Dr. StrangeBot or “How I Learned To Stop Worrying and Love AI”
I’m sure you’ve all heard by now how ChatGPT is being used for cheating, and is going to destroy our education system. It’s free for anyone to use, it provides a response that works at a glance, and most importantly, it’s not getting flagged by existing plagiarism software.
And it’s the most positive disruption to education since Wikipedia.
First, let’s address the fear. It’s true that ChatGPT and other AI tools will get smarter with time, and the quality and style of writing lends itself to college-level essays. With that said, let’s talk about a few things:
- Some students are going to “cheat” no matter what. There are countless predatory online services that promise to write essays for students. ChatGPT isn’t even the first AI-based essay writing tool! Unlike ChatGPT, using paid services not only encourages the for-profit cheating, but also can evade existing plagiarism detection tools. For these students, they will find a way to get their essay written regardless.
- ChatGPT isn’t all that smart when it comes to abstract concepts like those found in essays. While it often sounds confident in its responses, it frequently gets basic information wrong and otherwise misses detailed information beyond the broad strokes in an essay, preventing students from automatically acing their assignments (more on this in a minute).
- Still worried about it being used this way? There are already a few tools in their infancy that try and loosely identify if an AI wrote a paper. Even ChatGPT breaks down how to create an ML-based model to identify papers it writes (just ask it!):
So with all of that said, what could we possibly be gaining from this? For starters, ChatGPT may not be all that great for the details on an essay, but students actually can review what ChatGPT’s response is and ask clarifying questions. Don’t understand why ChatGPT suggested that you talk about Master/Slave relationships on your ENG 113 paper about Frankenstein? Ask it!
Unlike a “Write Me An Essay” service, ChatGPT can provide rationale and reasoning as to why it made certain suggestions. It can also help teach the user more about the subject beyond just writing the essay. Additionally, ChatGPT can provide a framework/broad strokes for the format of an essay the same way that countless other online tools can, but removes the payment barrier needed to do so. This ensures the same availability for all students, not just ones that can afford to pay for it.
Similarly, while ChatGPT is getting laser-focus as it relates to college-level essays, people are overlooking the incredible benefits it has for all non-essay interactions. Remember those predatory pay-for-help services? What if I told you that every student could get on-demand help with any topic or question for free?
Take a look at this sample interaction with ChatGPT from a student struggling to understand how to solve this pre-algebra problem:
Normally, this would be where the interaction would end with any online resource. The student would type the question into Google, copy down the answer, and move along. But for the student that actually needs help understanding HOW to solve this, you can’t ask Google follow-up questions. With ChatGPT they can dig deeper:
Look at that! A simple explanation of how to solve that type of problem, why we solve it in a specific way, and what the individual steps are. If you just wanted the answer, there are a million tools you could use online to just get the answer in a vacuum (including just typing it into Google). But if you want to understand each individual component explained at the level of detail each student could need, you’ll be hard-pressed to find a free tool as effective/available as ChatGPT.
The fear-mongering around ChatGPT and negative press is driving students to view it strictly as a cheating tool when it could be so much more. Embed it into your curriculum, treat it as a resource, and watch students who truly are trying to do well get the additional assistance that they need on-demand, for free, and help spark a conversation.