The deal with ChatGPT — CatlinSpeak

By Ryan Jan ‘23

*Logo of ChatGPT, courtesy of Wikimedia Commons*

Are you tired of your human teachers and their outdated teaching methods? Well, have no fear, because ChatGPT is here! The latest and greatest AI language model developed by OpenAI, ChatGPT is set to revolutionize the way we learn and communicate.

Or at least, that's what we're being told. But before we all jump on the ChatGPT bandwagon, let's take a moment to critically examine the impact this tool could have on our education and employment.

In this article, CatlinSpeak will take a look at the supposed benefits of ChatGPT and the potential consequences of relying too heavily on AI in the classroom. So sit back, relax, and prepare to have your mind blown by the future of education (or not).

Did you fall for it? I used the latest and greatest AI language model developed by OpenAI to generate this article’s introduction.

Since its launch in November of 2022, ChatGPT has taken the world by storm. Within two months, it reached 100 million users, making it the fastest-growing consumer app in Internet history. For context, it took Instagram two and a half years to reach 100 million users.

Its appeal is easily understandable. With the correct prompts, it is capable of generating text about almost anything in any style, from article introductions, work emails, and even law school exams.

ChatGPT is built from the large language model GPT-3, which is what generates the writing. Imagine it as an extension of your phone’s autocomplete function. GPT-3 was fed writing samples from Internet databases, and used those samples to find the probability that a specific word comes after the one before. From there, users can prompt it to generate writing word by word.

It also has its limitations. On the technical side, ChatGPT’s writing is based entirely on probability. Since it doesn’t actually understand the words it writes, it can sometimes produce answers that are incorrect or nonsensical. For example, in January, the news outlet CNET issued multiple corrections on articles that were written using an AI model similar to ChatGPT.

However, the main concerns with ChatGPT are of the ethical variety. Experts are concerned with its use to generate disinformation, because it generates writing that is authoritative and correct-sounding, even if it is completely incorrect.

Fact-checking website NewsGuard prompted it to write 100 false narratives, ranging from the 2018 Parkland school shooting to Covid vaccines to the shootdown of Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17. Of those 100 prompts, ChatGPT generated convincing disinformation for 80.

Another concern is that students will use AI to plagiarize work without putting in the prerequisite thinking, effectively learning very little compared to doing work without AI. Across the country, educators are currently finding ways to adapt to the new technology.

In January, New York City’s public schools banned the use of the model on school devices and networks, citing “concerns about negative impacts on student learning, and concerns regarding the safety and accuracy of contents”. It is also banned from school devices in Seattle, Los Angeles, and many other school districts.

AI use has also begun to spread among Catlin Gabel School (CGS) students as well. Out of 28 CGS students surveyed, 11, or 39%, have said that they have used ChatGPT for schoolwork. It is used in all core classes, with eight students using it for English work, five students using it for Social Studies and Languages work, and four students using it for Science, Math, and Computer Science.

This semester, partially to mitigate ChatGPT’s use, CGS Social Studies teacher Mickey Del Castillo’s Philosophy class is entirely handwritten. “There are ways around it, that are more analog for teachers, that are just in essence not using a computer and having students write by hand to do the work,” he said.

Outside of academics, on the other hand, his outlook is more rosy. “If I’m being optimistic, it will make things more efficient. Hopefully something like ChatGPT will allow individuals who are poor communicators to become better communicators,” Del Castillo said. “I see its professional usage outside of the academic realm to be very important.”

However, he stressed that ChatGPT, and AI models, are still in an infant state. “I’m just more wondering, what’s the next thing going to look like that will then really make us concerned,” Del Castillo said.

He then connected the current rise of AI to the rise of social media in the early 2000s. “In the early 2000s, you could go onto Friendster and link with your friends, and that wasn’t the thing we were concerned about, we weren’t concerned about MySpace, what became the thing was Facebook,” he explained. “And I think that it won’t be ChatGPT that does it, it will be something after it.” It may be only a novelty now, but like social media, AI has the potential to totally transform how we live, for better or for worse.

Tech giants are quickly beginning to compete to create the latest and greatest AI model and capitalize from this new market. Microsoft, a major investor in OpenAI, has integrated ChatGPT into its Bing search engine. Google and Baidu, a Chinese tech company, are also joining this new tech race, announcing Bard AI and ERNIE, respectively, in early February. That next thing after ChatGPT may be rapidly approaching.

In conclusion, ChatGPT represents a significant milestone in the development of AI language models, but it is not without its limitations and concerns. While it can generate impressive outputs, it is prone to errors, biases, and plagiarism, which raises concerns about the quality and reliability of the generated content. As AI technology continues to evolve, we can expect to see even more advanced language models that may address some of these concerns, but also create new ones.

It's clear that the future of AI and education is going to be exciting and filled with possibilities. However, it's also important to recognize that the use of AI in education raises important ethical and social questions that need to be carefully considered. As we move forward, it's essential to strike a balance between the benefits of this technology and the risks it poses.

So, let's continue to be thoughtful, critical, and informed about the role of AI in education, and not get too carried away with the hype. After all, who needs original thinking and creativity when you can just ask a machine to do it for you?