Anyone who thinks that ChatGPT is just another digital tool is because they haven’t tried it yet or haven’t thought carefully about its possibilities. On November 30, 2022 Open AI released ChatGPT, an artificial intelligence (AI) system designed to hold conversations through typed text.
Its operation is very simple. The person asks and ChatGPT answers. What makes this tool radically different from other chatbots available is the degree of elaboration and realism of the responses it offers. He is able to create stories, write essays, and perform many other language-related tasks in a similar way to a human being. Its social implications are still unknown, although many are already talking about a real revolution.
alarm in universities
Since its launch just two months ago, the popularity of ChatGPT has only grown exponentially. The educational context is one of the realities where this phenomenon has become more evident.
Recently, some Australian universities have taken measures at the first indications that some students were using AI systems to prepare academic essays. His proposal: “return to pencil and paper”. Other schools have forbidden their students to download the application.
A change in evaluation
ChatGPT, currently a free and open access tool, poses many challenges for education. The first and most obvious refers to the assessment systems used to determine whether a student has acquired the expected knowledge and skills.
ChatGPT can not only answer questions that simply require retrieving information (such as retrieving a list of the rivers in Spain); can also relate and integrate information reaching new conclusions. Or, at least, to credible conclusions.
No matter how complex the question the student is asked, with the help of ChatGPT they could potentially answer anyone.
Also, traditional plagiarism detection tools, such as Turnitin, are useless, since the answers provided by ChatGPT are new.
form vs. content
The credibility of the information provided is another challenge. The answers put together by ChatGPT always sound plausible, but they are not always accurate or verified. Relying excessively on this tool can lead to errors and undesirable biases.
With the appearance of this and other similar tools, the acquisition of skills related to the critical thinking. Contrast the information, go to the original sources, evaluate the possible interests associated with a certain information, etc. they are practices that should be part of our intellectual routine.
Technological dependency and cognitive impairment
Another of the challenges for education may be its potential impact on the creativity and effort of students. Who is going to struggle to answer a question if ChatGPT can answer it quickly and convincingly? Who is going to struggle to find new and creative solutions if the chatbot already provides them?
As some authors have already warnedthe risk of increasing technological dependence and reducing cognitive effort are real possibilities.
Other challenges, no less important, have to do with the protection of privacy or academic integrity when preparing new writings. Thinking about the possibility of including this tool as part of educational practice requires responding to these and many other challenges that we are not yet able to identify.
step back or forward
Often, the speed with which changes and technological developments occur prevent a calm reflection that allows the best decisions to be made. Often reality takes over. As noted above, some institutions have decided to go the ban route, reverting to traditional “paper and pencil” exams or oral exams.
Other proposals see banning ChatGPT as meaningless. Its use should be allowed, while digital detection tools are developed, in a kind of “educational AI arms race”. Some initiatives that are already being worked on include including watermarks in all texts generated by this type of technology, or detection programs such as GPT Zero.
A third way would be to reflect on the possibilities that ChatGPT offers to promote meaningful learning. Could this tool be used to learn more and better? Could its use encourage the creativity of the students, instead of stunting it? Could it be used to improve thinking, in a sort of cognition or extended mind?
Yes, it is possible, and the example is the elaboration of this article. Its preparation has been the result of a continuous dialogue with ChatGPT, where through questions and answers I have been finding and discarding ideas, selecting and improving some, discarding and eliminating others.
If you’re still not convinced by the possibilities that ChatGPT offers, figuring out which parts of this article have been written by this chatbot and which ones haven’t can be a useful exercise. This may not be the ultimate tool, but others will be. It is up to us to be part of the change or to try, in vain, to prevent it.
Carlos de AldamaProfessor and researcher specialized in Psychology of Thought and Education, Complutense University of Madrid
This article was originally published on The Conversation. read the original.