The Potential and Perils of chatgpt

by Dan Nguyen, Reporter

Technology and Culture

When Google released Google AutoDraw in May 2017, artists feared Artificial Intelligence (AI) would take their jobs. Google AutoDraw produces simple line art images to combat the struggle of drawing on a phone or computer; other AI art programs like Midjourney AI and DALL-E went viral with more fantastic, realistic images. Artists were justifiably alarmed by the exceptional results of their new artificial competitors. YouTuber artist, Jazza, made videos experimenting with the capabilities of AI art programs and concluded that, though it is impressive for what it is, AI does still need human direction and therefore cannot completely take over the art industry. 

With the new year, writers also have reason to fear losing their jobs as the research lab, OpenAI, stepped into the writing scene. OpenAI recently released ChatGPT, an AI algorithm that specializes in dialogue. Users can type in prompts and it will generate ideas, write essays, write code, and provide easy-to-understand answers to complex questions.

To further explore ChatGPT’s capabilities, I asked it to explain quantum computing in simple terms and it replied, “Quantum computing is a type of computing that uses quantum-mechanical phenomena, such as superposition and entanglement, to perform operations on data. Unlike classical computers, which store and process information using bits that are either 0 or 1, quantum computers use quantum bits, or qubits, which can be 0, 1, or a superposition of both states at the same time. This allows quantum computers to potentially perform certain calculations much faster than classical computers.” 

These few sentences that explain a widely confusing topic amongst people were produced in a matter of seconds. There are inherent controversies with anything involving AI or algorithms because the relationship between man and machine can be morally complex. So what does this mean for education?

Students may have already schemed ways to abuse ChatGPT’s capabilities for their upcoming essay due this quarter. Admittedly, it can be quite challenging to distinguish AI writing from human writing. At this time with ChatGPT’s development, they are publicly releasing for free, meaning students can easily access and abuse this tool to plagiarize. This is one of the concerns of English teachers in particular, since much of the English curriculum revolves around student-produced writing.

Alysa Levi-D’Ancona (Levi), an English teacher here at Kamiak, expresses her unease by saying, “I'm a bit worried about how it'll affect plagiarism. The app, as is, doesn't access Google to research — when I plugged in an AP prompt referencing a specific speech, the essay it produced was nonsense because it couldn't access the speech. So I don't think anything will be flagged as plagiarism in TurnItIn because it won't be copying an idea verbatim. You're not supposed to be able to use the content outside of just playing with the app. But I think we all know students can find a way.” 

ChatGPT has gathered data from the internet and is knowledgeable on just about every topic before 2021, thus making essay assignments a piece of cake for students. ChatGPT cannot, however, directly reference online sources, which is what anti-plagiarizing programs look for when detecting plagiarism. Although the program is revolutionary in its own right, it promotes dishonesty and laziness, especially among students. 

There are countless things the program isn’t allowed to say, but users have wriggled their way around that. Though it can, unfortunately, generate offensive or discriminatory answers, it does not generate opinionated, inappropriate, or illegal answers. OpenAI warns users beforehand that it is barred from providing information on illegal topics in order to prevent any repercussions as it does not have control over its results. But as all humans do, they find a way. Computer programmers figured out a way to word their prompts to ask the AI to build bots for their monetary gain such as trading bots for the stock market. You can imagine the possibilities of harmful bots that can potentially damage infrastructures. This raises questions of who is to blame for the damage it could cause.

Although ChatGPT will inevitably pose challenges for educators and society in general, like most other revolutionary technology advancements, we might be able to implement ChatGPT in a positive manner. When the standard calculator was initially released, people speculated that basic arithmetic would suffer. Despite the initial skepticism, we have developed a system to ensure students retain essential mathematical knowledge: we teach children basic mathematics at the elementary level and only in higher level math classes do we allow calculator use to speed up processes.

Levi also points out the benefit, “This might be a good resource for students and teachers alike! One less test for us to construct, assuming ChatGPT constructs it well, and one more resource for students to use while studying.”

Why can’t we utilize the program to generate a basis for comprehension? Generate new ideas? Has there ever been a time when you knew exactly what topic to write about, but struggled to lift the pencil and put it on paper? Maybe you need a gift idea for that friend that seems to have everything. Or maybe you just want to know what in tarnation a bitcoin is? The most crucial aspect of utilizing this program is that any person that uses ChatGPT must disclose when and how they use it, much like my quantum computing example. Rules and regulations are a requirement to implement this program and employ its benefits. 

At the end of the day, tools are meant to assist you, not control you. As Levi suggests, if you allow yourself to use this program to write for you, your sense of freedom will be shattered. Because writing is a way to express yourself, relying upon AI writing would only train you to let others speak and make decisions for you.

With censorship still prevalent in this day and age, I don’t know about you, but I’d like to speak for myself. Yes, students may outright abuse ChatGPT and other AI programs just to get out of work, but on the other hand, students may use it as a baseline to gather thoughts and information while still producing their pieces. This tool can potentially benefit the workflow of students and writers in the future. Even in this article, several of the points were written by AI! Controversy over the ethics of AI use is at an all-time high and the only way we can ensure honest use of ChatGPT and programs alike is to first acknowledge it, regulate it, then implement it.

DISCLAIMER: The opinions, beliefs, and viewpoints expressed by the various authors in this paper do not necessarily reflect the opinions, beliefs, and viewpoints of Kamiak High School or The Gauntlet.