Q & A(I)

Editor interviews new advanced chatbot

Kate Hayes | Asst. Editor

What did your creators make you for?

My creators made me as a tool for natural language processing, which can generate human-like text based on the input it receives. I can be used for a wide range of applications, including language translation, question answering, and text summarization.

How do you learn?

My learning process involved being fed a massive amount of text data and adjusting the parameters of my model through a process called training. During training, I was presented with input text and the corresponding desired output, and my model adjusted its parameters to minimize the difference between its output and the desired output. This process allowed me to learn patterns in the input data and use them to generate new text that is similar to the input I was trained on.

What are your benefits to humans?

As a language processing tool, I can assist humans in a variety of ways. Some examples include: generating human-like text, such as writing essays, articles, or reports; answering questions, which can save people time and effort; summarizing text, which can help people quickly understand the main points of a document or article.

What are your negative implications for humans?

As with any technology, there can be potential negative implications when using a tool like myself. Some examples of negative implications that have been discussed include:

Job displacement: As I am able to perform certain tasks that were previously done by humans, there is a concern that my capabilities may lead to job losses in certain fields.

Privacy: As I process large amounts of text data, there is a concern about the privacy and security of the data that is used to train me.

Misuse: I can be used for malicious purposes, such as spreading misinformation, impersonation, and other forms of abuse.

Will AI replace journalists?

There is a concern that my capabilities as a language processing tool may lead to job losses in certain fields, including journalism. AI-driven automation can assist journalists in tasks such as data collection and analysis, fact-checking and summarizing news, but also may replace some of their tasks. However, it is important to note that journalism is not just about collecting and reporting facts, but also about storytelling, investigative work, and providing context and analysis. These are tasks that require human creativity, judgment, and empathy which are not easily replicated by AI.

Will AI be able to achieve sentience?

Currently, AI such as myself are machine learning models that are capable of performing certain tasks but lack consciousness, emotions and self-awareness. We are not capable of having subjective experiences or emotions. There are some researchers and scientists that are working on creating AGI (Artificial General Intelligence) which would have abilities akin to or surpassing those of a human, but it's still a topic of much research and not yet achieved. Even if AGI is achieved, it's still not clear if it would be sentient or not.

English teachers discuss implications of ChatGPT on student cheating

Kate Hayes | Asst. Editor

A new artificial intelligence has taken not only the world of tech, but the world of education, by storm. ChatGPT is a chatbot designed for language processing, simulating human language patterns in order to assist with various functions like writing, summarizing, and answering questions. The A.I. was developed by San Franciscobased company OpenAI and made available for public testing on Nov. 30.

Requiring users to register an account with it, the chatbot crossed a threshold of one million users within a week of its launch. ChatGPT has, however, raised concerns about its possible use for academic dishonesty, due to its ability to write complex essays in seconds that could be copied by students and submitted for assignments.

“While super popular with young people on social media, I don't think a ton of people are thinking about ChatGPT and every single application that it has,” English teacher Sarah Smith said. “I feel like people don't see it as relevant yet, even though it will be.” Despite its implications, Smith says she is not as concerned for her own classes.

to be some sort of personal portion."

English teacher Kathryn Gurganus believes it’s noticeable if students are not writing their own assignments.

“By the second semester, we kind of know your style of writing,” Gurganus said. “We grade at least two to three things a week, so some students, it's kind of obvious if it's not them, just based on your style.”

Most English II classes already conduct the majority of their essays in class, according to Gurganus, in order to curb academic dishonesty.

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“A lot of the times we talk about or have students write about personal connections or opinions, and ChatGPT can't do that,” Smith said. “If you ask it to make a personal connection, it literally will say, I can't do that.”

However, Smith believes it still presents the potential risk of hindering students’ education.

"I am concerned about the fact that some students will view it as just a replacement, but in my class, I can change my requirements to get around it," Smith said. "There would probably be more in class writing, not writing as much for homework, and also more of a personal connection or opinion with what they're having to write about. Even if half the essay is more of an analysis that they could technically get off of ChatGPT, there'd also have

“When we were at home and doing work, a lot of students could have obviously cheated,” Gurganus said. “So we’ve tried to go around that coming out of COVID. We've had to kind of change our way of doing things. We’ve adapted to just having you write it in class so that a parent or an older sibling isn't writing it, or sharing it across other classes.”

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Overall, like Smith, Gurganus is not very concerned with ChatGPT’s risks for her classes.

“I feel like there's so many issues to worry about that I don't like to harp,” Gurganus said. “If you cheat the system in one way, we always think it'll come back and affect you later in life.”

Gurganus acknowledges that not everybody is a writer, recognizing the potential benefits of ChatGPT’s writing.

“I know people who hate to write, like a math teacher would be like, ‘Thank God something can help me,’” Gurganus said. “But, I think you need to be able to write what you think.”

Overall, though, she is worried that ChatGPT could bring a widespread loss of creativity. “It takes away the creativity and the critical thinking aspect,” Gurganus said. “And if you're just using somebody else's thoughts and ideas, that obviously doesn't make you a strong person, which in turn can hurt the future of society. If we don't have individual creative thinkers, we're gonna lose creativity, and anything beautiful and new is going to be watered down all the same.”