It's about spending time/to spend time together

[shatilof]

I'm checking my ChatGPT and it gave me the following sentence as incorrect:

It’s about spending time together and enjoying nature.

Acording to my task this sentence is supposed to be wrong. ChatGPT corrected it and said it should be:

It’s about to spend time together...

But about is a preposition and it should be followed by Gerund, shouldn't it?

 

[Rover_KE]

The gerund is correct in this context.

 

[emsr2d2]

This is a perfect example of why I discourage learners from using AI.

 

[Tarheel]

ChatGPT simply got it wrong. Not just a little wrong either -- very very wrong.

**gerund

 

[jutfrank]

I'm not convinced ChatGPT got it wrong. It doesn't really get things wrong with language. There must be another explanation.

I would highly encourage learners to use it, so long as they learn the basic skills to do it properly.

 

[5jj]

I'm not convinced ChatGPT got it wrong.

Are you saying that it's correct?

 

[jutfrank]

Are you saying that it's correct?

I'm saying it was correctly acting on whatever input it was given. It can't make mistakes when it comes to commonly used natural language like this. If there's an error, it's in understanding what it was tasked to do.

 

[emsr2d2]

In that case, surely ChatGPT (if it thought "about to" meant that something was imminent) would have changed "It's" to "They're". If it thought "about to spend time together" was the correct construction for the second part of the sentence, why didn't it correct the first word? It's still resulted an ungrammatical sentence regardless of what it thought it was doing.

 

[jutfrank]

In that case, surely ChatGPT (if it thought "about to" meant that something was imminent) would have changed "It's" to "They're". If it thought "about to spend time together" was the correct construction for the second part of the sentence, why didn't it correct the first word?

Yes, you're right, of course. It doesn't make sense. We'd need to see the conversation to be able to understand what went wrong.

It's still resulted an ungrammatical sentence regardless of what it thought it was doing.

I'm not sure it did. The reason I'm saying this is that I believe it can't do that.

It’s about to spend time together...

This doesn't seem to make any sense, and the ellipsis suggests it's unfinished, but if it is unfinished, I don't think we can say it's ungrammatical until we see the complete sentence.

The point I'm making here is simply to counter the fact that no less than three other teachers have endorsed the practice of discouraging learners from using ChatGPT as a learning tool. I strongly disagree with that view, and I'm happy to justify this at great length.

However, to be clear, and to answer again the question:

It’s about spending time together and enjoying nature.

It’s about to spend time together and enjoying nature.

 

[emsr2d2]

If you can come up with any end to that sentence that makes that opening acceptable, great. I'll grab my hat and take a chunk out of it. I've wracked my brains and I can't come up with a single grammatical sentence that could start "It's about to spend time together".

 

[jutfrank]

I hope it's not an expensive hat. This is the best I can do:

It's about to spend time together with its mate.

The 'it' here refers to a bottlenose dolphin, preparing to frolic on the ocean waves with its new-found partner.

 

[emsr2d2]

Well played. I should point out that I was hoping for someone to come up with a sentence that started "It's about to spend time together ..." that means the same as the same sentence but starting "It's about spending time together".
I 100% did not make that clear so as soon as I work out if I actually own a hat, I'll be taking a large bite out of it!

 

[jutfrank]

Bon appétit!


But seriously, my point here is really to emphasise the incredible utility of using ChatGPT and other LLMs as a learning tool, both in-class and for self study. I spent four months last year developing a teacher training course focusing on precisely this. The latest wave of AI development has hit ELT in a big way.