ChatGPT creates shortcuts for students, which is a headache for teachers

you know Newton’s third law? Who says for every action in nature, there is an equal and opposite reaction? Well, the same can be said for business.

In late November, the company launched OpenAI chatthe free chatbot (at least during the current research phase) powered by artificial intelligence Became famous — or notorious, in some circles — For its ability to quickly create articles or any kind of writing. Now, many students are using this technology to do their homework, and school districts are seeking software to detect if that homework has been generated by AI.

One place that happens is Hinsdale Central High School in a suburb of Chicago. One morning, the students moved between classes and wished each other well for their exams. English teacher David Lange spun around them and pointed out posters in the lobby showcasing classics old and new.

‘Catch 22.’ ‘war and peace.’ “Becoming” Michelle Obama. “Hamlet,” Lange said.

“Hamlet” – Shakespeare’s tragedy – is one of the key texts that Lange assigns to seniors taking a literature course. He had them write lots of articles to help them know what they thought of the play.

“I want the students to be able to develop their ability to make sense of the text,” he said.

Recently, some students in the school have delegated this thinking to artificial intelligence. In just three days, Lang said, there were at least eight cases of high school students cheating by submitting scripts that ChatGPT created as their own.

“She does a good job of producing work for a 17-year-old that kind of connects with him,” he said.

This is how ChatGPT works. You go to the website, and it asks if you’re a bot—which is pretty funny when you think about it—and you can direct it, like, “Write an essay about themes in ‘Hamlet’ that still resonate today.”

Within seconds, text appears on the screen as if someone was typing.

“Hamlet is driven by a desire to avenge his father’s murder, and throughout the play, he struggles with the morality of revenge. This theme is especially relevant today as issues of justice and revenge are still debated in society.”

But Lang said no 17-year-old would write that way. “The sixth sense of teachers who have been doing this for a while can see it right away because it is so smooth.”

The school district where Lang works, whose official name is Hinsdale Township High School District 86, wants to deter students from doing so in the first place. He is actually using software created by a company called Turnitin, which will search the Internet to see if the student is moving away from content that is already on the Internet. It will also compare the student’s work to papers submitted by other students.

The district said it’s paying $17,000 a year for Turnitin, and would be willing to buy a new product that captures AI-generated text. (The company said its pricing varies based on several factors, including enrollment in a school district.)

“It would be another tool for teachers to use to determine writing style and if it was something just copied and pasted from ChatGPT,” said Keith Bockwoldt, district chief information officer.

Plenty of other areas, as well as colleges, have asked Turnitin for this kind of tool.

“We’re getting an influx, an overwhelming influx of customers saying, ‘We need help, we’re not sure what to do,'” said Patty West-Smith, senior director of customer engagement at Turnitin.

West-Smith added that prior to launching ChatGPT, Turnitin was already developing software that could tell if and to what degree a piece of typing was based on AI. Now, she is working frantically to launch this product this year.

“And that’s why the first version of this to come out probably won’t be the nicest thing we’ve ever produced,” Westsmith said.

There’s at least one free app out there already. Created by Edward Tian of Princeton GPTZerowhich he said could detect how random human writing is.

“Humans are like, ‘Oh, all of a sudden, I have this idea.'” And then, “Oh, actually, all of a sudden, I have this idea.” That causes some differences, Tian said.

“Never trust anything he can think of himself if you can’t see where he keeps his mind.”

– Mr. Weasley, “Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets” by JK Rowling

He said Tian has already received interest from venture capitalists, although he has no plans for investments at the moment.

Potential clients for this type of software extend beyond high schools to include colleges and workplaces.

I can imagine any industry where authenticity is important. “I mean journalism can be an example,” said Kelly Calhoun Williams, vice-president research analyst at Gartner.

OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT, said in a statement that it did not want the app to be used for “misleading purposes in schools or elsewhere.” It said it was already developing mitigations to help users identify system-generated text.

In addition, ChatGPT has its own limitations. OpenAI warns her Sometimes “fabricating facts” or “hallucinating” answers. Nor does he tell you how he knows something.

Who calls to the line from novel “Harry Potter”: “Never trust anything he can think of himself if you can’t see where he keeps his mind.” (Thanks, Mr. Weasley.)

Teachers say they have to learn how to work with AI, just as they have had to learn how to deal with other disruptions, such as Google.

“Well, there’s this thing that can do some pretty cool things, and it’s a tool,” said Kim Williams, an English teacher at Hinsdale Central High. “So I think tool use is something we have to adapt to in teaching.”

Williams said she is considering what it will take to teach students to use ChatGPT ethically. “We’ve been thinking a lot about how we can change this instruction, not only to catch cheaters, but there’s new technology ahead of us, and it’s only going to get better.”

Because her job is to teach kids how to use their brains, and in the future, those kids are going to need to work with all kinds of software—even software that can’t show us their brains.