As students have returned to school, so have generative AI tools like ChatGPT with the usage statistics of the chatbot swelling especially among their demographic. While ChatGPT and other generative AI models created considerable concern and furor surrounding academic integrity, several institutions have either adopted methods to curb usage of the algorithm or have been more accepting in acknowledging it as a potential educational aid. Given that students have formed a considerable portion of the user base, the uptick in ChatGPT’s usage statistics comes as no surprise. However, the mentality toward the chatbot is not as hostile as last year since academicians are now more familiar with the capabilities as well as pitfalls of language models and machine learning protocols.
Users and developers alike were also concerned about ChatGPT’s declining users as well as the dipping quality of the LLM; however, the resurgence of student use indicates OpenAI’s ChatGPT remains a key source for students when it comes to tasks such as homework help. While this might still be concerning for teachers and academics, numerous control measures, regulations, and even bans have been instituted since the close of the last academic year, and educational frameworks are now more prepared to deal with disruptors like AI tools. Regardless, the attitude toward ChatGPT and other chatbots is not all that negative anymore and a sizable portion of academics are more willing to experiment with AI technologies within the bounds of their extant teaching practices.
Addressing AI in Education: Aware Students and Well-Equipped Teachers
Students and teachers are more aware about ChatGPT’s capabilities.
In the time since ChatGPT’s launch last year, both students and teachers have had considerable time to evaluate the chatbot’s relevance, applicability, as well as fidelity. While OpenAI’s famed generative tool can perform tasks like AI writing rather well, it is prone to common pitfalls of language models such as hallucination. Student awareness of the phenomenon has risen, ensuring they don’t rely on the tool blindly to plagiarize answers or assignments from its responses. Similarly, both students and teachers are now aware of AI’s limited scope due to the closed nature of datasets and the prevalent bias in AI models. However, now that ChatGPT has connected to the internet, new variables might enter the picture. While ChatGPT was banned by certain districts across the United States, the bans have been lifted in numerous areas, with teachers more willing to experiment with the tool and see how the AI model works out in an educational setting.
Though copying and cheating in exams remain a concern, ChatGPT’s return to the educational space has been far more muted and less hyped than its initial entry to the niche. Language models like ChatGPT can indeed help students ideate better, helping them come up with potential topics for research and assignments on self-styled projects. While aspects like adaptive learning might be far-fetched, students can still make use of AI tools as a helpful adjunct to their organic thought process to aid with their learning methods. This has been noticed by seasoned academicians who are now less rigid when it comes to ChatGPT use and also on the larger impact of AI-generated content on education. As for students in higher education and STEM fields, acclimating to AI tools might help them grapple with AI mechanics and its methods of functioning as they prepare to enter the workforce.
Why ChatGPT’s Acceptance Has Crucial Implications for AI Education Tools
Despite lowered resistance to ChatGPT, there’s no guarantee that AI tools will become the norm in education.
As students are more cautious about their AI tool use and the parallel reduction of resistance to academics continues, future AI education aids might find greater acceptance among various student and teacher groups. While OpenAI’s ChatGPT is not primarily aimed at student use at all, education technology firms have explored using the language model to their advantage and to provide students with robust tools to assist with their academic goals. However, it’s important to note that while newer capabilities have been added to ChatGPT with its plugins and other features like APIs, it still cannot think critically and compensate for an outright lack of knowledge. Even with a connection to the internet, the model might still be prone to hallucinating and might provide incorrect information every once in a while. While there still doesn’t exist an established framework for the use of AI tools in the broader academic spectrum, the current warming up to the language model might prove instrumental in kick-starting the process.
Teachers might also have to come up with newer techniques and methods to prevent AI misuse, plagiarism, and cheating to ensure students are deploying AI within the ambit of academic ethics. Newer methods of monitoring such as video proctoring, oral examinations, and in-person writing exercises at regular intervals might be able to offset the looming threat of AI abuse among students. The same process might be more complex in educational programs that focus on coding and other aspects of technical learning, for AI coding plugins and tools like Advanced Data Analytics from OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Google Codey have grown massively popular. Regardless, some exposure might be beneficial in acquainting student developers with AI methodologies to ensure they’re aware of the code these algorithms are capable of writing.
Will OpenAI’s ChatGPT Become a Norm in Schools and Colleges?
The broader acceptance of ChatGPT might be able to kickstart the dawn of AI technology in the classroom over a gradual period.
Though there has been an uptick in student usage of ChatGPT once more, there’s no guarantee that ChatGPT will find broad acceptance anytime soon. A good reason for academicians not being as concerned about the tool is primarily due to the pitfalls of AI being more out in the open when compared to ChatGPT’s early days. Though AI presents numerous prospects for academics and the revamping of education, humans are still in the early stages of developing AI, and creating reliable systems is a long, drawn-out process. The normalization of AI tools in academics will not be an immediate process but instead might happen over a period that allows both students and teachers to accept change gradually.
FAQs
1. How can ChatGPT be used in education?
ChatGPT can be used to generate ideas, help with research, aid summarization, and perform AI writing tasks to demonstrate the process of creating readable material.
2. Can ChatGPT be used for teaching?
The exact methods of how ChatGPT can aid teaching are not clear. AI can help with planning classes, creating adaptive learning materials, streamlining mundane tasks such as scheduling, and deploying data analysis to assess performance.
3. What are the risks of ChatGPT in education?
ChatGPT can be misused to automate writing tasks and can be deployed to cheat on homework and examinations. However, students have now realized that ChatGPT is capable of hallucinating and is not a foolproof solution to their academic concerns.