Artificial intelligence has been a topic of conversation since the 1950s, but has recently become more popular with the invention of ChatGPT.
OpenAI, an artificial intelligence company founded by Sam Altman, Greg Brockman, Elon Musk, Ilya Sutskever, Wojciech Zaremba, and John Schulman, released an early demo of ChatGPT on November 30th, 2022. Word spread about this software rather quickly, as people online demonstrated the different uses ChatGPT could be used for. It could write birthday cards, give you recipes, write emails, and even more than you could imagine!
ChatGPT has opened up tons of opportunities and has proven that technology is advancing every single day. This software has multiple positive effects on our society. Some examples are grammar corrections, easier language translations, and generating creative ideas. But with all good things come the disadvantages. Some of these include preventing people from using their critical thinking skills, generating incorrect information, and stopping the need for human’s imagination.
One of the biggest question’s individuals have about ChatGPT is how this new software will affect education, and whether or not it will be encouraged in the classroom.
Some argue and say that ChatGPT is an incredible opportunity to improve education. ChatGPT gives students the ability to have personalized education. It can adapt to each person’s learning styles and is aware of the students’ strengths and weaknesses. The program also offers real-time translations, helping both non-English speakers and students trying to learn a new language. One of the biggest advantages to using ChatGPT in the classroom is the writing assistance. The artificial intelligence is able to revise and edit any text it is given, and also offers suggestions to improve the writing.
While all of this sounds great, there are some major disadvantages to all of these seemingly positive factors. The biggest concern that teachers have is cheating in the classroom. ChatGPT makes it incredibly simple for students to cheat on their papers and exams. Artificial intelligence is able to write up full essay’s by just typing in a prompt in the chat box. While it is the easy way out of doing an assignment, none of what this software is writing up is original. Also, ChatGPT is not guaranteed to always be right. Students could be learning and studying incorrect information that the computer is spitting out to them.
Unfortunately, many students see ChatGPT as the easy way out and think that no one will be able to tell that they are cheating. But, PHS administrators have argued against this. A big part of the PHS handbook is Academic Integrity. In the Piscataway High School Handbook it states, “Honesty and integrity are valuable qualities for all individuals. Cheating and plagiarism are forms of dishonesty and reveal a lack of integrity in the character of an individual.” (Chapter 3, 24). Clearly, PHS takes using artificial intelligence seriously. Multiple teachers, more specifically English teachers, have spoken out against using ChatGPT to complete assignments. After a few years of artificial intelligence being more accessible, there are softwares that have been developed soley to detect AI. Some consequences for a PHS student being caught cheating consist of, “a zero will be given for the test or project and parents will be notified by telephone.”
While artificial intelligence can be a huge help to students, it must be used with discretion and with complete honesty. We should not be using it to our advantage and be dishonest with our teachers, as many serious consequences could come along with it.
