When you hear the term AI, or artificial intelligence, it's easy to conjure up visions of androids learning what is means to be human. While we're not quite there yet, technology has progressed to a point where AI is infused into our everday lives. You may have already come across the program DALL.E, which generates images using text prompts input by the user. OpenAI, the company behind DALL.E, has also launched their ChatGPT and InstructGPT programs. These programs are designed to provide detailed answers to questions, again by using text prompts. What sets these types of AI chat programs apart from others (looking at you, the relic that was AOL Instant Messenger) is that they have the ability to respond to the user with conversational dialogue. This gives the illusion that the user is having a chat with a person as opposed to being served a canned response. While OpenAI claims that its programs only aim to "benefit all of humanity," not all teachers agree.
In fact, NYC public schools have already banned ChatGPT. Many educators believe that while the program can indeed provide students with quick and easy answers to questions, it does so at a cost. The instant gratification of ChatGPT prevents the development of critical-thinking and problem-solving, which are skills integral to students' success. Students could easily ask the program to solve equations, answer history questions, draft an essay on a book they haven't read, and yes, even write poetry. It's a fast way to finish homework, but that presents its own set of problems like:
How can teachers guarantee that students are not handing in assignments that were completely generated by the program?
What happens when students become too reliant on ChatGPT and don't know how to do homework without it?
Some teachers believe the integration of AI programs into school curriculum is inevitable and schools will have to adapt. How do you feel about AI programs like ChatGPT? Are they a useful tool, or do they cause more harm than good? Is a poem written by a program more or less valid than a poem written by a person? Share your thoughts here and if you do use an AI to write this, let us know at the bottom of the poem to see if people can tell the difference.
