In late November of 2022, the artificial intelligence company OpenAI released ChatGPT and made it accessible to the public for free. This software was developed in order to enhance a user’s online experience. The application allows users to engage with a chatbot through conversations that are human-like, and it can conduct a wide variety of demands that include playing games, writing stories or song lyrics. But ChatGPT is commonly known for having the ability to write informational papers about a given topic, which essentially enables a student user to cheat in a class.
Despite this being a noteworthy milestone in the further advancement of technology, it is also alarming as this is not the peak of the great capability and potential of ChatGPT. But, there are still many flaws within the software that require improvement. For example, sometimes it can write disconcertingly accurate papers, but the program has yet to match the same intellect as real humans who are naturally able to process feelings and emotions. So, some parts of the paper may not be as realistic as others, yet, but the accuracy may also depend upon the prompt that is fed into the program. The paper frequently displays errors because A.I. does not understand when a resource is providing precise information, so it will contribute some false details to the paper regardless.
The overall positive performance of ChatGPT has raised major questions of whether it is moral to have the application be public and free for students in high school and college to possibly rely on for cheating. This has also brought concern to teachers who are worried about how they will be able to differentiate works done by humans to works by A.I.. According to an article from Fox News, a group of professors came together and only few were able to easily identify which essays were written by A.I. Not only is this making grading systems more difficult and inaccurate, but this is also worsening the intellect of students who will control the future. If there is no interference by schools then this continued reliance upon artificial intelligence will ultimately result in the decline of an individual’s critical thinking skills. Additionally, this will encourage new forms of plagiarism and students could potentially be reprimanded and face severe punishments.
Although some issues within the system have yet to be resolved, some schools have already begun considering a way of incorporating ChatGPT as a learning tool in lesson plans, hoping that this may improve their students’ cognitive abilities (National Educational Association). Similar to some teachers’ opinions, a student from The Wheatley School said that “ChatGPT gives me a more quick and efficient answer to my questions,” and believes that it can be of better help to them since as another student added that “it can teach you things that teachers can’t”. But these students also believe that there are negative aspects too, and explained that “you’re not really learning, you’re just obtaining information that might not be correct. It doesn’t go in depth and the answers are very vague”. A teacher from Wheatley also responded and agreed that this could become a resourceful tool that classes can utilize, but said “I’m a little worried about academic honesty,” and about “students using it to complete their work”. Instead, this teacher stated that ChatGPT can be a “good tool for generating ideas,” which can possibly give creative boosts to a student through providing them with new writing prompts.
On the contrary, some people believe that this shift is no different from the previous developments in technology that have already been integrated into classrooms, such as the widespread use of Chromebooks within numerous school districts. But, before continuing to plan new methods to use new technology in classrooms, it must be noted that exposure to A.I., especially at a young age, can essentially strip away a student’s ability to think uniquely. This would eliminate the natural creativity of each individual and it would not benefit them when moving on into a professional workplace (Fox Business).
To prevent the learning experience from worsening, some schools have banned ChatGPT on computers or mentioned severe consequences. However this alone will not be able to stop the rise of cheating (MIT Technology Review). Access to the software should be limited to certain groups such as businesses, who benefit from using it more.
The potential use of ChatGPT at Wheatley has appeared to be alarmingly high in some classrooms, but there are still numerous students who enjoy expressing themselves and their creativity through their classes and after school clubs. To decrease the prevalence of this issue, one Wheatley teacher mentioned this has required him to “do extra layers of checking if students used it to write essays,” however ChatGPT always generates a brand new essay even when using the exact same prompt. This is also making the task of identifying if a student was being honest with their work unnecessarily tedious for teachers, which is why they have turned to resources like Revision History.
A new implementation this teacher is using in his classes involves “using more paper,” which some Wheatley students have already begun facing. Certain classes have attempted to complete writing assignments on paper during the class period to ensure that there was no cheating and that grading will continue to be done fairly. This approach may seem unfeasible, but transitioning back to old techniques may be the best solution when considering the undetermined and worrying future of human capability as our dependence on artificial intelligence only continues to grow.