A Petrarchan sonnet on virtue written in the style of a 19th century poet. A solution to a physics problem that has stumped graduate students. Feed it almost any prompt, and the artificial intelligence chatbot ChatGPT will provide an answer.
While it may seem like science fiction, the generative software by OpenAI has started to revolutionize ways of thinking in every field from engineering to journalism (don’t worry—this article was entirely human-created). Since becoming available Nov. 30, ChatGPT’s use has exploded as a tool for offering succinct responses to questions in a conversational format by synthesizing information across the web, making it unique from search engines such as Google. In addition, ChatGPT can perform calculations, create code and translate different languages.
While many businesses have embraced the chatbot, students have used it for a variety of purposes, from explaining complex concepts in simple language to writing essays. As a result, fears have surfaced among teachers at East, reflecting universal concerns throughout educational institutions that the technology’s accessibility may deter students from engaging authentically in the learning process by completing their own work.
“When I first learned about it, it was immediately terrifying… Students could really take advantage of ChatGPT, since all they have to do is copy and paste the assignment we give them,” said English teacher Jennifer Martin. “One of the problems is that we don’t have a system yet to detect it. My concern is that ChatGPT is very tempting for kids to use, and that it passes, and they could rely on that.”
Senior Killian Hall, who is taking several A.P. and honors courses, has observed that while ChatGPT can provide a helpful resource, it does have several drawbacks.
“ChatGPT can be useful for making homework easier and more efficient, such as summarizing a long reading or TED Talk. However, it’s just consolidating information on the internet and not coming up with its own ideas, so if you have more complex and nuanced topics for which there are not necessarily answers on the internet, then A.I.’s still not able to think for itself in that way,” Hall said. “I think that the issue will be that students will use ChatGPT instead of reading or watching the entire assignment and learning the information in a holistic way, so that when it comes time for the test, students don’t actually know the material.”
| Can you tell the difference? We had one of our reporters write three sentences on the importance of student journalism, and then gave ChatGPT the same prompt. Can you tell which answer came from an A.I.? Version A: “Student journalism plays an important role in fostering critical thinking and media literacy skills among young people. It allows students to develop their writing, research, and investigative abilities, as well as their ability to communicate and collaborate with others. Additionally, student journalism can provide a platform for students to voice their perspectives and opinions on issues that affect them and their communities.” Version B: “Student journalism provides an invaluable perspective on local events that simply can’t be found in larger-scale publications. Since educational institutions serve as hotbeds for intellectual growth and the pursuit of diverse interests, the student journalists who cover events at their schools are able to tap into this wealth of activity to reveal underlying truths. Their youth also allows student journalists to bring fresh ideas into larger societal conversations.” If you can’t figure it out, there are some telltale signs that may be of use in identifying chatbot writing. In our research for this story, we reached out to several teachers, including civics teacher Dominic Koplar, to see how A.I.-generated work would fare if submitted in their respective classes. ECHO staff writer Will Pazzula sent Koplar a 400-word op-ed based on the prompt, “Does the president have too much power?” that had been written by ChatGPT. Excerpt from ChatGPT’s Civics Essay: “Of course, some argue that the president’s power is necessary for effective governance. They argue that a strong leader is needed to make tough decisions and to act quickly in times of crisis. However, this argument overlooks the fact that a concentration of power in one person’s hands can also lead to hasty and ill-informed decisions. “Furthermore, it is important to remember that democracy is not just about efficient decision-making, but also about protecting individual rights and freedoms. When the president holds too much power, these rights and freedoms can easily be trampled upon, leading to an erosion of democracy itself. “In conclusion, I believe that the president does hold too much power.” “Overall it would be a passing grade albeit an uninspired essay,” Koplar wrote in an email to Pazzula. “The lack of citations is a concern and the fact that there are generalities made without any specific examples… would hurt it considerably. That being said, it achieves the essential arguments that respond to the prompt in a terrifying manner.” In general, A.I.-generated writing is cogent, but lacks some of the dynamic qualities of work by humans, and sometimes fumbles specific reasoning. So, with that in mind, which response about student journalism do you think came from ChatGPT? The answer: Version A! |
By automating the learning—and specifically writing—process, teachers fear that ChatGPT could prevent students from developing the skills required to formulate their own ideas.
“Writing is something that’s hard and takes time to develop. It doesn’t matter who you are as a writer, you always look back on what you did, and you grow from that experience. I think that because it’s hard for students who struggle with writing, they’re going to just turn to A.I., and then the skills never grow and develop,” said Keith Gerdes, who teaches A.P. Literature and Composition as well as freshman English. “Also, I think writing is a product of people’s thinking, and using A.I. eliminates that process of conceiving independent thoughts.”
Beyond the humanities, STEM teachers say that ChatGPT could be used to solve various math and science problems. While other existing software programs such as WolframAlpha and derivative calculators can already answer many questions, ChatGPT is different in that it outlines each step of its solution, according to A.P. Physics teacher Jacob Cermak.
“The good thing about ChatGPT is the fact that it actually explains what it does. Other online tools are just going to do the math and not actually explain what they’re doing, so the fact that it’s giving a more thorough explanation isn’t bad. But obviously, you should do your homework without ChatGPT. Perhaps as a study tool, though, ChatGPT could be useful,” Cermak said. “Kids were already googling before ChatGPT. I’m not so much worried about physics and other math and sciences, but I could definitely see it being an issue for English and the humanities where you have to compose original responses.”
How can teachers monitor ChatGPT?
In school, teachers can monitor students’ use of ChatGPT on their district-issued Chromebooks through websites such as GoGuardian, which provides oversight of students’ searches. However, when students leave campus, the ability to monitor their technology use lies beyond teachers’ control.
“Right now, my best advice to teachers for addressing academic dishonesty is to use the tools we have available—GoGuardian, LockDown Browser and locked Google Forms,” said Instructional Technology Facilitator (ITF) Jamie East. “That really only helps, though, while we’re in the building, because those are in-class tools. I think once a student leaves us and has access to other devices and accounts, that’s where it becomes the ‘Wild West.’”
The district as a whole is also working to “adapt and adjust,” according to new Director of Digital Learning and Libraries Al McArthur, who admitted that “ChatGPT cannot remain barred forever.”
“Currently, ChatGPT by OpenAI is blocked on multiple levels. That allows our teachers the time to get used to the tool and understand it themselves and how to implement it into their everyday instruction, as well as model its ethical use,” he said. “It definitely has large implications for our future. But I still feel that we’re kind of at the baby steps of understanding what ChatGPT is, and we have a lot of room to grow. And I think that’s where we’ll be for a few years.”
Aiming to prevent misuse of ChatGPT, teachers have begun investing more class time in on-demand essays, as well as assignments and projects that require students to be more creative and have a depth of understanding beyond the generic capacities of A.I. Ironically, ChatGPT may force teachers and students to return to a pre-digital world by adopting more handwritten assignments, according to A.P. Literature and Composition teacher Kathryn Edelstein.
“I kind of love that it’s forcing us to go back to the way things were before we had such broad access to the internet as a resource, of just getting a pencil and paper and writing down our thoughts in a journal or in an on-demand essay,” she said. “I just feel like technology’s been taking us to the point where we don’t even know how to function, so going back to the drawing board is the answer to that and I love that.”
Mindful of ChatGPT’s influence in her classroom, Edelstein has employed a writing process that requires students to show her each stage of their essay from thesis to final draft, with a mixture of in-class and at-home essays. However, Martin remained cautious about giving any at-home essays, while noting that there are disadvantages to only giving in-class essays.
“We’re shifting our ideas, and that’s problematic because if you have a process paper where students go through the steps of creating an essay from an outline to a first draft to a final draft, you can’t do that in one class period, and some of it has to be done at home. And that’s where it gets tricky,” Martin said. “Unless you want to devote weeks to completing an essay in-class, you’re kind of screwed, because if you send students home, I don’t know how much they’re going to do using the bot. So it’s a learning process. We’re having to think about ways to assess authentically so students can’t just rely on ChatGPT.”
What’s A.I.’s future in education?
Ultimately, technology coordinators, teachers and students emphasize that ChatGPT is “here to stay,” and the increasing trend in education toward implementing A.I. and digital technology is irreversible. As a result, educators will have to learn to integrate the technology into their everyday lessons.
“I think teachers are really being forced to acknowledge the changing landscape in academia, and we cannot deny that students have access to all of these tools, so we need to learn how to work with them as best as we can. And also, hopefully, harness their benefits to use as teaching tools,” Edelstein said.
As an example of employing ChatGPT productively, the program could be used to generate mediocre essays that could open class discussions on how to write better essays.
“I’ve read various articles where English teachers have given ChatGPT a prompt and it writes a paper, and then there is a lesson asking, ‘What’s missing, why is this not an A+ paper?’ So you can use A.I. in the classroom,” Martin said. “We’ll have to learn how to prevent A.I. from taking over our jobs and work with it. We can use bots to help us teach, instead of just fighting A.I., because it’s a losing battle.”
No matter how ubiquitous bots become, teachers advise that student work must remain a product of human thinking.
“We’ll have to find ways to incorporate ChatGPT that might be useful in the same way that I encourage students to use the internet as a resource, but also find ways to hold accountable the writing product at the end that is removed from A.I., so it doesn’t become where we go to have computers think for us,” Gerdes said. “My big worry and fear is that we just start letting these machines replace our thinking the second things get hard.”
Despite the unfamiliarity of applying A.I. to education, Mr. East maintains an optimistic outlook on implementing ChatGPT in the classroom.
“At least through the remainder of this year, I’m feeling kind of just in the dark, feeling our way around and playing a game of ‘Whac-a-Mole.’ One thing pops up and we think that it could be used for bad things, and so we block it. But then again, if there are businesses utilizing ChatGPT, then it can’t be all bad,” he said. “Whenever we change things, particularly technology, because it evolves so rapidly, we get scared and immediately think of all the negatives, but there’s probably some positives that could come out of this too. Maybe there won’t be, but I have to at least hope that there’s some kind of benefit that would come out of it as well.”
Image by Hammond Cole Sherouse/The ECHO
