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ChatGPT in education

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ChatGPT's logo

Since OpenAI's public release of ChatGPT in November 2022, the chatbot and its peers have been at the source of intense discussion within education, with many schools and universities taking hostile stances towards usage of large language models, while others have embraced the use of the tools in assignments as they can be useful. The usage of ChatGPT has inspired many to foresee a potential paradigm shift in education, with oral exams being proposed to assure that it cannot be used in tests.

Effectiveness and uses

In a blinded test, ChatGPT was judged to have passed graduate-level exams at the University of Minnesota at the level of a C+ student and at Wharton with a B to B− grade.[1] The performance of ChatGPT for computer programming of numerical methods was assessed by a Stanford University student and faculty in March 2023 through a variety of computational mathematics examples.[2] Assessment psychologist Eka Roivainen administered a partial IQ test to ChatGPT and estimated its Verbal IQ to be 155, which would put it in the top 0.1% of test-takers.[3]

In a poll conducted in March and April 2023, 38% of American students reported they had used ChatGPT for a school assignment without teacher permission. In total, 58% of the students reported having used ChatGPT.[4][5]

A major shortcoming of ChatGPT is accuracy, as some term papers written by the large-language model contained errors. Wharton School professor Ethan Mollick noted that ChatGPT contained some "surprising" errors, especially in mathematics.[6]

Cheating and academic misconduct

ChatGPT's capability to write assignments for students have made it the center of intense scrutiny and censure from educators, especially with regard to essays. Some headlines for op-eds, such as one in The Atlantic, foresaw the "death" of the college application essay in particular thanks to ChatGPT.[7][8][9]

The impact of ChatGPT on education, especially in English studies, is indeed a topic of significant discussion. Daniel Herman's perspective reflects concerns about the potential devaluation of writing skills if AI can generate text as easily as humans. On the other hand, Chris Stokel-Walker and Emma Bowman highlight the need for educators to adapt their methods to focus more on critical thinking and reasoning, as AI tools like ChatGPT could potentially be used for plagiarism or produce biased content. It's a complex issue with various viewpoints and implications for how education may evolve in the future.The theory that ChatGPT will destroy education is disputed almost as widely as it is believed. Kevin Brown of Christianity Today wrote that the human brain remains consistently better able to create material than ChatGPT. Brown further argued that education in its spirit will continue to live on and that ChatGPT could only revolutionize teaching methods.[8] The New York Times' Kevin Roose also reported that ChatGPT's prohibition would never be able to be practiced effectively, noting it would be impossible to police. Roose noted that students can access the internet outside of schools, effectively rendering a ban obsolete; Roose suggested instead that teachers allow it openly for some assignments similar to calculators, and that teaching with the AI is the best approach.[10] The oral exam has also been used as an example of an instruction method which could circumvent the assignment and test students' knowledge more effectively on a 1:1 basis.[11]

One instance, as reported by Rolling Stone, resulted in a professor at Texas A&M University misusing ChatGPT to check student assignments for verifying whether an assignment utilized the large language model. ChatGPT returned a result of all students using it, and so the professor promptly returned a failing grade to all of his students. Rolling Stone noted however that ChatGPT inherently is unable to verify whether it was used to write student assignments, and a post to a Reddit community dedicated to ChatGPT received widespread attention with many attacking the professor for a lack of familiarity towards the chatbot.[12][13] More recently, a 2024 study found that increased academic workload and time constraints lead students to use ChatGPT more frequently. However, this reliance is associated with negative outcomes like procrastination, memory loss, and decreased academic performance.[14][15]

Writing scholar Collin Bjork claims that ChatGPT poses less of a threat to academic integrity and more of a threat to equity in education[16] and linguistic diversity.[17] Other researchers argue that writing scholars are "uniquely equipped" to help instructors navigate the challenges that artificial intelligence systems like ChatGPT pose to education.[18]

Support and opposition

Bans

Some educational institutions have chosen to ban access to ChatGPT. The reasons behind these decisions likely vary, but concerns about potential misuse, such as plagiarism or reliance on AI for writing tasks, could be driving factors. ChatGPT has been met with various bans from certain educational institutions. One of the earliest districts to ban the tool was the Los Angeles Unified School District, which blocked access to the tool less than a month after its official release.[19] The New York City Department of Education reportedly blocked access to ChatGPT in December 2022[20] and officially announced a ban around January 4, 2023.[21][22]

In February 2023, the University of Hong Kong sent a campus-wide email to instructors and students stating that the use of ChatGPT or other AI tools is prohibited in all classes, assignments and assessments at the university. Any violations would be treated as plagiarism by the university unless the student obtains the prior written consent from the course instructor.[23][24] Also in the 2023 spring semester, Harvard University banned ChatGPT and announced that usage of generative AI would be treated as any other form of academic misconduct, though some instructors allowed for usage of the tool.[citation needed]

Shift in the perception of ChatGPT in education

Some schools in the United States for the 2023–24 school year announced a repeal of their bans for ChatGPT. New York City repealed its ban in May 2023 while replacing it with a statement which encourages students to learn how to use generative AI, and in rural Washington, Walla Walla Public Schools announced it would repeal its ban of ChatGPT in student assignments.[19][25][26] A professor at the University of California, Los Angeles, has permitted the incorporation of ChatGPT into his students' writing process instead of banning the use of this new technology.[27] He argued that educators should teach students to use ChatGPT ethically and productively, and that it is not feasible or practical to ban students from using it.[27] He also discussed the benefits of learning to write well with AI assistance, and stressed on the importance of being responsible users of AI.[27]

Adoption into assignments

Some professors have created separate college courses designed specifically to train generative AI. For example, Arizona State University professor Andrew Maynard and Vanderbilt professor Jules White both developed a new course specifically for prompt engineering generative AI chatbots.[28] Other instructors, such as Ethan Mollick at Wharton, have, in the face of inevitable use by students regardless of prohibition, not only accepted usage of generative AI but required all students to use ChatGPT in their assignments. Mollick reported to NPR that the usage of ChatGPT generally improved his students' work, using AI to further assist in the generation of ideas.[6] Some professors have focused on creating learning material and have highlighted the opportunities of using ChatGPT to personalise assignments to a student's background.[29] The use of AI in education has vast potential. It can provide personalized learning experiences and adaptive teaching methods.[30]

Chegg

The education technology company Chegg, which was a website dedicated to helping students with assignments using a database of collected worksheets and asssigments, became one of the most prominent business victims to ChatGPT and other large language models, with CEO Dan Rosensweig stating, in response to his company's stock price nearly being cut in half after a quarterly earnings call in May 2023, that he has become the "poster child for getting your ass kicked in the public markets by AI". Though executives at Chegg were urging Rosenweig to work on developing a ChatGPT rival as early as possible since 2020, the technology firm ultimately decided against producing a ChatGPT competitor due to GPT 3.5 not being able to sufficiently lure away Chegg's 8 million subscribers, which makes up nearly 90% of the firm's revenue.[31][32]

Detection software

Main article: Artificial intelligence content detection

Some companies have responded to the influx of ChatGPT and generative AI among students by developing detection software which flags down essays likely written by AI. Among the first companies to develop solutions like this was Turnitin, which developed a tool to detect AI-based academic dishonesty. A corporate blog post from the company stated that the company's database of numerous student essays was used to train its own detection system. When tested by The Washington Post, though, noted that Turnitin's detector flagged an innocent student for using ChatGPT to generate the conclusion of her essay.[33] The company itself reported that its detector was not always accurate as well.[34][35]

Numerous tools such as GPTZero were created as tools to detect AI-generated text, and numerous other startups have released tools on detecting AI-written work, including OpenAI itself. However, research reports have stated that detection software often fails to detect content generated by AI, and that these tools are easy to fool.[36][37] OpenAI's official tool, Classifier, launched in January 2023, was later taken down in August 2023 due to low usage and accuracy issues.[38][39][40]

References

  1. ^ Kelly, Samantha Murphy (January 26, 2023). "ChatGPT passes exams from law and business schools | CNN Business". CNN. Archived from the original on February 2, 2023. Retrieved February 3, 2023.
  2. ^ Kashefi, Ali; Mukerji, Tapan (2023). "ChatGPT for Programming Numerical Methods". arXiv:2303.12093 [cs.LG].
  3. ^ Roivainen, Eka (March 28, 2023). "I Gave ChatGPT an IQ Test. Here's What I Discovered". Scientific American. Archived from the original on April 3, 2023. Retrieved April 3, 2023.
  4. ^ Klar, Rebecca (May 10, 2023). "Teens use, hear of ChatGPT more than parents: poll". The Hill. Archived from the original on May 18, 2023. Retrieved June 15, 2023.
  5. ^ Impact Research. "Parents and students are optimistic about AI, but parents have a lotto learn to catch up to their kids – and want rules and ratings to help them" (PDF). Common Sense Media. Archived (PDF) from the original on June 9, 2023. Retrieved June 15, 2023.
  6. ^ a b Kelly, Mary Louise (January 26, 2023). "'Everybody is cheating': Why this teacher has adopted an open ChatGPT policy". NPR. Retrieved October 10, 2023.
  7. ^ Marche, Stephen (December 6, 2022). "The College Essay Is Dead". The Atlantic. Retrieved October 10, 2023.
  8. ^ a b Brown, Kevin (December 23, 2022). "Why Educators Shouldn't Be Worried About AI". ChristianityToday.com. Retrieved October 10, 2023.
  9. ^ Bowman, Emma (December 19, 2022). "A new AI chatbot might do your homework for you. But it's still not an A+ student". NPR. Archived from the original on January 20, 2023. Retrieved December 19, 2022.
  10. ^ Roose, Kevin (January 12, 2023). "Don't Ban ChatGPT in Schools. Teach With It". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved October 10, 2023.
  11. ^ Belkin, Douglas (June 1, 2023). "As AI-Enabled Cheating Roils Colleges, Professors Turn to an Ancient Testing Method". Wall Street Journal. ISSN 0099-9660. Retrieved October 10, 2023.
  12. ^ Klee, Miles (May 17, 2023). "Professor Flunks All His Students After ChatGPT Falsely Claims It Wrote Their Papers". Rolling Stone. Retrieved October 10, 2023.
  13. ^ "College instructor put on blast for accusing students of using ChatGPT". NBC News. May 18, 2023. Retrieved October 10, 2023.
  14. ^ Dolan, Eric W. (March 25, 2024). "ChatGPT linked to declining academic performance and memory loss in new study". PsyPost - Psychology News. Retrieved March 30, 2024.
  15. ^ ABBAS, Muhammad (February 16, 2024). "Is it harmful or helpful? Examining the causes and consequences of generative AI usage among university students". International Journal of Educational Technology in Higher Education. 21 (10). doi:10.1186/s41239-024-00444-7.
  16. ^ Bjork, Collin (April 5, 2023). "Don't fret about students using ChatGPT to cheat – AI is a bigger threat to educational equality". The Conversation. Retrieved May 12, 2024.
  17. ^ Bjork, Collin (February 9, 2023). "ChatGPT threatens language diversity. More needs to be done to protect our differences in the age of AI". The Conversation. Retrieved May 12, 2024.
  18. ^ Wise, Beck; Emerson, Lisa; Van Luyn, Ariella; Dyson, Bronwen; Bjork, Collin; Thomas, Susan (March 2024). "A scholarly dialogue: writing scholarship, authorship, academic integrity and the challenges of AI". Higher Education Research & Development. 43 (3): 578–590.
  19. ^ a b Singer, Natasha (August 24, 2023). "Despite Cheating Fears, Schools Repeal ChatGPT Bans". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved October 10, 2023.
  20. ^ "New York City Department of Education Bans ChatGPT". GovTech. January 10, 2023. Archived from the original on February 16, 2023. Retrieved February 16, 2023.
  21. ^ Cole, Samantha (January 4, 2023). "NYC Bans Students and Teachers from Using ChatGPT". www.vice.com. Archived from the original on January 5, 2023. Retrieved January 5, 2023.
  22. ^ Ropek, Lucas (January 4, 2023). "New York City Schools Ban ChatGPT to Head Off a Cheating Epidemic". Gizmodo. Archived from the original on January 6, 2023. Retrieved January 6, 2023.
  23. ^ "港大禁用ChatGPT等AI工具，为全港大学首例". The Paper. China News Service. February 18, 2023. Archived from the original on March 6, 2023. Retrieved February 19, 2023.
  24. ^ Yau, Cannix; Chan, Kahon (February 17, 2023). "University of Hong Kong temporarily bans students from using ChatGPT". South China Morning Post. Archived from the original on February 19, 2023. Retrieved February 19, 2023.
  25. ^ Faguy, Ana. "New York City Public Schools Reverses ChatGPT Ban". Forbes. Archived from the original on May 21, 2023. Retrieved May 21, 2023.
  26. ^ Serrano, Jody (May 19, 2023). "New York City Schools Lift Ban on ChatGPT, Say Initial Fear 'Overlooked the Potential' of AI". Gizmodo. Archived from the original on May 21, 2023. Retrieved May 21, 2023.
  27. ^ a b c Villasenor, John (February 10, 2023). "How ChatGPT Can Improve Education, Not Threaten It". Scientific American. Retrieved December 7, 2023.
  28. ^ Coffey, Lauren. "Professors Craft Courses on ChatGPT With ChatGPT". Inside Higher Ed. Retrieved October 10, 2023.
  29. ^ Einarsson, Hafsteinn (December 13, 2023). "Application of ChatGPT for automated problem reframing across academic domains". Computers and Education: Artificial Intelligence. 6. doi:10.1016/j.caeai.2023.100194. hdl:20.500.11815/4807.
  30. ^ Popescu, Anca (January 9, 2024). "AI's Secret Weapon in Education. ChatGPT – The Future of Personalized Learning". Bulletin of the Transilvania University of Brasov. Series V: Economic Sciences: 45–52. doi:10.31926/but.es.2023.16.65.2.5. ISSN 2065-2208.
  31. ^ Dave, Paresh (June 5, 2023). "Chegg Embraced AI. ChatGPT Ate Its Lunch Anyway". Wired. ISSN 1059-1028. Retrieved October 18, 2023.
  32. ^ Shin, Rachel (July 12, 2023). "A.I. can kill your business in an instant. Just ask the CEO of Chegg". Fortune. Retrieved October 18, 2023.
  33. ^ Fowler, Geoffrey A. (April 14, 2023). "Analysis | We tested a new ChatGPT-detector for teachers. It flagged an innocent student". Washington Post. ISSN 0190-8286. Retrieved October 10, 2023.
  34. ^ Delouya, Samantha. "Turnitin is the go-to software to catch students cheating. Now it's focused on a potential cat-and-mouse game with OpenAI's new ChatGPT chatbot". Business Insider. Retrieved October 10, 2023.
  35. ^ "Sneak preview of Turnitin's AI writing and ChatGPT detection capability". www.turnitin.com. January 13, 2023. Retrieved October 10, 2023.
  36. ^ "ChatGPT Detectors Are Biased and Easy to Fool, Research Shows". CNET. Retrieved October 10, 2023.
  37. ^ Barshay, Jill (September 4, 2023). "PROOF POINTS: It's easy to fool ChatGPT detectors". The Hechinger Report. Retrieved October 10, 2023.
  38. ^ Goodwin, Danny (July 26, 2023). "OpenAI's AI Text Classifier no longer available due to 'low rate of accuracy'". Search Engine Land. Retrieved October 10, 2023.
  39. ^ David, Emilia (July 25, 2023). "OpenAI can't tell if something was written by AI after all". The Verge. Retrieved October 10, 2023.
  40. ^ Elkhatat, Ahmed M. (January 1, 2023). "Evaluating the efficacy of AI content detection tools in differentiating between human and AI-generated text". EBSCO.
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