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Essay: High on AI

July 23, 2023 | 11:32 AM - Updated on July 25, 2023 | 8:19 AM
in COLUMNS, NEWS, SCHOOLS
13

 

By Abigael T. Sidi

An Upper West Sider, Abigael Sidi is a rising sophomore at The Bronx High School of Science.

The rapid advancement of Artificial Intelligence (AI) has revolutionized the way we interact with technology. One notable innovation in the realm of AI-driven communication is ChatGPT. Developed by OpenAI, ChatGPT is an advanced language model that utilizes deep learning techniques to understand and generate human-like text responses.

Not to pull a Richard Blumenthal (the senator who asked ChatGPT to write his opening remarks for a hearing on artificial intelligence) but I didn’t write that first paragraph. ChatGPT did. It’s the AI tool that blew up on multiple social media platforms as soon as it was launched last November.

Students were quick to embrace it, including at The Bronx High School of Science where I’m a rising sophomore. But by January the city’s Department of Education banned the use of ChatGPT by students and teachers “due to potential misuse and concerns raised by educators.” After a few months, though, Schools Chancellor David Banks lifted the ban. Banks said the department needed to consider that today’s students will work in a world where AI is deeply integrated into the workplace. After the ban was eliminated, student use of ChatGPT turned into a frenzy at local schools (one recent national study reported that about 50% of students ages 12-18 say they have used it for school work).

A rising senior at The Beacon School who’s used the tool expressed mixed emotions when I asked her recently about ChatGPT. The first time she tried it, “I was writing a really formal email,” she said, “so I used ChatGPT to search things up like ‘How to write a good email.” Since then, she said, she’s used it to search for ideas and to fact check her homework, saving her time and reducing stress. But she has not used ChatGPT to actually write any of her assignments. “I don’t trust AI to just copy and paste,” she said. And, she said, she doubted whether AI was helping her in the long run. She had begun to feel a scary dependence on it, doubted her own thinking skills, and sometimes wished that ChatGPT hadn’t been created.

I also spoke with a rising sophomore at the Bronx High School of Science who lives on the Upper West Side. “Around March, I started using ChatGPT to look up baking recipes,” he said, “It was in April that I started using it for school. The first time was because I just kept on procrastinating.” Soon, like many of his peers, he began using it regularly for history, language, and biology classes. “I used ChatGPT to write a global history essay in mid April,” he recalled. “I had to edit it a lot, but I ended up with a 100.” That success led him to turn to the chatbot to produce a second history assignment. “It was in late May, and I just didn’t feel like writing an essay,” he said, “so I used ChatGPT, edited what it wrote, and submitted it. Only this time I got an 80, even though a ChatGPT detector scored it as 100% human-written.”

It’s easy to think that ChatGPT will write out whatever we want it to without having us put in much thought, but the reality is that ChatGPT is not human. Its essays may have a robotic tone, or a strangely advanced vocabulary, or lack supporting evidence. Sometimes it writes complete nonsense.

Many educators oppose student use of ChatGPT, equating it with academic cheating. But, “If you can say it, and if you can write it, you know it. So if [ChatGPT] helps [students] get there, then they should use it,” a biology and research teacher at the Bronx High School of Science told me. In that view, shared by many students, ChatGPT is a new tool for use in tackling difficult homework, and it should not necessarily be considered cheating.

But are the students using it just asking for a little bit of help? That’s a question that conflicts the Bronx Science biology teacher. On the one hand, he said, students should have access to all the help they need. On the other hand, he questions whether relying on the tool will stunt a student’s creating thinking skills. So in response to his concerns, he’s made a policy change. “I don’t trust their approach to work at home,” he said, so his students are now required to do their “homework” while still at school.

“Go cheat all you want at home,” he said, “but the work has to be done here.”

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UWS-er of 25 years
UWS-er of 25 years
2 months ago

Great article, Abigael and ChatGPT! Yes, it is both a learning and a cheating tool.

4
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Deborah
Deborah
2 months ago

Very interesting article –
I was just wondering how the Chap GPT revolution was perceived by students and teachers in schools-
It will be interesting to take stock again in a year’s time to see how practices are evolving in USA and elsewhere : an other article from the writer to take stock I hope !

3
Reply
Anup Patel
Anup Patel
2 months ago

Hi Abigael, this was a thought-provoking article about the use of AI such as ChatGPT in the academic setting. It is interesting to see the varying approaches teachers have with regard to this new tool. I can sympathise with teachers that want to restrict the use of ChatGPT due to issues like dependency and students not actually absorbing the material. On the other hand, ChatGPT is legitimately useful as a resource that won’t be going away anytime soon. Based on your article it seems like teachers will have no choice but to adapt to this new reality in one form or another. Interesting piece, well done!

5
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Zoe
Zoe
2 months ago

Such a great point! I’ve also heard a lot from students who use it as a jumping off point—and from teachers that don’t mind! I’ve had the total nonsense experience as well, but I agree that overall, it’s not that different from a student rephrasing what they read in a normal article or source. Great points!!

1
Reply
Richa
Richa
2 months ago

Well-written article, Abigael! It’s good to see that young journalists like yourself are critically thinking about the pros and cons of this rapidly emerging technology (AI). Nice work!

1
Reply
Mahia
Mahia
2 months ago

This is a really well written article! I loved reading it and the point you made about the merits and issues with AI use is very interesting. I know a lot of people that use it to aid in studying or planning but it can be used as a tool to encourage academic dishonestly. As AI evolves it’ll be interesting to see how the use of it does so as well.

Last edited 2 months ago by Mahia
1
Reply
Rebecca
Rebecca
2 months ago

Very well written! The first paragraph was really clever. Well done!

0
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PMist
PMist
2 months ago

This is a great article. Well done Abigael!
I agree the tool helps, but it does not give you exactly what you want, every single time.
AI was created to help the humans, it is not a replacement of humans.

1
Reply
Krushangi Patel
Krushangi Patel
2 months ago

Great Article Abigael. One of the hot topics lately. My company has also come up with a similar AI tool, and I honestly have started relying on that for day to small things. But the more I used, the more I realized, there is no innovation , and after all it’s not human. But, for certain things like drafting an templated email like OOO/ your Bio write up, I would prefer to get templates from such AI tools rather than spending too much time on it. So I guess, there are pros and cons. However technically, science is moving to AI. So looking forward, how things turn out in next couple of years with AI! Good luck:)

0
Reply
Mansi Choksi
Mansi Choksi
2 months ago

Great article, Abigael! I understand the concerns that teachers might have regarding the students’ dependence on AI tools like ChatGPT and that it hasn’t always been giving out correct information. But, it can also be seen as an efficient resource that will help the students in their education and make problem-solving easy. Keep it up!

0
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Amy E.
Amy E.
2 months ago

I get the value of using these AI tools for research, but in order to edit, one must have learned how to write. And a big part of learning how to write is generating your own content, using your brain and your creative skills. Additionally, how is it fair for students who “didn’t feel like” writing an essay to be compared to students who wrote their essays completely on their own? The pressure will be on for all students to use AI, and then no one is writing anything original.

2
Reply
Liz G
Liz G
2 months ago

Great article Abigael! I’m a professional in tech, and it’s incredibly interesting to me to see these points of view from you and your peers. AI definitely isn’t going away any time soon, so we need to try and understand how people are using it and what their experiences with it are, very valuable reporting here.

0
Reply
Johan
Johan
2 months ago

Great article – thanks for sharing.

I’m curious – do you feel like students around you want to better understand how chatgpt works / is trained or do you feel like it is taken for granted and is being used with almost no checks?

Regarding homeworks, if you want to be thorough, wouldn’t it take longer to use such a tool today? (You’d have to check a lot of facts).

0
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