The ATA Chronicle - May/June 2023 - 22

Figure 1: Results from ChatGPT for " terms in their base form "
" Digitization: The process
of converting analog
information into digital
format. This involves
converting physical
data into a digital format
that can be processed
by computers or other
digital devices. "
As for the rest, I would
wonder what " physical data "
is and how ChatGPT came up
with it. The only reference
to " physical " in the Forbes
article is the " physical
world. " That means either
ChatGPT has a mind of its
own or at least draws on
other resources. Note that in
other tests it provided a onesentence
definition when
instructed to do so. Simple
instructions seem to work.
19. Corporate Language
(corporate language)
20. Sprachplanung (language
planning)
Wow! Granted the text
is super dense in technical
terminology, so maybe I
shouldn't be surprised that
ChatGPT extracted only terms
and not one word. There's
no noise in this list. But how
did it assume I also needed
the terminology in English?
I suppose it added that
service because I provided
instructions in English. I
could see where receiving
the English terms might be
annoying at times, especially
if you didn't request them.
It was impressive in this
case, however, because all
the English terms were
correct equivalents for the
concepts represented by the
German terms.
There are issues, of
course. Thirteen of the
German terms on the list
are not in canonical form.
(The canonical form is the
most basic or standard form
of a term. For example,
the canonical form for
common nouns in English
would be singular and
lowercase.) So, the second
term (Wissenstransfers) is
in the genitive case and the
fourth term (Begriffen) is in
the plural form and in the
accusative case. And if you
think I could have simply
told ChatGPT to list the
canonical form, that didn't
work. (I haven't managed in
other tests either.) When I
asked it to list them in their
base form, I received the
results shown in Figure 1. (I
think ChatGPT was telling
me I got too greedy.)
Research and Formulation
of Definitions
Now let's have a look at
definitions. For a definition
to be a useful terminological
22 The ATA Chronicle | May/June 2023
definition, it must start
with the parent concept,
specifically the generic
concept (i.e., the one that
tells us what something
is). It must be followed by
delimiting characteristics
(i.e., the aspects that make
the concept different from
related concepts1
). How did
ChatGPT do? The results are
shown in Figure 2 on page 23.
I'll analyze the results for the
three terms-digitization,
digitalization, and digital
transformation-below,
which were generated as part
of my initial term extraction
test with the instructions
listed in Figure 1 ( " If you
don't know the canonical
form, give them to me in
their base form. " ).
Term 1: In the example below,
I think the first sentence
provides us with what we
need: the superordinate
" process " and the delimiting
characteristics are correct.
Term 2: Now let's examine
the second concept,
" digitalization. " In the
resulting text below, I
would accept " use of
digital technologies " as
superordinate. Actually, I
think ChatGPT did a good job
extracting the characteristics
of the concept of this term,
even though the author of
the Forbes article provides a
pretty extensive discussion of
the term from various angles
that's not entirely as clear as
he might like it to be.
" Digitalization: The use
of digital technologies to
improve existing business
processes, services, or
products. Digitalization
involves the integration
of digital technology
into all areas of a
business, including
operations, customer
service, and marketing. "
Term 3: The article's
discussion of this third
concept is even less clear
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