Brian Lee (10th Grade, West Ranch High School)
ChatGPT, an artificial intelligence (AI) that can give a detailed answer to nearly any user question, has grown in education and is proving to be both a powerful tool and a cause of academic dishonesty.
As it can provide answers to almost any user input and can even write full-length essays within seconds, it is no surprise that students are using the bot, along with other AI programs, to assist them with schoolwork. According to their website, the main feature of ChatGPT is its ability to respond to a user prompt quickly and give relatively accurate answers to nearly any question.
The bot can write detailed and well-worded essays in a matter of seconds, which is one of the most impressive features that the tool provides. ChatGPT is also free, which allows almost any student with access to the internet to use the service for help with their work.ChatGPT and other AI programs are also beneficial to students who need assistance with coding since they can generate code to do various tasks, which can be helpful to students pursuing a career in computer science.
The bots can also proofread existing code, with the ability to find errors or provide more efficient ways to reach the desired goal. Since ChatGPT and other AI services are such powerful tools, it is unsurprising that some students may be using them to cheat on school assignments and essays. Because AI services like these are so new, schools and educators may have difficulty managing and detecting plagiarized work.
West Ranch computer science teacher Mr. Burrill described his opinion on using AI in schools. “I think when there’s a will, there’s a way to cheat. I think many students have already cheated, and this is just another way for them to do that,” Mr. Burrill said. “However, I think the bulk of the students that know that in the future they’re going to have to do their work, they’re going to have to think for themselves, I think they will ignore having AI do the work for them and will just use it as a tool to help them along, and they will be the ones that are successful in life.” The dishonest student use of ChatGPT continues to be one of the main criticisms of AI services.
The company behind ChatGPT, OpenAI, released a program- an “AI Text Classifier”-to help teachers and schools check whether a document is written by a human or AI, according to their website. While this is a step in the right direction, it is not a perfect solution and can be easily bypassed using other programs such as Humanize AI.
Even though ChatGPT can be seen as only a tool to cheat, many fairways can help a student learn. Although AI programs are relatively new, many students are already finding creative ways to use them as educational and artistic tools. Additionally, it is revolutionary in the same way as the internet and search engines because it can be used for quick and accurate research. “It kind of reminds me of, because I’m old enough to remember, when the internet started because we used to spend all our time researching and then only a little bit of time writing the paper.
All of [a] sudden, with the invention of the internet, we spent much of our time writing the paper, and not much time researching because researching was easy,” Mr. Burrill expressed.
ChatGPT can help students understand concepts they may not otherwise learn, with prompt AI explanations for a wide variety of problems. West Ranch sophomore Clive Jeon described one of ChatGPT’s benefits: “It’s efficient, and you can get answers for almost any kind of question.” AI tools can also prove to be a critical tool for authors, helping many with writer’s block, a term used to describe a lack of writing inspiration.
Simply asking ChatGPT for ideas can give a writer enough inspiration to come up with something of their own. Sophomore Elijah Kopp said, “I think it’s good for proofreading or suggestions.” Along with writing suggestions, ChatGPT can provide a more personal and adaptive learning experience by providing students with instant feedback and information to assist them with studying or research. Although ChatGPT and AI tools are still very new and have many flaws, it seems likely that they will be solved soon, and AI will become an essential tool in education.
