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ChatGPT — Technological innovation is always important to welcome since it has the potential to make life easier.
However, there may be disadvantages, particularly in terms of education.
The AI race
With the release of ChatGPT by OpenAI in late 2022, artificial intelligence has overtaken the internet as the most popular topic.
The AI tool is great for academic and administrative duties since it can do several tasks with a single command.
The success of the tool garnered the attention of millions of users.
Microsoft intended to spend $10 billion in OpenAI in early 2023, more than doubling the company’s worth to $29 billion.
Former staff of OpenAI have joined Anthropic, a new business that is testing its own chatbot, Claude.
Baidu, the Chinese search engine, introduced Ernie in March, while Google launched Bard in early February.
Academic use
ChatGPT ushered a new age, but it also unleashed a flood of artificial intelligence that threatens to destroy education.
According to a study conducted by Stanford University’s student-run newspaper, by the end of 2022, 17% of the university’s students will use ChatGPT on projects and assessments.
Because ChatGPT performed so well, some students may have passed off the AI’s output as their own, and many presumably still do.
Room to learn
Brett Vogelsinger, a ninth-grade English instructor, stumbled onto a student’s essay after reading a passage that piqued his interest.
Even though the essay was incomplete, Vogelsinger might not have recognized it as a ChatGPT study if the student had not copied and pasted it.
“It can outperform a lot of middle school kids,” said the English teacher.
Vogelsinger saw the behavior as a learning opportunity rather than a cheating attempt.
“[We’re] color-coding,” said the teacher.
The ChatGPT was emphasized in blue, and the student’s writing was marked in green.
Brett Vogelsinger advises the student to decide which AI stories to expand on, allowing other students to interact with the AI.
Although most students do not use it on an everyday basis, Vogelsinger believes it has helped them in concentrating on their ideas and getting started.
Other establishments
Although Brett Vogelsinger completed the challenge successfully, lecturers at other colleges and institutions are experiencing trouble using ChatGPT and other AI applications.
In early January, ChatGPT was prohibited in New York public schools, thereby disabling the software on devices and networks.
Many teachers are afraid that pupils who use it would be unable to think critically or solve problems.
Others were concerned that the tool’s output might be dangerous or wrong.
Other school districts in the United States and throughout the world have enacted similar restrictions.
According to Keith Schwarz, a computer science professor at Stanford, he limits his students’ usage of ChatGPT by conducting traditional pencil-and-paper assessments.
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The good
Despite the controversies surrounding ChatGPT and other AI technologies, they could keep on helping students.
It can, for example, shorten the time necessary to write in the same way that a calculator aids mathematics or Google searches for information.
Avani Rao, a high school sophomore from California, was startled by the AI technology.
“It’s so much more realistic than I thought a robot could be,” said Rao.
Rao has used ChatGPT to try out new or creative ideas, but not in the classroom.
Because of the tool’s use, there are a number of ways it might assist youngsters learning a second language or people who are unable to construct sentences.
ChatGPT generates original material and never plagiarizes.
Students may also utilize the AI tool as a coach to help them develop their writing and language abilities and to clarify any difficulties they are experiencing.
“It really will tutor you,” said Vogelsinger.
ChatGPT, according to one of his pupils, clearly conveyed a topic from their scientific lesson.
ChatGPT may also be used by educators to build or change lesson plans, exercises, and tests to meet the requirements of unique students.
Xiaoming Zhai, a scientific education specialist at the University of Georgia, evaluated the program using an academic essay.
Because of its capacity to absorb knowledge and generate superb writing, he was amazed by the outcome.
“It’s really amazing,” said Zhai.
The bad
While AI technologies clearly have several benefits, they also have significant drawbacks.
One of the most serious difficulties is that ChatGPT and other technologies may make mistakes since they do not use data from databases.
Instead, kids are taught to create unique, natural-sounding compositions.
Without comprehension, language is remixed, resulting in errors.
CNET, for example, was chastised in 2023 for employing AI to generate a large number of erroneous articles.
The Bard chatbot made incorrect remarks regarding the James Webb Space Telescope during its early marketing.
ChatGPT is “confidently wrong,” according to Casey Fiesler, a technology ethics researcher at the University of Colorado Boulder.
“There are mistakes and bad information,” she pointed out.
Fiesler has also created TikTok videos that illustrate ChatGPT’s issues.
The training data for the OpenAI tool is restricted, dating back until before September 2021.
When the gadget was asked for sources, it made them up.
Xiaoming Zhai appreciates the technology, but when it comes to citations, he realizes its limitations.
The results appeared to be right, yet they did not exist.
