New AI tool raises education concerns globally
With its ability to produce high-quality essays with minimal human input, a new Artificial Intelligence tool, ChatGPT, has sparked global concern about its impact on education.
ChatGPT is the most recent chatbot from OpenAI, which was founded in 2015 by Elon Musk, Sam Altman, and others but has only been available to the public since November. In addition, it generates text on any topic in response to a prompt or query.
Due to concerns about its "negative impact on student learning" and potential for plagiarism, the new AI has already been banned across all devices in New York's public schools.
While universities in Australia consider returning to traditional pen-and-paper examinations, lecturers in the United Kingdom have been urged to reconsider how their courses are assessed.
ChatGPT has been described as a "game-changer" that will pose a challenge in universities and schools by the Guardian UK. Though traditional end-of-course examinations are used to assess GCSE and A-level courses, experts are concerned that students who use technology to do their homework will become dependent on AI-generated answers rather than acquiring the necessary knowledge and skills.
Meanwhile, Geoff Barton, General Secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, acknowledged that schools would need to figure out how to reap the benefits of ChatGPT while avoiding negative consequences.
"There are caveats around making sure that it is used responsibly and not as a license to cheat, but none of that is insurmountable," he said.
Dr. Thomas Lancaster, a computer scientist at Imperial College London best known for his research into academic integrity, contract cheating, and plagiarism, said it was a game changer in many ways. "It's certainly a major turning point in education where universities must make significant changes," he was quoted as saying.
"They have to adapt sooner rather than later to make sure that students are assessed fairly, that they all compete on a level playing field and that they still have the skills needed beyond university.
"Text-generation technology has been available for several years. The big difference is that this technology is now wrapped in a very nice interface with which you can interact, almost as if you were speaking to another human. As a result, it is accessible to a large number of people."
In addition, the latest academic integrity policy from the University of Sydney specifically mentions "generating content using artificial intelligence" as a form of cheating.
According to a university spokesperson, while few instances of cheating were observed and cases were generally of low quality, the university was preparing for change by redesigning assessments and improving detection strategies.
"We also know AI can help students learn and will be part of the tools we use at work in the future - so we need to teach our students how to use it legally," they added.
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