‘ChatGPT is early and dangerous’: Coursera CEO on integration of AI-based software to courses

Coursera CEO Jeff Maggioncalda admitted that ChatGPT's power keeps him awake at night. 

"I've been awake for 45 days - I use ChatGPT...It can create new things - it's extraordinary. It's early, it's dangerous and it can disrupt things," he said about the artificial intelligence-based chatbot. Maggioncalda told Moneycontrol that he wants to integrate ChatGPT with Coursera.

Maggioncalda stated that the pre-pandemic world was place-based when discussing the difficulties of balancing an on-campus life and online courses. “So if you had to learn you had to go to campus, if you wanted to work you had to go to an office. Then the campuses shut down, the offices shut down. What we are seeing now is a hybrid world,” he said.

In terms of Coursera's plans for India, he stated that the company is collaborating with universities across the country to integrate career electives and industry certificates into on-campus learning programmes.

“The online courses can be from universities and they can also be from industries. So, we call these “career electives” with traditional degree programmes,” he told Moneycontrol on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos.

"One of the great things about hybrid is that you can learn from anywhere, at any time, and with anyone," he continued.

He also addressed the crucial issue of how to enrol in a Coursera course. According to this statement, people are more motivated to finish a course if it will benefit their careers, but they are more likely to abandon free courses they sign up for as hobbies, such as a history course, because they are more enjoyable and entertaining.

Maggioncalda added that he has finished about 15 courses on Coursera and is currently enrolled in the Google Data Analytics course, a professional certificate programme, and a course from the University of Amsterdam on the history of the universe.