Creating ChatGPT literacy at a critical time

After reaching more than 100 million active users less than a year after its launch, ChatGPT is the fastest-growing consumer application in history, according to a UBS study.

Growing just as fast is the need for ChatGPT literacy. To use the tool well and to understand its outputs correctly, people must know how it works and which tasks it does well (or not).

Andrew Maynard, a professor in ASU’s School for the Future of Innovation in Society, studies how society can successfully transition to a future in which transformative technologies change our lives.To help people get better results from chatbots, Maynard is teaching a new ASU Online course called Basic Prompt Engineering with

ChatGPT: Introduction. The course is open to students in any major and, despite its name, is not really about engineering. Maynard says it is like driver’s ed for ChatGPT users.

“Having a car is great, but having people driving them without knowing the rules of the road or basic driving skills doesn’t lead to safe roads,” he says. “It’s the same with ChatGPT. The more people understand how to use it in safe and responsible ways, the more likely we’ll see the benefits of it.”