FONDEST WISHES

AADYANT SURESH Staff Writer

For his Theater I assignment last semester, William, a senior student, was asked to watch and review a live play, analyzing the show’s lighting and theatrical elements. However, he didn’t feel like doing it.

He turned to a program called ChatGPT, prompting it to give its analysis on “Shrek: The Musical,” streaming on Netflix, with notes on its lighting and setting.

After submitting the essay, he said that theater teacher Jennifer Sorkin approached him and his friend where they had seen “Shrek,” as it had not been performed in the Bay Area in more than four years.

After saying that they had seen it on Netflix, Sorkin later gave him a passing grade, not knowing that it was written with the aid of artificial intelligence. This student requested to be anonymous and the name “William” is a placeholder.

“I’m going to be honest, I’m not going to see a play anytime soon,” William said. “Maybe it is morally wrong to cheat, but if you don’t rely on it, it’s fine.”

Bay Area artificial intelligence research company OpenAI released ChatGPT in late 2022, allowing users to provide prompts and receive detailed, conversational answers that can pass as human.

Developers tested it to make it guess the next word in a sentence and answer questions correctly; answers are

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Beloved English teacher Mike Espinoza was hospitalized for the majority of fall semester due to struggles with microscopic polyangiitis, a disease that damages the body’s organs and causes severe pain.

As he was recovering and planning his return in the spring semester, he had forgotten about the annual Winter Wishes rally, until his fellow English colleague Lily Johnson reached out.

Johnson told Espinoza that a wish for the Latinx Student Union was to be granted at the upperclassman rally, and she had wanted him to be there to grant the wish.

It turned out to be a ruse.

“That was a good cover,” Espinoza said. “I really thought I was going to be there for LSU, and they flipped it.”

Inside Winter Wishes

A look at past recipients’ wishes, from the first event in 2011 to this year’s rally.

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Heartwarming surprises like the one made for Espinoza have been a Winter Wishes tradition since 2011.

The program has since spread to all other schools in the district since then. The event, run by student

SEE WINTER WISHES • PAGE 12

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