OpenAI President Greg Brockman recently asked a question on X “How has ChatGPT changed your life?” to which a user by the name Aaron Stormerr shared the profound impact ChatGPT has had on his academic journey as a blind Computer Science student. 

Aaron candidly revealed the challenges he faced before discovering ChatGPT and how it has played a pivotal role in transforming his learning experience.“I was practically falling before ChatGPT because a few of my professors were visual learners and would regularly stress that we’d fail all their classes if we couldn’t see / draw what we were working with” shared Stormer. 

Facing difficulties in a learning environment designed for visual learners, Aaron expressed his struggle in classes where professors emphasised visual comprehension and drawing components of coding projects. This approach created anxiety and hindered his coding progress, even though he knew several blind software developers who excelled in the field.

However, the introduction of ChatGPT proved to be a game-changer for Aaron. The novelty of working with this tool helped alleviate his anxiety and provided him with a valuable resource to overcome challenges in coding projects. The real breakthrough came when ChatGPT offered code-based examples, which enabled Aaron to better follow his professors’ instructions, even when visual elements were involved.

“ChatGPT also was able to provide code-based examples of what my professors were showing on the board so I could better follow along with their instructions. I don’t know where I’d be without it today,” wrote Stormerr. 

Reflecting on his experience, Aaron acknowledged that without ChatGPT, he might not have been where he is today in his academic journey. The tool not only served as a practical coding assistant but also contributed significantly to boosting his confidence and overcoming hurdles faced by blind students in a visual-centric learning environment.

Josh Olin, entrepreneur and founder of WeGPT.ai, also recently posted on X about how GPT-4 enabled him to build web requests and applications using GPT-4, and in the process learn Python. In a span of seven months, from last April, Olin used GPT-4 to create the fundamental capability of fetching HTTP data from an API endpoint.