How to answer questions about artificial intelligence in C1 Speaking? Let’s find out!
Hello, this is Kristian from Cambridge Advanced Speaking, how is it going? I’m absolutely delighted that you’re listening to this episode, and I hope you’re ready to learn some English with me.
If you didn’t know, I run the website Get Ready For Success, and there you can find the audio files, videoclips and lesson notes for all the podcast episodes.
In addition, I’m also the founder of the C1 Speaking Club.
In this private community we help each other go from struggling speaker to confident communicator.
How do we do that? Well, we talk about all kinds of interesting topics in natural spoken English, and we do that in 3 ways:
- 5-Day challenges in our community forum. These challenges are incredibly small, you can do them in 5 minutes per day. This is a great way to start and build a long lasting speaking habit.
- 45-min live lessons on Zoom, with me as your Cambridge C1 exam teacher.
- 30-minute break-out speaking rooms on Twine. This is a chance for you to practice speaking English with other C1 Speaking Club members in small groups of 2 people. This is the one thing I’m incredibly excited about, and I’ll tell you how it works, step-by-step, at the end of this episode.
All right, that’s all about the C1 Speaking Club for now. Let’s continue with today’s topic: artificial intelligence (AI), part 2.
Topic
In the last episode we talked about artificial intelligence (AI). This topic, and in particular an application called ChatGTP, is all over the news, and it won’t go away anytime soon. Therefore, it’s important to develop some ideas to talk about this topic, whether it’s in your C1 exam or in everyday life.
We started last week’s episode with a definition of AI.
ChatGTP told us that:
Artificial Intelligence (AI) refers to the development of computer systems that can perform tasks that typically require human intelligence, such as understanding natural language, recognising images, making decisions, and solving problems.
The goal of AI is to create intelligent machines that can think, reason, and learn like humans, and perform tasks that are too difficult, time-consuming, or dangerous for humans to perform.
I also gave you a simplified definition:
Computers and machines that are programmed to think and act like humans do.
We also looked at some examples of AI in everyday life. You can think of virtual personal assistants like Siri and Alexa, facial recognition technology, recommendation systems like those used by Amazon, Netflix and Spotify, and self-driving cars.
And finally, we came up with 5 interesting questions that you might get in your C1 exam, or you could just talk about them with other people in your everyday life.
Today, in this episode, I’m going to share two model answers with you.
- How has artificial intelligence changed the way we work?
- Is artificial intelligence a good or a bad thing?
Questions and Model Answers
First, let’s have a closer look at the question 1: How has AI changed the way we work?
When you get this question type, I recommend using the following answer structure:
- Say how it has changed with an adverb adjective collocation
- How was it in the past
- Say how it has changed with one or two examples
- Conclude your answer
Here’s my model answer:
Well, I truly believe that AI has had a significant impact on the way we work in many industries, including music, television, finance and education.
Let’s take the music industry as an example. It used to be the case that DJs and radio stations decided which songs we could hear on the radio. But now AI has made it possible to personalise music services to individual customers. One famous example that springs to mind is Spotify. Their algorithm comes up with suggestions for customers based on personal interests and behaviour. A similar thing has happend in the TV and film industry with the arrival of Netflix and other streaming services.
These are just two examples that show how AI has dramatically changed the workplace in various industries. Whether that’s a good or bad thing is a different question altogether…
All right, now let’s look at one more question: Is artificial intelligence a good or a bad thing?
Hmm, that’s an intriguing question and I’m not sure I have a definite answer. I mean, like any technology, AI can be used for positive or negative purposes depending on how it is used.
On the positive side, AI has the potential to improve many aspects of our lives, such as transportation and education. For example, self-driving cars could reduce traffic accidents and save lives. AI can also help us make better decisions by processing vast amounts of data and identifying patterns and trends that would be impossible for humans to detect.
On the negative side, AI also poses significant risks and challenges, such as the potential loss of jobs due to automation, discrimination in decision-making, and of course it could be used for malicious purposes, such as cyber attacks.
Overall, I do believe that AI has the potential to bring many benefits, but it clearly also poses significant risks and challenges. I guess it is up to us as a society to ensure we use it in the right way, and personally I believe it’s more important to minimise the negative consequences than to maximise the potential benefits.
Closing Notes
Okay then, in this episode we have been talking about how to structure your answers, and I’ve given you a couple of model answers.
Now, at the end of this episode, I want to share my excitement about the break-out speaking rooms I’m starting this month in the C1 Speaking Club. These are private rooms, set up exclusively for C1 Speaking Club members and can only be accessed by you.
It work as follows:
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- When you enter, the website will automatically put you in a room with one other person. You will find questions on an exam topic and some tips to use.
- The sessions are 2 x 15 minute sessions. I recommend staying for both sessions so you can speak with different people.
- After 15 minutes, you will automatically change to a different room, with a different person, where you can practice the same topic, but with new people and new questions.
Sounds amazing, right? So, if you’re looking for a speaking partner right now to talk about interesting C1 exam topics, the C1 Speaking Club is the perfect solution. The regular membership fee is €97 per year, but now you can get a yearly membership for only €48.50.
Why wait any longer? Join the C1 Speaking Club today and become part of an engaging community, where people just like you are helping and motivating each other to become confident English speakers.
The place to join and become a member is getreadyforsuccess.com, there you click on the big yellow C1 Speaking Club button. I hope to see you on the inside!
All right, that’s all from me. Take care of yourself, and each other.
Speak soon, my friends.
Bye!
