You may have heard about ChatGPT because several schools loudly banned it just a few weeks after its debut. The anti-ChatGPT march was organised by the New York City Department of Education, and ever since, the alarm has been going out around the world. Elon Musk recently urged a six-month halt on AI advancements and many tech industry executives are in agreement. Since then, Musk has seemingly re-entered into AI himself, although no specific details have been released.  It has appeared to be an unexpected about-turn on his part that has caused a further stir.  What precisely is it, then, and why is there a dispute around it?

What is ChatGPT?

It is essentially a Chabot and was created by Open AI, a company that specialises in artificial intelligence. It can do a variety of things, such as translate between languages, explain what something does, and respond to questions from the public. It has a wide range of capabilities, which could potentially simplify many people’s lives. The fact that it is the first of its sort in terms of scope has led to it being hailed as groundbreaking. Also, using it is cost-free on the basic plan. Why, then, is it regarded by some as harmful?

What is the dispute about?

“Ask the new artificial intelligence programme ChatGPT to write an essay about the cause of the American Civil War and you can see it churn out a persuasive term paper in a matter of seconds,” the UK-based Independent Newspaper says. That, in essence, is the crux of the issue. It can produce readable text on demand. It uses a vast collection of online digital books, media, and writings to take this text and shape it. In essence, it could potentially give pupils the opportunity to cheat. It’s a little like having a robot friend you can ask to do your schoolwork for you, and it turns out that it can work fairly well at times.

Schools are understandably trembling at the thought of allowing pupils to use it at all, and if they do, what restrictions they will impose. Schools and other educational institutions are also attempting the difficult task of figuring out how to recognise exactly when it has been used. They are extremely worried that it will eliminate the true motivation to study, which will have significant ramifications for both education and the process of human knowledge acquisition in general. Critical thinking and learning are essential, not only for academic success, but also for professional careers after graduation.  Could all of this be threatened by ChatGPT?  

In response to a question from the Associated Press, Chat CGT itself issued the following warning: 

“Generally speaking, using ChatGPT or any other automated writing tool for school assignments is not suitable as it is considered cheating and does not benefit the student in the long term.” 

Despite possessing the capability, the Chabot itself doesn’t believe it to be a good idea.  It has likely been programmed to say this, as multiple measures have been put in place to seek to safeguard its use in the midst of public outcry in the education sphere.

What are the drawbacks or dangers of utilising Chat GTP? 

Actually, there are quite a few that many students do not know about. First of all, stating the obvious; the education system is designed to teach. This is a centuries-old practice that teaches important lifelong skills including information retention and recall, critical thinking, formulating and organising responses, writing up and proofreading, assignments and much more. If students use this AI tool (and get away with it), they are arguably degrading their own skills and putting themselves at a disadvantage for opportunities later in life.  Why?  Because they will unavoidably and eventually be put in a situation where they must perform under pressure but discover that they are unable to.  This may be in a controlled test or when entering into the workforce where self determined learning and knowledge are expected to be present.

When taking an exam without a phone or ChatGPT bot sitting next to them to provide the answers, they will likewise become completely unstuck. That is precisely why tests are invigilated. Critical thinking, problem solving, knowledge retention, idea refinement, and other crucial abilities that are necessary for success throughout life are not aided by it. It can also prevent students from developing a distinctive viewpoint and voice.  That is certainly not a successful enhancement of an education process, rather a loss. In actuality, it effectively removes the very abilities that pupils must learn, making it overall detrimental.  That is certainly the party-line of most educationalists.

It has been known to spit out some entertaining stuff too and is certainly not fullproof. While it is sometimes capable of producing convincing language, that does not necessarily mean that the final product is logical, factual, or well-written as a whole.  Chat GPT will acknowledge its errors – if it is aware of them. For instance, if it believes it can identify “incorrect premises,” it has a function that will confront the user on their ideas. Additionally, it features a built-in anti-hate speech feature that will flatly reject any responses it finds to be offensive.  ChatGPT itself decides what is offensive, which it determines based on built-in algorithms. For the ongoing arguments about free expression, that poses another separate conundrum.

In a recent tweet, Open AI CEO Sam Altman may have captured the strengths and weaknesses of the technology best: 

“ChatGPT is incredibly limited, but good enough at some things to create a misleading impression of greatness”

How can you know if something was written by Chat GTP or a human? 

There are a few important things to watch out for; consistency, a sense of personality or genuine expression, and the absence of repetitious words are characteristics of writing done by humans. All of these show that a human being who is competent at writing has produced the work. It is significant since it denotes a specific and recognisable tone and set of thoughts.

Conversely, even if something is true or logical, if you notice repetition, inconsistency, or a complete lack of personality, flair, or emotion, be wary because AI may have created it.

The education community is still processing how to respond to this recent technological advancement. For courses that are essay-based and don’t have an exam component, it may be more urgent for some schools and institutions to find solutions and put in measures in place than others. Time will tell if ChatGPT and the international educational institutions can collaborate to produce something that can significantly support student learning.  This is potentially possible but only if done properly and with effective collaboration and oversight by teachers, lecturers and mentors.

Curiously, Elon Musk and a number of other business titans asked for a six-month break from AI because they were worried about the impact it may have both now and in the future. Although Musk has appeared to do a low key about-turn, the rest have signed their name to the letter and are still urging this halt for a period of time.  They are aiming to engage more people in discussions about setting restrictions on its use.

The recommendation is for pupils to keep on studying as usual and follow instructions in school, college, or university. There is no quick route to success. Instead of playing with ChatGPT, if you are struggling in your academic journey or are concerned about your academic achievements, it is much more sensible to find a private tutor. This will make it much easier for you to recognise your own areas of strength and weakness and will support your efforts to get the best grades possible. A private tutor can also collaborate with you over a longer period of time to ensure you have the skill set required for lifelong job success.  

An effort to pursue a ChatGPT quick fix will likely produce a longer term deficit in development, overall education and key skills.  As such, while this platform has potential to do good, students should be extremely wary about using it.  Learners at all stages need to be talking openly about this with their teachers or tutors in order to prevent examination failures arising from a lack of genuine knowledge retention and inhibiting the development of key skills needed for the workplace.

Here’s the big question to see if you’ve paid attention:  Was this article written by a Human or Chat GPT?