But now, what if this is used for some evil intentions? Serious stuff. What is what is there is some guy. I mean, there are already some really bad guys that are trying to conquer the world. I can I can see I'm not going to name them, but I can already see some guys like that.
But what if what if this goes even further and someone crazy, someone rich, someone crazy, someone rich, someone with power abuses this and then just decides to destroy the world or something with it? You know, I don't know if you have ever heard about the dark web or the deep web. I have. Yeah. So can you even if this CheGPT or anything that is related to AI is available on the dark web as well. That is some serious stuff. So we'll see. Yeah.
Well, I'm just curious. Have you have you been there? Have you been on the dark web? No, I have not. I have not been on the dark side. How do you how do you even get there? How do you even get there? I don't know. I think you need a special browser. And and I think that's all because from the dark web, everything from your computer and your personal data can be just, you know, stolen. Yeah, because there's no protection. Nobody's nobody cares that it's all about criminal activity.
So once you want illegal activity, so once you enter that world, you are also kind of exposed. You're not protected anymore. So this is the place where you can buy drugs and things like that, I guess. And I think drugs is the best. I mean, the best thing you can buy from. What do you mean? That sounded weird. That sounded weird. You mean the least dangerous thing, which, yeah, the least thing, yeah, which sounds weird again, because drugs are dangerous enough.
I think exactly. Yeah, yeah. I see what you mean. Yeah. Wow. Okay. Well, we lost Barbara for a second. I think she has gone. She has gone on the on the dark net. I think she's now on the dark net and she is, ladies and gentlemen, she is trying to conquer the world. Are you back, Barbara? Have you come back from the dark place? Not yet, but it is dark. If you are watching this on the YouTube channel, by the way, this episode is also available on the Teachers Thenak YouTube channel.
So if you are watching it there, then you saw that Barbara's screen was dark, which was an indication that she has gone. She has gone to the dark net. Oh, she's back from the dark net. Welcome back. Yeah, I have serious stuff over there. Are you willing to share it with us or are we even prepared mentally to take that? I cannot. I cannot share any details. I'm sorry. I sold my soul already. You've gone to the other side now. Now you are one of them.
Now we are going to have to hunt you to take you down or otherwise we will not survive this. Well, OK, Barbara. So what can we do then? So we just have to live with it now. We have to learn to work with it. We cannot ignore it. What's the best approach in your opinion? We just have to use it wisely and also advise other people to use it wisely and be careful. OK, so what about the countries, countries in the world? Should they invest?
Countries, companies, individuals, we can decide for ourselves, right? We can decide whether we use it or not. But what do you think the companies should do? What do you think the countries should do? Should they invest more in the development of it or implementation of it? What do you think companies should do and countries? I think the restriction of the publication is it could be a good idea.
So let's just run some tests or diagnose the situations before we we we enable users to access everything. OK, so we are going in a way that we maybe have to consider to block some some of those features or or I am not sure. Or we have to teach it at school. You see, this is this is so it's kind of we are kind of on a crossroad, right? Because you've got plenty of countries where censorship is a thing, where it's absolutely normal to, you know, to not allow people to use it.
And then then you have countries where everything is allowed. So that's again, it's like it feels like we are on a crossroad here. Don't you think? I exactly I agree. And there are some countries where you cannot access anything, even the Internet. That's right. And then you cannot access things that we take for granted in our part of the world, like Facebook, YouTube. And then still, these people do access it because you have you have those what do you call it, Barbara?
You know, help me out here. That thing that you can you that thing that you can use. Oh, my God. It slipped my mind that thing you can use in order to connect to a different country. VPN VPN VPN. Yeah, yeah. It just came back. I was about to ask you GPT for the word I'm looking for. My brain, my brain hasn't switched off yet. That's another thing I want to ask you about. You know, every time there was a big invention, like in the 20th century, where it's a television or the Internet,
people started talking about dumbing down the society. Do you know what that means? So so if if you like constantly watch TV, you will stop sort of learning, you will stop reading books and you will you will be sort of like a passive passive participant of of it all. And that will make you more stupid. So do you think this is a risk as well that people will dumb down? Of course, because once you do not it's even when the Internet came, it was also a phenomenon.
And now that you don't even have to Google things and you don't even have to do research is you don't even have to think and separate the information and recognize what is a valid information. You basically do not use your brain anymore. Which could be a good thing because there are some, you know, you have free capacity and you can use your brain to something else. But people do not do not really intend to do so.
Maybe, maybe, you know why? Because everyone is in. I think we are all lazy sometimes, right? Because it's kind of it's pleasant to just take a break. And if you can find a way to do things in a simple way, that's just one of the things people have been seeking. You know, we want to be healthy, we want to be healthy, right? You want to be rich, but we also want to make things easier for ourselves.
And if it means that we can use our brain less and then just take it, take more breaks and relax more, I think people would pay for that. Yeah, yeah, because for the comfort. Yeah. Yeah. OK, what about universities then? The thesis, you know. Yeah, that's that's that's are they dead? Are they dead or dying or what's happening there? No, it's I have heard that actually they can.
So when you ask them to write a thesis for you, it has some metadata inside and and some prints so they can detect whether it was you whether it was written generated by Chalgpt or not. But on the other hand, if you generate it with Chalgpt, you can still rewrite manually. Exactly. But you then if you if you decide to do it that way, you still have to to read it. That's a plus. Maybe that you have to read your own thesis. Yeah, but what you can do is like, oh, I'm not sure about this paragraph.
Can you can you tell me how I could improve it? You don't you don't need to ask Chalgpt to do it all for you. But even like doing little bits, you know, like helping you with proofreading your your it. I don't think anyone can stop this. The teachers use it as well now. We use it for correcting our students mistakes, you know. Yeah, yeah, of course. Yeah. So we'll see the direction because now we are not sure everything is just, you know, so busy with this Chalgpt.
Yeah, when things are new, it's always around the edges as well. Right. So it kind of takes time to to get it right. And that's and that's also a window of opportunity. I remember, Barbara, when communism was over in the Czech Republic in 1989, 1989, when we had the Velvet Revolution, it was called. And then the world opened for us. Yeah, suddenly there was capitalism. But it also meant that that it was so raw. You know, people were not used to it.
It was so new and so suddenly so many opportunities. But it also attracted a lot of crooks, you know, a lot of people who would take advantage because the laws were not perfect. There were there were like loopholes everywhere. I'm not saying it's better now. It is better. But but and also these people have kind of saturated the market.
But you know what I mean, every time there is something new like that, there are huge windows of opportunities for all sorts of people, good people and bad people. Yeah. So this is this is my worry a little bit that this will be misused as well for some bad purposes. You know, I am sure it will be misused for bad purposes. The question is on so how much will we I don't know how much space of of the entire purpose of the charity charity will it will it take?
Basically, if you are the first person to come up with an idea, even imagine when the charity came out and if you were the first person to realize, oh, hang on a minute, it can write a thesis for me. No one knew at that point. Right. If you were one of the first people you you you finished your master's degree easily. And then can you blame that person? It was just a smart person who had this idea as the first person while the laws while it was still kind of allowed.
Right. Or something. That's the thing. Right. So yeah, this this is going to be quite tough, I think, to deal with it. Maybe maybe we should slow down the development of it. What would you say? Is it is it can we not stop it now? Has the train has the train reached the speed where it cannot be stopped anymore? Yeah, at the moment where everything related to AI, the virtual teachers, child GPT, web page creators based on AI, we cannot stop it anymore.
We just have to live with it. Not you and I, obviously, but more you than I, I would say that you work in IT. But. OK, well, where do we take it from there then Barbara? Well, any any anything that you would you would sort of recommend to the world? I think even if we are offered the comfort, the opportunity for the comfort. Please be cautious and do not take everything. Be aware of your I know of your surrounding as well. And use your brain. Try to try to use it actively, because if you.
Ask everything from the AI and you you work with the AI, you will your brain will basically. Stop working. You will not be able to think as fast as you were able years ago, and you will you will see those effects later. Because you will become dependent on it, right? So in the same in the same it's in the same way you imagine you you you grow up with your smarter brother, let's say.
You always ask your smarter brother rather than working it out yourself or trying to learn it yourself. You always ask your smarter brother and your your smarter brother will always give you all the answers you can imagine. Yeah. And then one day when your brother is not there, what are you going to do then? Yeah, that's exactly the situation. Your your skills of solving the problem will fade away. Exactly. Well, that's there's there's a warning for you.
Listeners, we are warning you be cautious when using CHE GPT. Do not overuse it. Do not overuse it. Well, they are limiting the use actually that you can you can only use it for about 25 minutes. Yeah, when you have a conversation with it. Yes, I try to have a long conversation. And then it starts saying you have reached the limit. Please try again later or please come back in three, three, four hours.
That's what's happening right now. But I think that's because they they they don't have the capacity. They would they would let you use it forever. Yeah, I agree. Yeah, I think it's getting overloaded. So they need to limit it a little bit like that. Yeah. Okay, Barbara, I think shall we leave it there? Shall we leave it there then? Yeah. Okay. Well, it was lovely to talk to you. And I don't know how you guys feel about this episode.
It's in the same way. I don't know how I feel about CHE GPT, I suppose. But it was lovely to talk to you, Barbara. You are really knowledgeable in this subject. And yeah, I wonder I wonder how listeners will feel about what we have been talking about. Yeah, thank you for the opportunity. No worries. You're very welcome. And now I'm curious if we get any comments from listeners, because I think this is one of the one of those topics that I think everybody has something to say about this, right.
So whether it's positive or negative. So I expect a lot of comments on the YouTube channel. Yeah. Please leave some comments below the video. And if you're listening to this as a podcast, because this is a podcast primarily, then just you can send send me an email if you want. And if you want to ask, if you want to ask Barbara, I can even pass the message if Barbara is okay with it. Of course. All right. So teachersdenek at gmail.com. Thank you very much, Barbara. And any last words?
Thank you. No, I think that's all. That's all. Okay, then. Thanks. See you guys. Bye bye. Bye bye. Thanks a lot for listening. For more information, visit my new website, teachersdenek.com, where you can find out about my speaking group for high level English learners called the Achievers Chamber and download my free course, Unlocking Your English Potential, Eight Secrets to Fluency. That's teachersdenek.com.