ChatGPT Blocked in New York City Schools
As you may have read in our recent post, AI powered chatbot ChatGPT can be quite the powerful tool. So powerful, perhaps, that the New York City School District has blocked access it.
The chatbot, developed by AI Company OpenAI, is relatively new and is creating quite a stir as a result of its capabilities. The bot can accomplish a multitude of tasks – from answering simple questions, to developing code to execute computer programs.
Teachers inside the New York City School District have another concern – they fear it will help their students cheat. As a result, the city’s Department of Education has blocked access to ChatGPT.
“Due to concerns about negative impacts on student learning, and concerns regarding the safety and accuracy of content, access to ChatGPT is restricted on New York City Public Schools’ networks and devices,” the department told PCMag. “While the tool may be able to provide quick and easy answers to questions, it does not build critical-thinking and problem-solving skills, which are essential for academic and lifelong success.”
The school system does make one exception. If schools are using the tool as a resource for the purposes of AI and technology-related education, access to ChatGPT will be granted.
Credit: OpenAI
ChatGPT, although not the intention, does have the capability to allow students to cheat. The chatbot can answer questions to homework questions, and even compile an essay (as shown in the img to the right). As a result, teachers fear students will use the AI program to get out of doing the work themselves.
It should be noted that although the AI system can be a detriment to students actually learning, the chatbot system is not always correct. In our previous article, data scientist Mike Krause explained that “if you ask it a very well structured question, with the intent that it gives you the right answers, you’ll probably get the right answer. It’ll be well articulated and sound like it came from some professor at Harvard. But if you throw it a curveball, you’ll get nonsense.”
With ChatGPT being such a new technology, the truth likely lies somewhere in the middle. In some instances, the chatbot will be able to write a student a reliable, well-thought-out essay… and in others, it could be complete gibberish.
Regardless, students of all ages have publically admitted to using ChatGPT to cheat on their school work. From K-12 students using it to cheat in a computer science class, to college students using it to help craft their next essay, it could become a problem.
Although the initiative has been taken to block the program inside the schools, there is not much the school district can do outside of the classroom.
With this in mind, OpenAI has stated that they are working on “mitigations” to help prevent students from abusing the chatbot systems in their educational endeavors. “We made ChatGPT available as a research preview to learn from real-world use, which we believe is a critical part of developing and deploying capable, safe AI systems. We are constantly incorporating feedback and lessons learned,” the lab said.
OpenAI continued, “We don’t want ChatGPT to be used for misleading purposes in schools or anywhere else, so we’re already developing mitigations to help anyone identify text generated by that system. We look forward to working with educators on useful solutions, and other ways to help teachers and students benefit from artificial intelligence.”
Although many believe ChatGPT will be a detriment to a student’s learning environment, not everyone is convinced the AI system should be written off automatically. Dustin York, an associate professor of communication at Maryville University, hopes that schools will use the chatbot as a tool to help students learn, rather than something they can use to cheat with.
“Educators thought that Google, Wikipedia, and the internet itself would ruin education, but they did not. What worries me most are educators who may actively try to discourage the acknowledgement of AI like ChatGPT. It’s a tool, not a villain,” said York.
ChatGPT is still in its infancy, so putting too much reliance in the program is probably unwise. It’s an impressive tool that may, or may not, deliver results with the desired intention. The positive? There’s room for change and growth – and the fact that OpenAI is still working to make the chatbot a better product in itself is a step in the right direction.
Story via PCMag
