New York
CNN
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New York City Public Schools will ban students and teachers from using ChatGPT, a powerful new AI chatbot tool, on district networks and devices, an official confirmed to CNN on Thursday.
The move comes amid growing concerns that the tool, which generates oddly convincing answers and even essays in response to user prompts, could make it easier for students to cheat on assignments. There are also concerns that ChatGPT could be used to spread inaccurate information.
“Due to concerns about negative impacts on student learning and concerns about content security and accuracy, access to ChatGPT is restricted on New York City public school networks and devices. “, said Jenna Lyle, assistant public press secretary for New York. schools, said in a statement. “While the tool can provide quick and easy answers to questions, it does not develop critical thinking and problem-solving skills, which are essential for academic and lifelong success.”
Although the chatbot is restricted under the new policy, New York City public schools can request specific access to the tool for educational purposes related to AI and technology.
ChalkBeat Educational Publication reported for the first time the news.
New York City appears to be one of the first major school districts to crack down on ChatGPT, just a month after the first tool was launched. last month, the Los Angeles Unified School District has decided to preemptively block the site on all networks and devices in its system “to protect academic honesty while a risk/benefit assessment is performed,” a doorman said. district spokesman to CNN this week.
While there are genuine concerns about how ChatGPT might be used, it’s unclear how widely it is being adopted by students. Other neighborhoods, meanwhile, seem to be moving more slowly.
Peter Feng, public information officer for the South San Francisco Unified School District, said the district is aware of the potential for its students to use ChatGPT, but has “not instituted a ban yet. pure and simple”. Meanwhile, a spokesperson for the Philadelphia School District said it had “no knowledge of students using ChatGPT and we have not received any complaints from principals or teachers.”
In a statement shared with CNN after the release, a spokesperson for OpenAI, the artificial intelligence research lab behind the tool, said it was making ChatGPT available as a preview of research to learn from real-world usage. The spokesperson called this step “an essential part of developing and deploying capable and secure AI systems.”
“We are constantly incorporating feedback and lessons learned,” the spokesperson added.
The company said it aims to work with educators on ways to help teachers and students benefit from artificial intelligence. “We do not want ChatGPT to be used for deceptive purposes in schools or elsewhere, so we are already developing mitigations to help anyone identify text generated by this system,” the spokesperson said.
OpenAI opened access to ChatGPT at the end of November. He is able to provide long, thoughtful, and in-depth answers to questions and prompts, ranging from factual questions such as “Who was the President of the United States in 1955” to more open-ended questions such as “What is the meaning of life? ?”
The tool has stunned users, including academics and some in the tech industry. ChatGPT is a large language model trained on a wealth of online information to create its responses. It comes from the same company behind DALL-E, which generates a seemingly limitless range of images in response to user prompts.
ChatGPT went viral just days after its launch. Open AI co-founder Sam Altman, a prominent Silicon Valley investor, said on Twitter in early December that ChatGPT had surpassed one million users.
But many educators worry that students will use the tool to cheat on assignments. A user, for example, sent ChatGPT an AP English exam question; he replied with a 5 paragraph essay about Wuthering Heights. Another user asked the chat bot to write an essay on the life of William Shakespeare four times; he received a single version with the same prompt every time.
Darren Hicks, assistant professor of philosophy at Furman University, previously told CNN It will be harder to prove that a student is abusing ChatGPT than with other forms of cheating.
“In the more traditional forms of plagiarism — cheating on the internet, copying and pasting stuff — I can go and get additional evidence, evidence that I can then bring to a board hearing,” he said. “In that case, there’s nothing there that I can point to and say, ‘Here’s the material they took.'”
“It’s really a new twist on an old problem where students would pay someone or get someone to write their paper for them – say a test farm or a friend who’s already taken a course” , Hicks added. “That’s the only way it’s instant and free.”
Feng of the South San Francisco Unified School District told CNN that “some teachers have responded to the rise of AI text generators by using their own tools to check whether student submitted work has been plagiarized or generated via AI”.
Some companies such as Turnitin – a detection tool that thousands of school districts use to scan the internet for signs of plagiarism – are currently investigating how its software could do just that. detect the use of AI-generated text in student submissions.
Hicks said teachers will need to redesign assignments so they can’t be easily written by the tool. “The biggest issue,” Hicks added, “will be for administrations to figure out how they’re going to adjudicate these kinds of cases.”
CNN’s Abby Phillip contributed to this report.
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