ChatGPT Changes the Nature of Education

Student use of new AI chatbot generates controversy at universities

If you had an essay for a class but lacked the energy or the time, would you outsource the work to a chatbot? 

ChatGPT, an enticing (and free) service does just that. In Nov. 2022, OpenAI, an artificial intelligence lab, launched the chatbot service. Unlike results generated by a Google search, Chat GPT delivers personable and nuanced text in response to virtually any request. Students can use the chatbot to generate poetry, songs, stories or essays – providing an all too easy method to complete written assignments.   

The use of the AI tool has generated controversy in schools across the nation. Few colleges have outright banned the program, though many teachers have included the dishonest method of completing coursework in their anti-plagiarism policies. 

Earlier this January, New York City’s education department blocked access to the service on education department devices and internet networks, citing concerns about the accuracy of the content generated by the platform and its negative impact on student learning. 

Some professors are adapting to the rise of ChatGPT by creating prompts that engage a student’s personal experience, instead of crafting questions that ask students to recount a general topic. Additionally, the reintroduction of oral exams, in-class assignments and handwritten essays indicate that universities are seeking to prevent students from cheating by using the platform. 

Efforts have already been made by students and teachers to curb the rise of AI plagiarism stemming from the use of ChatGPT. Earlier this January, Edward Tian, a 22-year-old computer science student at Princeton University, released the chatbot GPTZero, which can immediately determine whether a student or ChatGPT wrote an essay. 

The program uses indicators of “perplexity” and “sentence-variation” to determine if an excerpt is written by a bot. Because humans generally write with more complexity, GPTZero will pinpoint a human author if the sentence structure appears more varied. Teachers have reached out to Tian and expressed interest in this platform, which became so popular that the app crashed within a week of its release. 

While ChatGPT is a promising technology, there are limitations to the service. Given its infancy, the chatbot may generate incorrect information because answers are based on data that is limited to 2020 and prior, or produce biased content. Additionally, the chatbot’s rhetorically convincing responses could overshadow a tendency to present false information.  

Teachers may find the program useful for their own logistical responsibilities, such as generating rubrics, responding to parent emails and providing basic student feedback on assignments. A survey conducted by the EdWeek Research Center of more than 1,300 teachers in 2022 revealed that 31% of teachers would spend less time on general administrative tasks if they had the option to do so. A typical teacher spends less than half their working time directly teaching students, so the ability of an AI to complete non-teaching tasks could allow for more time for interpersonal student engagement. 

Chris Bird, a sophomore computer engineering major, says the website is helpful for developing clarity in writing but is harmful if it detracts from students creating original and thoughtful material. 

“In instances where you’re just using it to become better at grammar or phrasing, then I think it has a lot of value in learning new skills,” Bird said. “But I think the value starts to slip away when students use it for things that would otherwise require them to actually think, like writing school essays.”

With AI changing the nature of college work and influencing responses by educators, the role of ChatGPT in academia will need to be addressed by universities and schools in the near future. This technology, like any tool, can be used as a resource to help further learning or reinforce poor study habits. 

“At its core, Chat GPT is just a website with answers, or a solution manual,” said Bird. “The solution manual can be beneficial for students who use it to check their work they already did, but is harmful for students who blindly copy the answers.”