In Nov. 2022, OpenAI launched ChatGPT, an artificial intelligence chat tool. In the two years since, it has become the poster child for generative AI chatbots and can be used for nearly endless tasks. Among students, help with assignments is a highly popular use for the website. This raises an important question regarding students’ usage of AI and whether it is hindering their ability to actually learn. The repercussions for using AI could be severe, whether that be in the long run or immediately.
Since ChatGPT has become mainstream, there has been a roaring debate on whether AI is dangerous and future generations may be adversely impacted by our current reliance on the technology. There is no way to know how accurate OpenAI’s chatbot is. This is due to the varying models, the more advanced of which are stuck behind a paywall. Accuracy also varies by subject and even language. Even if students use ChatGPT regularly, they may not be getting the right information.
“You don’t gain knowledge by just asking the question and getting the answer,” junior Abas Abdi said.
On the other hand, ChatGPT has been a tool for teachers and students like business teacher Travis Birklid, who uses AI to “supercharge” his lessons, adding to presentations and helping him gather information.
AI is being used by students and teachers alike as just another search engine. That comes with pros and cons. Information taken from ChatGPT is more personally tailored to the information seeker’s search, but when everyone is getting different information while asking the same question, there will be some inaccuracies.
Tech integration head Michael Teachout described using it as another way to aggregate, collect and utilize information, citing it as quicker at times.
Nonetheless, students must be educated on AI as it rapidly grows and becomes more integrated into our lives. If we are not, we as a society are put at a disadvantage.
“A lot of kids will benefit from it if they still are willing to view it as a tool and not the finished product,” Birklid said.
As artificial intelligence becomes more and more prominent, students are thinking of more ways to utilize it. The most popular use of AI by students is getting information, which is risky because accuracy varies by subject and language.
Teachout said, “bad information in leads to bad information out.”
“It can be a bit of an easy button,” Birklid said.
Students are also using AI to cheat on assignments, tests and essays and are getting more and more clever with their usage of AI.
“You can usually tell when something [AI]’s been used…I’ve busted kids, it’s pretty straightforward,” Birklid said.
Then again, you cannot rely on AI completely to write a paper or do math problems.
To combat AI being used for cheating, teachers have been implementing detectors and censors for essays. As usage of artificial intelligence grows, so will the vigilance regarding it. The best that can be hoped for is that the technology is able to keep up.