Would I lie to you?

Logo for the BBC show "Would I lie to you"
#wilty

A few weeks ago I decided to ask ChatGPT to tell me a little bit about myself. Part of it was curiosity, while part of it was because I needed to write a short bio and I just felt uninspired.  The first time the query ran, ChatGPT told me that it didn't know who I was.  That's fine, I thought to myself, because it would be weird to be known like that. After all, I don't really consider myself to be anything big in academia.

This past week I decided to try again just to see if anything had changed in the world of ChatGPT. And lo and behold it had! Now ChatGPT seems to know who I am...sort of...

Prompt: Who is Dr. Apostolos Koutropoulos?

Response: Dr. Apostolos Koutropoulos is an educator, researcher, and entrepreneur who has worked in various fields related to technology and education. He is currently an Associate Professor of Instructional Technology at the University of Massachusetts Boston and the founder of several EdTech companies. Koutropoulos has published numerous papers and articles on online learning, open education, and emerging technologies in education, and has presented at many international conferences. He is also an advocate for open education and has been involved in several initiatives aimed at promoting the use of open educational resources (OER) and open educational practices (OEP). Overall, Koutropoulos's work has focused on the intersection of technology and education, with a particular emphasis on online learning and open education.
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OK... Now it thinks it knows something about me, but it's just slightly off, as it's talking about me from an alternate universe.  So far as I know, I haven't founded any EdTech companies, and I am not a tenured professor.

I decided to prompt a bit deeper to see what else it would say (or make up) about me...


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Prompt: Please give me a synopsis of Dr. Apostolos Koutropoulos's work.

Response: Apostolos Koutropoulos is an educator, researcher, and entrepreneur who has worked in various fields related to technology and education. He is currently an Associate Professor of Instructional Technology at the University of Massachusetts Boston and the founder of several EdTech companies.

Koutropoulos's research interests include online learning, open education, and emerging technologies in education. He has published numerous papers and articles on these topics and has presented at many international conferences.

One of his notable contributions to the field is the development of a Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) called "Digital Citizenship," which is designed to help learners develop critical digital literacy skills. The course has been taken by thousands of learners from around the world and has received widespread acclaim for its innovative design and pedagogical approach.

Koutropoulos is also an advocate for open education and has been involved in several initiatives aimed at promoting the use of open educational resources (OER) and open educational practices (OEP). He has served as a board member for the Open Education Consortium and has been involved in the development of several open education projects, including the OpenCourseWare Consortium and the Open Education Week.

In addition to his work in academia, Koutropoulos is also an entrepreneur and has founded several EdTech companies. These include Experiential Simulations, which develops immersive learning simulations, and Epignosis, which develops learning management systems (LMS) and e-learning solutions.

Overall, Koutropoulos's work has focused on the intersection of technology and education, with a particular emphasis on online learning, open education, and emerging technologies. His contributions have had a significant impact on the field and have helped to shape the way we think about teaching and learning in the digital age.

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I guess it doubled down on the entrepreneur aspect and edtech company founding.  I don't know where it got. the part of creating a MOOC called Digital Citizenship. The first thing that came to mind is that this sounds more like an Autumm kind of thing (as well as other folks I am friends with online).  I guess my friends' interests provided me with a halo effect.

I mean, this AK sure seems. interesting, but he isn't quite me. I really wish I could see a source for all of these claims to get a sense of how the machine develops these synopses. 

As an aside, reading all this made me think of the BBC show "Would I lie to you."  I could see an  "all academia" version of this show ;-) Maybe ChatGPT can create the short stories!




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