ChatGPT, among the newest AI technologies, could drastically change education at GA and beyond. The AI technology has the capability to write entire academic papers, and could potentially make it difficult for teachers to detect. However, the chatbot’s impact goes beyond education; it serves as a groundbreaking pathway to previously unimaginable innovations in the realm of artificial intelligence.
ChatGPT is currently the internet’s most advanced AI chatbot, created by OpenAI. It was released in late November of 2022, and almost immediately went viral on Twitter (NYTimes). ChatGPT has the ability to generate newly written pieces, such as emails, codes, study guides, and, the most controversial, academic essays and papers. The bot is also capable of writing and translating different languages, as well as providing summaries of research topics and books. It can also use provided evidence or find its own, making it a desired resource for academic analytical work in English and History. ChatGPT’s ability to generate new works each time, and respond to prompts make the technology incredibly novel (Atrium Innovation).
Germantown Academy students’ familiarity with the technology ranges from having never heard of it, to it being a frequent resource. An alarming number fall into the latter category. When asked if they use ChatGPT, GA students elaborated on a variety of ways they use the new tech. Some students use it to write their papers, then put the generated piece in a word scrambler, or edit it themselves to make it seem like their own. Among the most common uses, ChatGPT is used to enter a single sentence to improve wording and clarity. Students have even experimented with using this technology to aid the construction of presentations in different languages.
Despite being widespread in the upper school, ChatGPT does not have such a hold in the lower grade levels. A member of the Germantown Academy class of ‘27 said that she does not know anyone who has used the chatbot, and noted talks presented by teachers warning students about the tempting technology.
GA prides itself on its academic integrity, so there are a few measures being taken to combat the potential threat to the honor system. Concerns about how students might take advantage of the new tool go beyond GA. Companies such as Turnitin are working to add detection software to their site.
Notably, Edward Tian, a Computer Science major and a senior at Princeton University, developed a detection software called GPTZero that can determine if something was written by a human or AI bot by calculating perplexity and burstiness (NPR). Perplexity measures the complexity of text and GPTZero’s ability to comprehend it. If GPTZero is more familiar with text and able to comprehend it, the text is likely AI generated. Burstiness analyzes the variation in sentence length, as humans typically vary sentence lengths. If a text contains only sentences of a certain length, it is likely AI generated.
ChatGPT is not perfect. In fact, in many cases the bot will make obscure arguments with nonsensical pieces of evidence that lack clarity when put together. Other times, it spits out “factual” information that is just plainly incorrect.
Teachers at Germantown Academy, especially in the English and History departments, are working to prevent the dishonest use of ChatGPT. When asked what GA teachers were doing to prevent academic dishonesty with the tool, history teacher and head of Osbourn house Dr. Adam Wilsman said, “I think you’ll probably see a move both in high school and in college to more in-class writing and maybe even in class handwriting. As teachers, if we’re going to be on top of things, we have to change how we do things.” Talk amongst educators at a variety of levels encourages this, suggesting that in-class writing would give teachers a chance to get a sense of their students’ writing styles and abilities before assigning take-home work. When it comes down to it, school is about learning and improving academic skills. When asked how ChatGPT could affect academic integrity in the GA community, head of the English department Ms. Burnett, spoke to how turning to tools like ChatGPT to write papers, would be a waste of a GA experience saying, “One of the things we are known for at this school is how well we teach kids how to write. The juniors and seniors went to a college panel with alums and all they heard over and over again was, I was so well prepared for writing.”
The influence of ChatGPT goes beyond academia. There are nerves surrounding ideas of ChatGPT overtaking search browsers such as Google and Internet Explorer. These concerns swept social media and the internet, with the New York Times referring to ChatGPT as a “code red” for Google. Students are not the only ones that use this technology. It is used often in the workplace to write emails and more. Perhaps most shocking, is the adoption of ChatGPT by professional writers, using it to aid them in writing novels and other creative works. That way, they can focus on writing more interesting scenes and let the computer do the “boring” parts of their job. Some people argue tools like ChatGPT could potentially bridge a financial gap for people unable to afford private tutoring. This equalizing theory may not last, with one upper school student suggesting that it is only a matter of time before OpenAI eliminates the free usage of ChatGPT, possibly making customers pay to use the tool, similarly to other academic resources like Grammarly and Quizlet. Realistically, ChatGPT can be a powerful tool in any form of writing as long as a person knows how to use it.
Still, despite the troubling implications of Chat GPT, there are possible benefits to its creation. On their website, OpenAI discusses how other sites are implementing their GPT-3 technology. Duolingo and Keeper Tax both use this tech to improve feedback and customer service. People in the computer science industry also experience the benefits of ChatGPT, as a common use of the bot is writing and debugging code. This GPT-3 technology specifically for coding can be found on GitHub Copilot (OpenAI). The website also discusses how the chatbot can help businesses develop a successful social media page.
The reality is, while ChatGPT is here to stay, its advantages seem to be temporary. When Dr. Wilsman was asked about the detrimental effects of using ChatGPT on GA students’ education, he responded, “Don’t do it. Not because you can’t or because you think you are going to get caught, but because it’s the wrong thing to do.” Using ChatGPT to write entire papers provides students with an easy workaround, but it hinders their growth as intellectuals. Despite the obvious challenges it presents for students and educators, ChatGPT could change the way we go about learning and everyday life, for better or worse.
https://www.npr.org/2023/01/09/1147549845/gptzero-ai-chatgpt-edward-tian-plagiarism