Why Schools are fighting with ChatGPT and AI

My ten-year-old son, then he discovered ChatGPT, by accident actually.

He heard his friends discussing this new online phenomenon, and how they didn’t need to sweat out their assignments anymore.

And knowing that I spent a lot of time online and probably because he is still innocent, he asked for my opinion.

He was like, “Dad can I write my essay assignment using ChatGPT.”

Of course, I knew all about ChatGPT being an online writer and all, and the threat of losing my livelihood to a bot, heck! I knew about ChatGPT and its insidious plan to take over my job!

But until this moment I hadn’t thought much about its effect on students and schools.

ChatGPT an essay-writing tool

So the writer in me went digging. And I started with my son’s essay request. But I didn’t ask ChatGPT to write his school topic.

I wanted a topic that has an emotional connection to my life. My son is mildly autistic, I can write tons about raising an autistic child, cry and laugh on paper, because this is our life, my wife and I.

So I typed into Open AI — “Write an Interesting Essay on Autism”

ChatGPT didn’t disappoint, in less than two minutes he had an “interesting” essay for me.

Here is his intro –

“Autism, also known as Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), is a neurodevelopmental disorder that affects social interaction, communication, and behavior. It is a spectrum disorder, meaning that it affects individuals differently and to varying degrees.”

Now that’s interesting! for a teacher marking an essay in class, — his second and third paragraphs made it even livelier.

“Autism is believed to have a genetic component, but the exact cause is not yet known. It is often diagnosed in early childhood, between the ages of 2 and 3, and is four times more common in boys than in girls.

Individuals with autism may have difficulty with social interactions, including making eye contact, understanding nonverbal cues, and engaging in conversation. They may also have repetitive behaviors and routines, and may be sensitive to certain stimuli such as sounds or textures.”

It’s all factual, dry facts, and no emotions. As a writer, I sighed with relief.

Schools and Educators under siege are responding

But schools on a mission to impart knowledge to young developing minds aren’t sighing with relief, they are under siege.

Students looking for ways to get dry school work done with minimal effort have found a savior in ChatGPT, and Educational departments are responding.

The New York City Department of Education, Seattle public schools, and Los Angeles Unified School District responding to concerns over plagiarism and the bot’s accuracy, earlier this month blocked ChatGPT from school networks.

Their bone of contention is cheating concerns and academic honesty.

It’s not just in the US, different Jurisdictions in Australia, Western Australia, New South Wales, Queensland, and Tasmania, have blocked students from accessing ChatGPT on school internet networks,

In France, Sciences Po, a leading French University, banned the use of ChatGPT and other AI tools. Students caught flouting the new rules risk being thrown out of the university.

Bangalore’s RV University in India banned students from using ChatGPT, and any student suspected of using AI will have to repeat their assignment.

ChatGPT has unnerved Universities and schools across the world, Professors and teachers, wanting to impart knowledge to students who simply want to pass exams are at loggerheads.

A protracted fight that may not come to an end soon is in the making.

“The ChatGPT software is raising important questions for educators and researchers all around the world, with regards to fraud in general, and particularly plagiarism,” a professor of a leading university in the US was quoted saying.

A tool to detect AI-generated content

ChatGPT maker OpenAI, to protect the platform’s veracity and waylay Professors’ and Teacher’s concerns have released a tool to detect AI-generated content

It’s designed to detect AI-generated text but according to OpenAI laboratory, ‘is not fully reliable, but has good classifiers to pick up signs of text written by AI.’

But in the same breath, they confessed it is “impossible to reliably detect all AI-written text”

They admitted that the classifier tool has several limitations, — it’s unreliable when identifying text below 1,000 characters and sometimes misidentifies human-written text as AI.

The Ten Million Dollar Question

So who is the wiser, the student or the teacher?

ChatGPT has thrown a spanner in Education, soon we may have Kids scoring 1600 in their SAT exams, but totally oblivious to textbook knowledge.

Having learned all this what do you think was the answer to my son?

A resounding NO! of course, but I know deep inside my heart it’s for a short while when he still respects Dad’s authority.

Soon teachers, professors, and tough-sounding parents like myself will have to throw in the towel to ChatGPT.

This article was first published Here: Schools are banning ChatGPT and AI