writing: Adam Welch
contributor: Marshall Medley
design: Nathan Chow
All of the English Language right at your fingertips: “make me an essay in the MLA format on the summary of The Great Gatsby” or “write me a thesis statement on the causes of the Civil War”. Within seconds users can get fully generated written documents thanks to ChatGPT. But is this a good thing?
To no surprise, cheating has passed its course through the American School system through the decades. Whether it be passing answers through notes or writing answers down on your arm, cheating has always existed at every education level. But now can everyone cheat without being noticed? Who better to ask than ChatGPT itself.
ChatGPT generated insight on itself regarding how it’s being used as a means of nonintegrity in academic assignments, saying
“I do not condone or support the use of any technology or tool, including myself, to engage in plagiarism or any other unethical behavior. It is important for individuals to always uphold academic integrity and honesty, and to use resources like mine as a means to enhance their understanding of a topic, not to substitute their own work or ideas”, the ChatGPT AI said.
But after asking the AI if it will be even harder to monitor AI far more advanced than itself in the upcoming years, ChatGPT responded it’s possible future AI could be used to generate more sophisticated and convincing essays or other academic assignments, making it more difficult to detect plagiarism. The AI also said that future versions might become so advanced that it could take tests for students in real-time.
“Artificial Writing has arrived” said English teacher Christine Dutrow on ChatGPT and AI writing. Dutrow said in the story she hasn’t noticed AI writing in student formal research essays, but the story also mentions the fact through NBC Nightly News host Lester Holt that 53% of college students have used ChatGTP for enhanced essays. What story?
Although it’s an easy fix to move all student assignments to a paper copy, does this mean an end for online student work with more advanced technology continually coming out? Or is ChatGPT just a fad that will eventually die down?
According to the New York Times, however, ChatGPT can be used as a vital source for helping English teachers run their classrooms. Claire Shields, an Oregon High School English teacher, used the AI to help her students create essay outlines.
Jon Gold, an eighth-grade teacher in Rhode Island, also used ChatGPT to help generate quizzes for his students. Gold thinks the AI isn’t a threat as long as it’s paired with teachers, per NY Times.
In a technological age going towards things like self-driving cars and now an advanced AI writing machine that can produce documents and essays in seconds, the future is very unclear on just how far technology will be able to go in the future. Time will only be able to tell for the future of AI.
