Schools Grapple with the

by staffer Bela Parrett

The AI service, ChatGPT, is growing exponentially, becoming more well-known and used. Since its launch in November 2022, schools across the U.S. and beyond have worried about the effects of what they believe to be a nearly uncatchable cheating machine.

Despite the negatives of a program designed to write essays in seconds, some teachers and students have begun to see some good in this new technology as it continues to impact the education system. ChatGPT has many capabilities that have nothing to do with easy essay writing.

“ChatGPT is an artificial intelligence language model developed by OpenAI, designed to answer any type of natural language processing questions asked by humans,” the AI wrote.

ChatGPT is a generative AI, which means it uses algorithms to generate various types of text, images and audio. All of which is original from the AI and virtually undetectable to most plagiarism checking websites.

“As an AI language model, I do not condone or encourage cheating on school essays or any other academic work,” ChatGPT wrote. “My primary purpose is to assist students and individuals in generating ideas, providing explanations, and answering questions to help them improve their understanding of a topic. It’s important for individuals to use the information and resources provided by me in an ethical and responsible manner, and to always give credit to the original sources of information. Cheating undermines the integrity of the educational system and can have serious consequences for individuals who engage in such behavior.”

Many educators were and still are fighting against the use of AI, but some embraced the change and tried to see the positives. English Language Arts teacher Frieda Green said she uses it in her classes.

“So one of my students, her topic deals with seahorses, which is awesome,” Green said. “It’s kind of a weird thing to argue about, the question became ‘how can we create an argument around seahorses?’ So I pulled up ChatGPT and I said, ‘Give me five examples of arguments around seahorses,’ and it spit out five things. Some of it was usable, some of it wasn’t, but it at least gave her a starting place to come up with a solid argument.”

Green has also caught students who used the program to cheat.

“We did an argument paper over the book ‘Amer- ican Street’ in my multi-lit class, and of the papers turned in, I caught two students who have used it,” Green said.

She explained a reverse program has been made to detect AI-written papers. The AP College Board added a similar AI checker to its website this spring.

“Over winter break a college student, I believe he was at Yale, developed essentially a reverse program, because teachers were, for obvious reasons, freaking out,” Green said. “And so I take the papers and I put them into this reverse program, and it tells me the likelihood that it was written by AI, versus a human. So I caught two students on that unit who had plagiarized their papers. Well, plagiarized in the sense that they had AI write.”

AI could mean various things for education, but it will likely continue to be used both as a tool and as a cheating device. AI only responds to people, so it depends on individual students’ decisions on how they’ll use the program, whether it be for good or for getting out of work.

“Overall, I believe that AI language models like myself will continue to evolve and improve, becoming an even more integral part of our daily lives and contributing to advancements in various fields,” ChatGPT wrote. “However, it’s important to remember that AI should always be used ethically and responsibly.”

Teachers across the English-speaking world have used ChatGPT for lesson plans, worksheets and more, and the AI is still learning how to produce complex analyses and expand the use of generative AI to various fields.

“In the future, I believe that AI language models like myself will continue to play an increasingly significant role in various fields, such as education, healthcare, customer service, and more. They may also be able to assist with more complex tasks beyond just answering simple questions, such as analyzing data and making recommendations,” ChatGPT wrote.

ChatGPT has the capability of improving literacy rates and even school grades as it learns how to teach school subjects from acquired internet information. This positive outcome counts on people to use the program correctly.

“While I can aid in improving literacy rates, the ultimate responsibility lies with individuals and communities to prioritize and invest in literacy education,” ChatGPT wrote.

Green agreed, saying that if used correctly, AI